16 20 545 https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/246/1890-12-15-The-Author-1-8.pdf 31065377ba071621353b54202c6f5d14 PDF Text Text ���������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-12-15 Volume 1 Issue 8 Pages Page range in volume 199–222 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18901215 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.—No. 8.] DECEMBER 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT Published for the Society be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. 198 (#242) ############################################ | ADVERTISEMENTS. Berton, Sept ly* 1878 . Men. Marie, Todd & Co. Gentlema. I have seus me of your Reus, to have a haina mended trough Men. Horhu, leurs Ito. of the city. You may like to know that I have ned this feu constantly formue han twenty years, time the days of a book of men called " The Autonakap the Breckford tere "1857-8 muić last Friday without repair and always with herfect satisfaction I have written with is halfa. doseer or more volumes, a lange neember and Enugs ete . ause thousands of letters... Fue to it as & an ole. rence and I hohe que ance do the beach you can for it . Though I hare in the mean en boeght another of qui... mate's corrugażd - marked C. I do not know whether que cu fir this testimonial har I fue as if the her which has Canied out to much of Buy Thought and brought back . To much in barones forms in return was entitled to this Certificat of himnaha kecerca . Sau, Ceuthen times turly Diva Wendell Remmer. . . . . ILLUSTRATED Price List of Gold Pens will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.  ## p. 199 (#243) ############################################ Jtttthttr. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 8.] DECEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. C O N T PAGE Conditions of Membership 199 News and Notes 199 On Committee 203 Our Copyright liill 203 "Father Francis," by Walter H. Pollock 205 Reasonable Ladies :— I, by Andrew Lang 206 II, by Walter Bcsant 207 Consolation ; or, the Romance of a Sea-side Library 209 E N T S. PAGE An English Academy :— I, by H. G. Keene 212 II, by J. Stanley Little 213 A Reminder 213 A Hard Case 213 In Grub Street 215 Points and Cases 218 1 New Books and New Editions ... 221 I Advertisements ... ... ..- 222 CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP. The Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the 1st of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for life memljership entitles the subscriber to full membership of the Society. Authors only are eligible. Cheques and Postal Outers should be crossed "The Im- perial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch." Names of those who wish to be proposed as members may be sent at any time to the Secretary at the Society's Offices. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of October will cover the next year. The Secretary may be personally consulted between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable that an appointment should be made by letter. The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square, E.G. A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d.t including post.ige, which may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, VV.G. With regard to the reading of MSS., the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read and reported upon for others than members, but members cannot have their works read for nothing. In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript, the author should send With it a table of contents. A type- written scenario is also of very great assistance, for it must be clearly understood that a practised reader does not require to read the whole of an author's work before being perfectly able to give a just opinion on its merits. If by the help of a scenario the reader can grasp at once the story, he is so much the more able readily to point out any errors of construction, and to devote more time to examination of style and other technical points. It must be understood that such a reader's report, even if favourable, does not assist the author towards publication. NEWS AND NOTES. r I HE American House of Representatives, on I Wednesday, December 3rd, passed the International Copyright Bill. It has now to be passed by the Senate and by the President. As it has already passed the former, and as the latter makes no secret of his intentions about it, we may consider that the passing of the Bill is nearly certain, and that it will come into operation in July next. It is too early to discuss the possible results from this Bill. We must first get the Act itself in our hands. We have written to the American Copyright League asking for a copy, and we hope to have it in time for our next number. Mean- time there is no harm in warning everybody to refuse signing any agreement which surrenders possible American rights. One thing is quite certain, that many English authors are popular in the States; hut no one knows how far their popu- larity extends, or who are included. Almost every living English novelist is included in the cheap American reprints, even those who seem least worth reproducing. But then nobody knows who buys these works when they are reproduced. Now if one of the pirates—whom we are agreed to call publishers-by-permission-of-the-law—would only favour the world with a few figures, these might be destructive to the vanity of some, but vol. 1. Q  ## p. 200 (#244) ############################################ 200 THE AUTHOR. would prove a factor of great importance in obtaining a forecast of the future. As to American writers and copyright in this country, a correspondent writes as follows:—"I find that it is an everyday occurrence for an English publisher to secure copyright for an American author by the simple process of registration at Stationers' Hall, depositing one copy of the book in the British Museum, and selling two copies. These are all the formalities that are required: the residence on English soil is never exacted, and hardly ever practised. If, as certain Anglophobes complain, American authors are pirated in this country, then these latter have their own ignorance or carelessness to thank for it: English law affords them ample protection, if they choose to avail themselves of its provisions." « Our own Bill for the Consolidating and Amend- ing the Copyright Laws has been introduced by Lord Monkswell in the House of Lords, and was read by him for the first time on November 26th. The preamble of the Bill will be found on p. 203. —♦— Are we to have a Club of Authors? A good many letters have been addressed to the Editor on this subject, since the appearance of the last number. It is pointed out that the Authors' Club of New York is a flourishing institution, though there are not in New York one-tenth the number of authors who live in London, not to speak of the country generally. It is also urged that such a club would serve the useful purpose of a central place for consultation about all matters connected with the literary life and profession; that it would greatly assist in bringing authors to a corporate sense; that it would help to clear away the darkness in which literary affairs have been designedly kept: that it would be a powerful aid in bringing about that respect for each other and for themselves in which authors have always been lamentably deficient, so that they may perhaps be persuaded to cease exercising their wit in epigrams and criticisms on each other, while there remain so many other excellent subjects in the outside world. Also, for country members, it would be useful to have a place where they could find a small library of reference, writing rooms, reading rooms, and luncheon rooms. On the other hand, it is argued that authors do not want a club any more than barristers or solicitors—but barristers have their Inns of Court, and solicitors their Law Institute; that the older authors would not come in—but some of them would, and it must be remembered, that the older men are much more difficult to persuade out of their old ways than the younger; that there are already clubs enough— with other objections. For my own part I am always prepared to wel- come and to advocate anything in the direction of union. Once persuaded that the greatest advan- tages of independence, self-respect, and assistance in the conduct of affairs are certain to result from increased union, those who follow the literary pro- fession will no longer hesitate to press for union in every possible way. The advance and increase of the Society is one way, and the best way of all; the advance of this Journal is another way; a Club may be—I do not go so far as to say that it must be—another way. For there certainly are difficulties. It would have to be a club of men and women; but the Albemarle Club has shown how the difficulties of making a club equally comfortable for both sexes may be met and overcome. Then it must be remembered that merely to be an author would not by itself make one eligible for such a club. A candidate must be admissible on other grounds. And it must not be an expensive club; yet to run a club at all, requires an income of at least a couple of thousand. It would require a considerable sum at the outset for furniture—yet the difficulty has been experienced elsewhere and successfully met. I think that the best wa/, before any further steps are taken, will be to submit the question to the members of the Society, and to ask those who think thatsuch a club would be a good and useful institution, having regard to all the interests of literature and especially to those persons who have to work alone, in ignorance of affairs, and without the encouragement of the friendships which it is not unreasonable to hope would be formed in such a club. I have therefore drawn up an alternative scheme. One is for a club pure and simple. The other is for an "Authors' House," the nature of which I have sketched out. First—The Club. The Club of Authors would consist of as many members as the House could conveniently accom- modate. Perhaps, following the example of the Press Club, this club could be formed into a Limited Liability Company, every member becom- ing a shareholder to the extent of one guinea share at least. With 500 members at an annual sub- scription of four guineas each the club could be efficiently conducted. Perhaps a subscription of three guineas each would be found sufficient.  ## p. 201 (#245) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 201 The club should not attempt to become an expensive or luxurious dining club, but it should be possible, as at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, to order a simple dinner, while luncheon and after- noon tea should be always provided. It would contain writing rooms, reading rooms, a library of reference, a smoking room for men, a drawing room, a coffee room, a conversation room for ladies only, and a billiard room, though this is not absolutely necessary. It would also be very desirable that the Society should have its own roams on the same premises. Everybody would be eligible for election who was connected professionally with any branch of literature. Journalists, for instance, would be eligible. Also every man or woman who writes books. But no one could claim the right of admission. The election would be in the hands of the Com- mittee. It would be desirable to fix the prices of refreshments and meals at as low a figure as possible. Second—The Authors' House. I propose the following as an alternative plan: That a house be taken in the immediate vicinity of the Museum. Here the rent of houses is moderate, the houses themselves are good and spacious, and the situation, though not central, is not much out of the way, and, for those who work at the Museum, very convenient. That the ground floor (or the first floor) be allotted to the Society for the offices. That the first floor (or the ground floor), be set apart, one room for a luncheon or tea room, and the other, if there are only two, for a reference library and writing tables. That the rooms on the second floor, and third, if possible, be let as private offices or working rooms. There are many who live outside London, and would willingly pay a small rent for a room of their own, where they could work in complete quiet, undisturbed by anybody. Let us see how this scheme would work out. The rent and taxes would cost ^250 a year. The service, including a housekeeper, would come to about ^250 more. The lighting, fire, &c, another ^100. The furniture would cost about £400. The coffee room would support itself. Therefore the Authors' House would cost ^600 a year. If the Society paid £100 towards this for its own rent, if four rooms were sub-let at £30 each, there would remain ^380 a year to be found. Members to the number of 350 at a guinea a year VOL. I. each would make the House possible, or if the subscription were a guinea and a half, 250 mem- bers would be enough. In the case of the House every member would have to be a member of the Society as well. In the case of the Club that would not be necessary. When the Society advances so far as to number, say 1,500 members, such an Authors' House would be possible without any additional subscription. With this scheme before them will those mem- bers who feel willing to assist in founding either an Authors' Club or Authors' House communicate with me? I enclose a form for suggestions. And should either scheme approve itself to a suffi- cient number, a meeting might be called for the further discussion of the business. One would like it considered first as regards the general question—the best interests of Letters; next from the private point of view, how it would benefit the individual. ♦ I think it was Sir Arthur Helps who called attention in one of his little essays to the diablerie of printers' errors. A most exasperating error crept into the last number of the Author. It was clearly instigated by the printer's devil, who, at the same time, blinded the eyes of all those who passed the proofs. The writer was made to state that Mr. Andrew Lang had "collected Langisms." This stood for "edited Longinus." No editor can find any excuse for passing such things; he is always to blame for negligence; and yet they do get passed. I suppose everybody can tell of maddening blunders of this kind. In a certain printed book for which I am half responsible, one of the charac- ters was represented by the authors as walking along the street while meditating a great revenge, and "smiling all the way." The fiend of a printer changed it to "smoking all the way"! And this passed without being seen. In the same book refer- ence was made to sorrows as evanescent as child- hood's earache. In the first edition this appeared as earache, simply by a mistake of the first letter. The error passed unobserved. In the cheap edition the printer had, I suppose, a tincture of foreign languages, and thought the word should be in italics. It now stands earache, and looks almost French. There is another book for which I am also half responsible. The other day an industrious person sent me a list of about twenty bad printer's mistakes in this one book, not one of which had been suspected or discovered. This person claimed payment for his trouble—which he has not yet received. Q 2  ## p. 202 (#246) ############################################ 202 THE AUTHOR. I have not yet read Mr. Wemyss Reid's "Life Lord Houghton." I hope, however, that the biographer has not passed over the sympathy shown by Lord Houghton towards the Society at its foun- dation. He belonged to the older generation which believed that literature would be advanced by the union of living writers. He saw the failure of more than one attempt at such an union. Yet he wel- comed with generous sympathy and ardour the renewed attempt, and he spoke in its defence at the first Function at which the Society was recognized— the banquet given by Sir Robert Fowler, Lord Mayor, in 1884. I think, had he been living, he would have owned that by this time the new Society has done enough not only to justify its existence, but also to lead its supporters to look hopefully into the future. We are no longer making tenta- tive efforts here and there; we know what is wanted. First of all—light. Then—more light. We cannot have too much light. Next, the suppression of those who will still be talking ignorant nonsense about literary affairs; on this point enough was said in the last number. Thirdly, the rescue of those unfortunates who lie in the hell of the sweating publisher. Alas! there are many of these poor creatures. Their relief can only be accomplished by making the methods of the sweaters known, and proclaiming their iniquitous gains. More: we have not only to destroy but to build up. We have to arrive at an understanding with the honourable houses as to honourable methods, conceding what is right to either party, and early next year we propose taking a first step in this direction. We have been hearing from various quarters that the French Academy of Letters is an effete institution regarded by nobody, having done its work, and of no further influence in literature. It is a curious comment on these assurances that the papers have been full of the vacancy in this unre- garded body, and of the chances of the candidates who desire to fill it. Why all this excitement and interest about an institution which is moribund? A letter is going the rounds of authorland. It begins with a charming simplicity. "I am ex- tremely fond of getting presents of books from their authors. May I hope you will kindly give me one of yours, and add to its value, in my eyes, by writing my name in it?" The writer sends this letter, I believe, in perfect good faith, and certainly does not seem to understand that he is doing any- thing unusual. Why should not authors give copies of their works to every stranger who asks? Why should not the manager of a theatre fill his house with orders? Why should not a singer sing for nothing in any village choir? Why should not drapers present their silk neck ties to strangers across the counter? And why should not all the world ask to have everything for nothing? This is how it is done in America. A corres- pondent writes :— "Some months since, a so-called American Publishing Association wrote, asking permission to use one or two of my poems in a book to be called 'The Poets of America.' 1 hesitated, as no reasons were given, and I had been 'written up' in 'The Poets of New Enghnd,' 'Distinguished Women of America,' &c. My secretary sent two poems after a third request came. Then followed a request for a photograph. One was sent. Soon followed a demand for §5 to have the photograph engraved. I replied, ' Not a penny. I have been caricatured too often.' The demand for money was repeated, and by advice of my publishers no notice was taken of it. Some three or four weeks since, an Express brought to my door a package of books with a C. O. 1). bill of $20. I declined to receive them. A few days later came a letter with a printed circular asking me 'to write a few lines to advertise the book, as most of the authors had done so.' This I declined to do, giving my reasons. Yesterday, on reaching home, I find a letter telling me that a package of books for me are here in the Express Office. If I cannot pay the full amount on them now, I can pay part and send the rest when convenient. I have sent the letter to a Chicago lawyer to deal with as he thinks best." We have no Express Office in this country and no C. O. D. (Cash On Delivery ?) system. When we have these blessings no doubt the same kind of game will be introduced among us. —«— The following address has been drawn up by a few Californians. It is an address to the United States Senators and the Representatives in Con- gress, from the State of California. At the time when it was sent off to us the document was in course of receiving signatures at the University of California, the Mercantile Library, the Free Public Library, and certain leading establishments. Gentlemen, We, the undersigned, urge you to vote for and work for the International Copyright Bill, as prepared by the American Copyright League.  ## p. 203 (#247) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 203 We urge it because the present law is legalized robbery and a national disgrace. We especially urge it because the better elements of American literature are being overwhelmed with foreign sensationalism, and American enterprises are being destroyed. The works of our own writers, many of them Californians, are published without compensation in other countries. Gresham's currency law works in respect to literature: the debased currency drives out the pure metal. Shall the whole warp and woof of the literature offered to Americans be un-American—and stolen besides? We believe that every candid investigator of the subject will come to the conclusion that an International Copyright must benefit the American printer, type-setter, founder, publisher, editor, writer and illustrator, and finally, and most of all, the purchaser of books, pamphlets and magazines. It is simply the recognition of a property right, which no one denies, or can deny. It will build up still greater publishing houses, and will ultimately move the intellectual centre of the English-speaking people from England to America. We acknowledge, gentlemen, that we expect much from you in this matter. You are the keepers of the honour of the Commonwealth of California. It becomes you, as statesmen of liberal education and broad ideas, to represent the higher interests of the Pacific Coast community. Believe us, all Californians desire justice to be done; all Californians desire the development of American literature. We hope for a united vote from our delegation for International Copyright. Since this was sent to press, the news of victory has arrived. Let the above stand as a record of the very last effort made in America in the cause of national honour. Walter Besant. * ON COMMITTEE. THE following Bye law has been passed :— "Should anyone desire to consult the Society as to literary work, without having as yet qualified for membership, the Secretary may then and there—reporting the case at the next meeting of Committee—admit him or her as an Associate only, on payment of a guinea. His privileges to consist of the right to advice from the office, and to terminate at the end of the current year. Such an Associate to have no right to take part in the administration of the Society." Members may be reminded that "Associates" can always be received who desire, by joining the Society, to assist in its objects, though they are not persons engaged in literary pursuits. They cannot be members, nor can they have voice or part in administering the Society. Two were elected at a recent Committee meeting, and have become Life Associates by payment of ten guineas each. The Report of the Copyright Committee, which formed the substance of a paper in the November number of the Author, has been laid before the Committee of Management. The Committee have been in correspondence with the London Chamber of Commerce on the subject of the Society's Bill for the Consolidation of the Copyright Law. And as was stated by Mr. Hodges in the Author for November, there has been an important correspondence with Lord Knutsford on the subject of Canadian copyright. Opinion on American rights in England has been obtained from Counsel. At the November meeting, the Secretary sub mitted a statement of recent cases which the Society had taken up and carried through, in every case, with a satisfactory result. In two of them the Society compelled the return of the work to the author with the surrender of all rights. One hundred and six new members were elected between June 26th and December 4th, 1890. The news of the passing of the International Copyright Bill was received at the meeting of Committee of December 4th. A telegram of congratulation was sent to the Copyright League of New York, which has done so much for the promotion of the Bill. Its President is Mr. Russell Lowell. * OUR COPYRIGHT BILL. HIS bill was introduced by Lord Monkswell and read for the first time in the House of Lords on November 26th last. The following Memorandum sets out its contents, and shows the various authorities for the changes in present legislation suggested by the Bill. Memorandum. This Bill is intended to consolidate and amend the Law of Copyright other than copyright in designs. The existing law on the subject consists of no less than 18 Acts of Parliament, besides common law principles, which are to be found only by search ing the Law Reports. Owing to the manner in which  ## p. 204 (#248) ############################################ 204 THE AUTHOR. these Acts have been drawn, the law is in many cases hardly intelligible, and is full of arbitrary distinctions for which it is impossible to find a reason. (See paragraphs 9 to 13 of the Report of the Royal Commission oh Copyright of 1878.) For instance, the term of copyright in books is the life of the author and 7 years, or 42 years from publication, whichever period is the longer; in lectures, when printed and published, the term is probably the life of the author or 28 years; in engravings, 28 years; and in sculpture, 14 years, with a possible further extension for another 14 years; while the term of copyright in music and lectures which have been publicly performed or delivered but not printed is wholly uncertain. Again the necessity for and effect of registration is entirely different with regard to (1) books, (2) painting, (3) dramatic works. In consolidating these enactments (all of which it is proposed to repeal) it has been thought advisable to deal separately with the various subjects of copyright, viz., (1) Literature, (2) Music and Dramatic Works, and (3) Works of Art, and to make the part of the Bill dealing with each of these as far as possible complete in itself. This will account for certain repetitions which might other- wise seem unnecessary. The alterations proposed to be made in the law are for the most part those suggested in the Report of the Royal Commission on Copyright of 1878, and einbodied in a Bill introduced at the end of the Session of 1879 by Lord John Manners, Viscount Sandon, and the Attorney-General on behalf of the then Government. References will be found in the margin of the present Bill both to the Report of the Commission and the Bill of 1879. The most important of these alterations may be summarised as follows :— 1. A uniform term of copyright is introduced for all classes of work, consisting of the life of the author and 30 years after his death. The only exceptions are in the cases of engravings and photographs, and anonymous and pseudonymous works for which, owing to the difficulty or impossi- bility of identifying the author, the term is to be 30 years only, with power for the author of an anony- mous or pseudonymous work at any time during such 30 years to declare his true name and acquire the full term of copyright. 2. The period after which the author of an article or essay in a collective work (other than an encyclopedia) is to be entitled to the right of separate publication, is reduced from 28 years to 3 years. 3. The right to make an abridgment of a work is for the first time expressly recognised as part of the copyright, and an abridgment by a person other than the copyright owner is made an infringement of copyright. 4. The authors of works of fiction are given the exclusive right of dramatizing the same as part of their copyright, and the converse right is conferred on authors of dramatic works. 5. The exhibition of photographs taken on com- mission, except with the consent of the person for whom they are taken, is rendered illegal.* 6. Registration is made compulsory for all classes of work in which copyright exists, except painting and sculpture; that is to say, no proceed- ings for infringement or otherwise can be taken before registration, nor can any proceedings be taken after registration in respect of anything done before the date of registration, except on payment of a penalty. This penally, it should be mentioned, was not recommended by the Royal Commission, but is introduced in order that an accidental omission to register may not entirely deprive the copyright owner of his remedies. Registration of paintings and sculpture is made optional owing to their being so frequently subject to alteration, that it is practically impossible to say when they are completed, so as to be capable of registration. 7. Provision is made (in Clause 89) for the seizure of piratical copies of copyright works which are being hawked about or offered for sale. Some such provision is required particularly for the pro- tection of works of Art, and was recommended by the Royal Commission. The part of the Bill which relates to the fine arts and photography is taken, almost without alteration, from the Copyright (Works of Fine Art) Bill which was introduced into the House of Commons in the session of 1886 by Mr. Hastings, Mr. Gregory, and Mr. Agnew. That Bill received the general approval of those interested in the fine arts; and although it does not altogether follow the recommendations of the Royal Com- mission, there does not appear to be any serious reason against adopting its provisions. The part of the Bill which relates to Foreign and Colonial Copyright is practically a re-enact- ment of the provisions of the International Copy- right Act, 1886, which was passed in order to carry into effect the "Berne Convention" for giving to authors of literary and artistic works first published in one of the countries, parties to the Convention, copyright in such works through- out the other countries parties to the Convention. By the earlier parts of the Bill, the same rights are given to Colonial as to British authors; while * At present it seems to be merely a matter of implied contract (see Pollard v. The Photographic Co., 40 Ch. D., 345)-  ## p. 205 (#249) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 205 the right of the Colonial Legislatures to deal with the subject is expressly recognised and preserved. The Foreign Reprints Act of 1847 (10 and n Vic. c. 95) is re-enacted in the form adopted in the Bill of 1879, but it has not been found possible to frame provisions for the introduction of any such licensing system of republication in the Colonies as that suggested by the Royal Commission. There appear to be great difficulties in providing for the practical working of any such system, and even if they could be overcome, it is felt that while it is more than doubtful whether the colonial reader would benefit to any great extent, the British copyright owner must suffer con- siderable loss. With regard to Registration, the Bill (as was recommended by the Royal Commission) provides for the establishment of a Copyright Registration Office, under the control of Government, in lieu of the present office at Stationers' Hall, established under 5 and 6 Vict. c. 45. This office has even under the present law been found inadequate, and would be still more so upon the introduction of compulsory registration in all cases. It is felt, however, that the details and form- alities of any scheme of registration can only be satisfactorily settled by Government officials, and the provisions of Part V of the Bill are put forward rather by way of suggestion than as a definitely settled scheme. It will probably be found desir- able either now or hereafter to combine the Copy- right Registration Office with the Registry of Designs and Trade Marks, and this part of the Bill has, therefore, as far as possible, been modelled on the corresponding provisions of the Patents Designs and Trade Marks Act, 1883. The chief points on which the recommendations of the Royal Commission are departed from in the present Bill are as follows :— 1. The Commissioners recommended that the universities and libraries (other than the British Museum) which are now entitled to receive a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom, should be left to purchase the books they required in the market, and that their present privilege should be taken away. But from com- munications which have been received from the librarians, it appears that they are most anxious to retain their present privilege; that the libraries could not be properly supplied if it was abolished, and that the cases in which it can cause any real hard- ship are very few. The Bill, therefore, provides for the continuance of the supply to these institutions. 2. With regard to the Fine Arts, the Com missioners were of Opinion that the copy- right in paintings, &c, should pass to the purchaser unless specially reserved to the artist. Under-the Bill, however, the copy- right will remain in the artist, unless ex- pressly assigned to the purchaser. This, it is believed, is in accordance with the general wish of artists, and as no replica can be produced without the consent of the owner of the original painting, no injury will be inflicted on purchasers, who will moreover have the right (under section 46) of pre- venting unauthorised reproductions, even though they have not (as of course it will be open to them to do) taken an express assignment of the copyright. Practically the only effect of the artist retaining the copyright after parting with the picture, will be to give him a control over its re- production by engraving or otherwise, and this control it seems proper that he should have. 3. The exception made in the Act, 5 and 6 Will. IV c. 65, with respect to lectures delivered in universities and elsewhere, is not pro- posed to be re-enacted in the present Bill. What the exact meaning and effect of that exception may be seems to be far from clear (see the observations of the Lords in Caird v. Sime, L.R. 12 App. Ca. 326), and moreover, it does not by any means seem to follow that because a lecture is delivered in a university, or in virtue of an endowment or foundation, the lecturer should be deprived of rights con- ferred on all other lecturers whether they are paid for their services or not. 4. The omission of any provisions for the .introduction of a licensing system into the Colonies; and 5. The right given to a copyright owner of taking proceedings in respect of infringe- ments, committed before he registers his title on payment of a penalty, have been already noticed and explained. FATHER FRANCIS. ICOME your sin-rid souls to shrive— Is this the way wherein ye live?" We lightly think of virtue, Enjoyment cannot hurt you.  ## p. 206 (#250) ############################################ 206 THE AUTHOR. "Ye love. Hear then of chivalry, Of gallant truth and constancy." We find new loves the meetest, And stolen kisses sweetest. "Voices ye have. Then should ye sing In praise of heaven's mighty king." We deem it is our duty To chant our darlings' beauty. "Strait are the gates of worldly pleasure, The joy beyond no soul can measure." Alas! we are but mortal, And much prefer the portal. "Nay, sons, then must I leave ye so, But lost will be your souls, I trow." Nay, father, make you merry; Come, drawer, bring some sherry. "Me drink? Old birds are not unwary, Still less—ha !—well, 'tis fine canary." Mark how his old blood prances— A stoup for Father Francis! "Your wine, my sons, is wondrous good, And hath been long time in the wood." Mark how his old eye dances— More wine for Father Francis! "A man, my sons—a man, I say, Might well drink here till judgment day." Now for soft words and glances But where is Father Francis? "Heed me, my sons, I pray, no more; I always sleep upon the floor." Alas! for old wine's chances, A shutter for Father Francis! (From "OLD and New." By Walter /ferries Pollock. Eden, Remington &• Co.) * REASONABLE LADIES. I. In commenting on some remarks of mine about literature as a profession, you write thus :—• "Lastly, I have had many letters from ladies calling indignant attention to one clause which I regret to see at the close of the paper. 'As far as I can see, the authors who do suffer are those who should receive .£3 10s. 6d. and only get js. 41/. . . . Their work is worth very little, and they get even less. . . . Generally, they are women easily "put upon" and rather unreason- able.' 'Why,' ask my correspondents, 'should not even a woman demand and receive justice? Why should she take 7-f. ii,d. when \os. Gd. is due to her?' Really one cannot give any reason. And considering that the poor wretch who steals a handkerchief worth twopence is sent to prison as much as the bold burglar who robs a bank, there does seem no reply to this question." But, may I ask, are the many ladies who write these letters reasonable themselves on this occasion? "Why should not even a woman demand and re- ceive justice?" cry these correspondents. Why not, indeed? These ladies argue as if I had said that a woman who deserved ^3 \os. 6d. might justifiably be put off with 7*. t\d. But I never, never said anything of the kind. It is the favourite feminine fallacy, Ignoratio clenchi, that these nymphs em- ploy. I said that writers of little pecuniar}' value, so to speak, are the writers who suffer. I did not say that they ought to suffer, nor that it did not matter if they did suffer. Very far from it. My article is not here, but dimly I remember observing that the Society of Authors found most of its work in looking after these cases. I may be wrong about that, I only judge by what I read in your agreeable serial. In any case to look after the authors who are defrauded of some two or three pounds is a chivalrous and necessary task. My point was that it is those writers, not the authors of more successful, possibly of better work, who need to be protected. You do not agree with me; however, that is my opinion. I sincerely believe that men and women who have brains enough to write moderately profitable works, have also brains enough to make proper arrangements with their publishers if they are not too indifferent. In that case they are like the man wrho fishes with rotten tackle, and gets broken by his salmon. It is their own fault. It is, I repeat, the others who need assistance and advice, and I consider that the Society is doing a kind work in helping them. If the Society would only induce myriads of them not to write huge worthless novels, the Society's action would be still more valuable. But is it reasonable, now, for ladies to argue as if I had said that women should not receive justice? That is exactly the way in which many women argue. They don't reply to your contention, but they invent something else which they erect as your position, and then they attack that airy fortress of their fancy. Sir, you know the heart of woman a deal better than I do, and you are well aware that it is infinitely better than her head. She jumps at the notion that I said something cruel, and she is "indignant" with me, for what I never said at all. By all means secure their rights for authors, male or female, whose rights are not great, reckoned in  ## p. 207 (#251) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 207 money. These, in my poor opinion, are almost the only kind of authors who get much less than their dues, and, in a literary sense, their work is generally unimportant. Justice to them is not unimportant. Of course I do not mean that only women are unreasonable. Any author, of whatever sex, is unreasonable who, having covenanted to do a job for a given sum, grumbles because he did not get more than he bargained for. Like most penmen, I have done jobs out of which the publisher probably made a much greater profit than the sum which he offered, and which I took. Rut then one has done other jobs out of which the publisher made no profit at all, by which, indeed, he lost money. Should I have returned him his fees? To tell the truth I did twt return them; and I fancy that he would not have permitted me to do so. We never have a reasonable right to grumble, after getting all we asked for, unless we also return our fees when the speculation is unsuccessful. I believe Collins did this: the example was unusual. By the way, to relieve one's mind, is the Religious Society—the S.P.C.K.—which pays its authors so small a proportion of its profits, as you say, so beyond all language vile, after all? How much do many of those authors contribute to the success of their own books? They have a huge sale, let us put it, but if the authors command a huge sale, why should they not, if dissatisfied, carry their MSS. to Bacon or to Bungay, who will treat them moderately well? Why should they remain under the rod of bishops and other pious malefactors? Is it possible that the Society, not the authors, provides the public, that the Society can vend any quantity of wares which would lie for ever unsold on the shelves of Bungay or of Bacon? I only ask for information. May it not be that the Society can sell bales and tons of twaddle which any man, womar, or child could write, " if he abandoned his mind to it," but which the public will only accept from the Society? If not, why, once more, do not the Society's authors revolt, and secede to Paternoster Row? If it is their books that the public desires, the public will as readily purchase from Bungay as from the Society. But if all that this very peculiar public wants is a book with S.P.C.K. on the title-page, then the book may be worth no more, as work, than the author gets for it. This view of the case is, at least, worth considering. There may be some mystery in the matter which one cannot fathom. But I still do not understand if Miss Bunnion's " Little Totty," published by the S.P.C.K. sells 40,000 copies, why Miss B., if unsatisfied with her reward, does not simply take her next work, "Billy Boy," to a more righteous bookseller. There must be competition for the work of so popular an author, unless, indeed, the popularity is given merely by the magic letters S.P.C.K. If that be the case, don't you see that the S.P.C.K is the proprietor of its own charm, that the genius of Miss Bunnion has nothing to do with it, that anyone with a pen and a vein of mild narrative would suit the Society just as well? It is not that I grudge Miss Bunnion her fair share of the profits, say two-thirds. I wish with all my heart that she got them. But I can see what sort of explanation of its behaviour the S.P.C.K. might make, if the circumstances are really those set forth in this hypothesis. The Society may say, "the value of these works is a value of our creation. We, and we alone, have made this funny public, have created this queer demand. From us the public will buy Miss Bunnion's artless legends as readily as if she had the genius of Scott or Fielding, whereas, except from us, nobody will buy Miss Bunnion at all." It is a curious state of the literary market; perhaps it is a fanciful state, a mere myth. But if it isamyth,why ah! why, do not the S.P.C.K. authors go to other publishers, all of them pining for popular copyrights? These remarks, of course, apply only to one of the charges against the S.P.C.K., if they apply to that even, which is just what I want to know. A popular author can strike without any union, without injuring trade, without making a disturbance. He merely carries his wares across the Row, to the other firm of publishers. But if it is the publishers who are popular, not the author, then the case is very different; then the question of raising the author's wages becomes one, not of trade, but of honourable feeling—a scarce article. A. Lang. II. Mr. Andrew Lang's letter, like everything that he writes, will be read with great interest. He takes, however, the line that may be ex- pected of those who have not had the advantage of being able to ascertain the facts. His view is, briefly, as follows :— 1. The writers who suffer are those only whose books possess little pecuniary value. 2. Anyone who contracts to do a piece of work for a certain sum must keep to his agreement, and has no right to grumble. 3. The S.P.C.K. publishes nothing but goody goody rubbish, beneath the contempt of reasoning beings, and has a large market for their trash because the letters S.P.C.K. are on the title-page. Therefore the value  ## p. 208 (#252) ############################################ 208 THE AUTHOR. of this stuff is not in the producer or the production, but in the publisher. 4. If the writers for the S.P C.K. are discon- tented, they can carry their MSS. elsewhere. 5. Men and women who have brains enough to write profitable work, have also brains enough to make proper arrangements with their publishers, if they are not too in- different. I think that this is a fair resume of the above. (1.) Clauses 1 and 5 may be answered together. Not only those whose work is of little value, but all who write books have hitherto suffered from the disadvantage of being called upon to sign agreements in which the meaning of the clauses as they affect the other party has been carefully concealed from the author. For instance, when a royalty was offered, what data, before our publications, had the author to go upon in arriving at what he conceded and what he received? Those, in fact, have suffered most whose writings have commanded the greatest amount of success. Take, however, the case in Mr. Lang's mind of the ladies whose work he thinks possess little value. The words "little" and " great" are elastic. To a modest gentlewoman whose wants are covered by a hundred pounds a year, that amount is not little. Now there are scores of ladies whose works produce—but not to them—a great deal more than that amount. There is no risk in producing their books; the publisher knows very well the minimum that he can depend upon. What are we to say, then, of people who, knmving this minimum, which they carefully hide from the author, give her a tenth, or a twentieth, of that amount? Apply to this business the rules of any other. What would be said of a shopkeeper who bought, say, a desk, at a tenth part of the retail price? What is said daily of a shirtmaker's sweater? and how do these differ from the sweating publisher? (2.) On the subject of agreements the Society is at one with Mr. Lang. It has always proclaimed that agreements must be kept. At the same time, when agreements are imposed upon writers, carrying clauses which they cannot understand, whose meaning is concealed, we have a very good right to raise a cry of warning, and a warning is not a grumble. (3.) The assumption that the S.P.C.K. publishes nothing but goody books of no literary value cannot for a moment be allowed. No one who has studied their lists could possibly allow it. Their fiction is for the most part written by ladies,'and contains a great deal of work that is dainty and delicate, and of artistic value. And it is not the case that their sale depends wholly on the name of the S.P.C.K. Of course, that goes for much—so does the name of Longman. If the S.P.C.K. put their name to a book, that is a reasonable guarantee that the book is not at variance with a certain set of doctrines which some people prize very highly. If the name of Longman is on a title-page, that is a reasonable guarantee of good literary work. But if the customers of the S.P.C.K. do not like a book they will not buy it, whether those initials are on it or not. And I have never yet heard of a great house exacting from its authors all the profits on the ground that it provided the public. As a proof that the S.P.C.K. cannot sell tons of trash it may be remarked that twenty years ago the then Committee tried to carry out this opera- tion. They had tons and tons of rubbish on sale. No one would buy the stuff, and the Society lost heavily. In the end they made a new start,and sold the trash for waste paper. They are now wiser. I think we have in this part of the letter the same confusion of ideas between literary worth and commercial worth t^at has already been noticed in these pages. Thus, if a person writes trash which commands a wide sale, he has a property. That property is his own. He has as much right to protection in the sale and management of his property as if it were a barrowful of whelks. Now a great deal of trash is written, and some of it is very saleable indeed. And if a religious Society or any firm of publishers takes this saleable trash, which is genuine property, as much as silks or gloves or chairs, and sells it for its own profit; or if it hides from the possessor its value, and pays a wretched sum for it; or if it sweats and grinds the possessor and fattens on the sale of that pro- perty—then that body or that publisher should be informed of his iniquity, and it should be made disagreeable for him to continue in the paths of unrighteousness. (4.) But why do not its authors go elsewhere? Those who can, do. One lady, deeply aggrieved at her treatment, went elsewhere and got at once, not only the honorarium which her former truly Christian employers had given her, but a good royalty as well. But all cannot. First, they have got into the habit of writing for the Church of England, with its doctrines and holy days always in their mind. They have learned what is wanted, and they have fallen into a certain style and language which suit the Society. This practically determines their market. Next, the so-called religious pub- lishers to whom they might go naturally take their cue from a Society whose President and Vice- Presidents are all the Archbishops and Bishops, and behave accordingly. Thirdly, ladies do not like to  ## p. 209 (#253) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 209 go hawking about their things, subject to snubs and refusals. Lastly, they do not know their own value. This eminently religious Society carefully avoids telling them the minimum profit certain to be made on their work, and so they take their ^30 meekly and go home to write another dainty little book for school girls on the bread and butter which their pay affords. (5.) Lastly, that men who have brains enough to write profitable work, have brains enough to make proper terms. This is already answered. It is not a question of brains, but of power to get at the facts. And this power has hitherto been very carefully with- held. Until the Society ascertained and published the facts no one knew them. There is only one more point, that of losses. In every business there must be losses. It is essential to trade that accidents cause losses, even to the most prudent. In no trade need there be fewer losses than in the publishers' trade. They very seldom—-it cannot be repeated too often, or be too strongly asserted—they very seldom take any risk whatever. That is to say, as good men of business, they will not spend money on what they cannot sell for at least what it cost. They constantly, I daresay, fail to make as much as they hoped. But even granting an occasional and unavoidable loss, why, in the name of Heaven, should this trade be so different from all other trades, that the man who sells the thing he has made should refund what the purchaser has paid him, so as to make up losses caused by bad management? And if anything more need be said, there are now very few nouses indeed which ever do buy anything. They remunerate the author with a royalty—which most of them make as small as possible. Walter Besant. * CONSOLATION; OR, THE ROMANCE OF A SEA-SIDE LIBRARY. THE library was contained in the back room of a shop—" place of business" the lady pro- prietor preferred to call it—where the articles peculiar to the sea-side were sold: spades, buckets, shrimping nets, shell work, photographs of the local views, inkstands, paper knives, postage stamp boxes, and all the trifles which nobody buys except at the sea-side. There were also in the shop the London papers on sale, and a case full of gaudily bound religious books, warranted to soften the brains of the unfortunate children for whom they were written, and to whom they were presented. The subscribers to the library passed through the place of business and found themselves in a large room to which their subscriptions gave them the right of admission. There was a table covered with papers, there were chairs, and on two sides of the room the walls were lined with bookshelves, half filled with volumes. The half which was empty represented the books which were out. The books were all—to a book—■ three volume novels, and to him who inspected their titles for the first time, the impression pro- duced was one of bewilderment and surprise that so many works—so many rows of works—so many hundreds of works—could be published of which the ordinary visitor, himself probably a reader of novels, should never have heard. Row upon row, shelf after shelf, the new subscriber looked along the backs in vain searching for a name that was known, and for a title that was familiar. Tempted by won- der and curiosity he took down one. After a hasty glance at a page or two he replaced it quickly and decidedly. Another; this he put back with as little hesitation ; a third and a fourth. Then the new subscriber turned away, and came no more to the library unless to read the morning papers which lay upon the table, and if he wanted any- thing to read during the rest of his stay at that watering place, he bought it or ordered it at the rail- way bookstall. For the library consisted of nothing but the works of the Great Obscure. Strange perversity of choice! With all the Victorian litera- ture before them, the founders of this Institution— half-a-crown a month, or a penny a volume—selected nothing but the works of those whom nobody knew, even by name, except the critics. Moreover, these gentlemen had said nothing of these works that was not contemptuous and scornful. Thereupon the new subscriber, who was not unacquainted with the ways of critics, marvelled greatly. Now one morning, the sun being hot upon the sands, and the glow of the water intolerable to the eyes, this new subscriber sat at the open window, the Times in his hand, looking sleepily now at-the dazzling waters and the ships which passed to and fro in the far distance; now at those bookshelves filled with the works of the Unknown: and his mind returned—but lazily—to the questionsand the doubts which haunted him. Why, why did they furnish the library with none but books which had been trampled upon and derided, and had sunk into obscurity as soon as they were born? Was it from benevolent motives, in order to promote the somnolence which is so sovereign a cure for overwork and nervous worry? Was it the deliberate elevation and assertion of another literary standard difficult at first to understand, but perhaps higher than that of the ordinary critic? Was there to be a revolution in style  ## p. 210 (#254) ############################################ 2 IO THE AUTHOR. and in art'? Was he in the m idst of a newly founded school? Did these books preach some social or religious doctrines? Was he, perhaps, in a Home of Occult Mystery? Was there a literature, popular, widespread, read by thousands, of which he and his friends knew nothing except that it had been made the subject of scorn and derision? He was alone in the room. He laid down the paper, and he began again curiously to turn over the pages of the volumes on the shelves. He looked at twenty, one after the other. "Why," he murmured, "they are all alike. They are all feeble, wishy washy, weak, all alike, and the library holds nothing else. What can it mean?" He returned to his chair, because it was too hot to walk back to his lodgings, and sat down ponder- ing over this marvel. He pondered so deeply that his eyelids dropped. Presently, two girls came in. They ran along the shelves, trying to make a choice. "Here is a pretty title," cried one of them. "' Daisyletta's Romance.' I think I will have this." "And I will take this,' Queenie Leenie; or, the Pet of the Cherubims.' That's sure to be nice. I do like to read about officers. Besides," she glanced at the man in the chair who seemed to be asleep, "the dear creatures are always saying and doing something—not quite—you know, and you wonder what's coming next." They took their books and vanished. Five minutes passed. Then there came stump- ing into the room with footsteps of resolution which awakened the sleeper so that he opened his eyes and looked round, two ladies of more mature age. They were both dressed alike, in garments of a brown hue; they both wore spectacles; both were gaunt and spare; they were certainly sisters. They had sharp and prominent features, thin lips and pale faces. They turned to the books, but they did not, like the two girls, hover lightly in butterfly fashion over the shelves. Not at all. They took each one end of the room and, mounting on chairs, began in a systematic manner to search for something. "Like looking for a good man in the ancient city," thought the new subscriber. "You will find nothing, ma'am" —buthe spoke notthisaloud—"Volumes—volumes —everywhere, and not a book to read. Most remarkable library in the world!" They continued their search. They took down nothing: they only examined the titles. Presently, however, one gave a little cry and pounced upon three volumes which presented as battered and tat- tered an appearance as any of the company. She took them out, descended from her chair, and showed them to her sister. "My dear," she said, holding out the books. Her lips closed with a snap, and she said no more. "As usual," said the other, getting down and looking at the volumes curiously. They had there- fore found what they wanted. "Read to rags," said the first. "Almost torn to pieces," said the second. "Gratifying!" "Falling apart from excessive popularity," said the first. "Ah !" said the second. "What more could one wish?" "Yes," said the first, "and it is always the same. At Margate, at Broadstairs, at Ilfracombe, at Penmaenmawr, at Whitby. Always the same. You ought at last to be satisfied, my dear. What more could you desire?" "No. Yet—poor human nature!" said the second. "Envy—black Envy—Spite—Malice !" said the first. "We can now afford to laugh at them," said the second. "What has their malice effected?" "We can now laugh," said the first, but without any hilarity of manner. "Ho! yes, I should think so. Those laugh who win. If popularity such as this" "Thepopular voice is the Highest Court of Appeal, certainly," said the second. "Then, my dear, there can be no doubt what- ever. You are one of the most popular authors of the age. Wherever the English language is spoken you are eagerly read. You are a great power. How glad I am that you allowed no scruples of false modesty to stand in your way, but boldly placed your name upon the title-page!" The other lady purred. She purred with her nose, and she inclined her head backward. "I thought, at church yesterday," continued the first, "that the people looked at you strangely. No doubt they were saying, 'That is Lucretia Crumbell, author of '"The Family Vault;"' of course I know, now. My dear, we must remember that you are recognized. You shall not make yourself too cheap. I will myself go to the butcher and the greengrocer. You shall only go abroad to take the air in the morning and the evening." They replaced the volumes, and went out ambling and bridling. Then the subscriber got up and looked at the work of such uncommon popularity. It was, in fact, that great romance called "The Family Vault," by Lucretia Crumbell, and it was published by one of those benevolent houses which issue any- thing if the author will only pay for it. He turned over the pages. Could there, bethought, be found anywhere even a school girl capable of reading this windy, wordy, nerveless, boneless stuff! Is there,  ## p. 211 (#255) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 21 I somewhere, a stratum of society where drivel—he called it drivel—can be received as literature? As he asked the question he looked out of window. At his feet on the sands the girls sat in rows. They had done their bathing; they had to get through the morning; and they sat on the sands reading. They were all reading, with one consent. The young men were listening to the nigger minstrels— the girls were reading—they were reading the books provided at this Circulating Library. "Here," said the subscriber, "is, I perceive, nothing less than the hitherto unknown Literature of the Sea-side. I have now discovered for whom these books are written, and for what purpose. At the sea-side, girls put on another mind. It is a great discovery. I must follow it up." He did follow it up. At half-past eight in the evening, when the band was playing and the people were all out on the cliff, he met these two ladies. One of them was walking bolt upright with looks of importance. The other—who was the author— walked with a little amble and a smile. She was conscious of being observed. • It is not every day that a sea-side place gets a live author to gaze upon. The new subscriber boldly took off his hat and begged permission to introduce himself to the author of the "Family Vault." Both ladies bowed and smiled sweetly. He said that he had long wished for an opportunity of expressing, in person, his sense of the Subtle Art—he called it Subtle Art— and of the romantic setting of the work; the strength—he said this without a blush; the origin- ality—he said this without a quivering of the eyelid; the dramatic character of the situations, and the profound knowledge of the heart which the work betrayed in every page. "All this, sir," said the first sister, "is quite true, but we are not, of course, accustomed to hear it said openly. The only public appreciation my sister has ever received is the proof at all the libraries that the work is eagerly read by the mass of people for whom it was intended." "Oh! then," said the subscriber, "you wrote it intentionally for the sea-side." "Sea-side as well as land-side," replied the author. "I wrote it for the whole world." "Yes, of course," he said, thinking of his dis- covery. "But don't you think—perhaps—that one form of literature—yours—the romantic—the absorbing—the exciting, suits the sea-side better than that which is quiet and meditative?" "My sister's work," said the first speaker, "con- tains passages for every mood. We cannot suppose that there is only one kind of reader here or else- where. It is the quality of a great book to be loved by all readers. Witness the condition of the book in the library." "You are doubtless engaged upon another work?" asked the subscriber, a little disappointed. "Perhaps. But I am not certain when—or whether—I shall publish." "Oh! But to write and not to publish is treason against the Muse." "There were painful things connected with the publication of my book." "Very painful. Very shameful!" said her sister. "But now we have our revenge. What do the critics say now?" "Let me explain. You are not yourself a novelist?" asked the author. "I am not, indeed. I sometimes wish I was." "Should you become one, you will learn by your own experience what I have suffered." "Envy—Hatred—Malice," said the sister. "I do not quite understand." Yet he was beginning to understand. And the perception only made him wonder all the more how these books came to the library. "That is because you do not understand the literary world. There is, sir," she added, with solemnity, "a Ring." "Oh!" "A Ring. It contains authors, publishers, editors, critics, and booksellers. A Ring. First of all, if you do not belong to the Ring, you find that you have to pay for the production of your book. A hundred and eighty pounds I paid for mine." "At least eighty pounds too much." "Then, when it comes out, the Ring which has first fined you, proceeds to destroy you. Every- body is in league—editors, critics, publishers, and booksellers. The papers take your money for advertising you, but the editors make the critics cut you up. Shameful things they wrote about my book." "Shameful — wicked — things!" echoed the sister. "Yet you have read the work" "The beautiful work," murmured the new sub- scriber. "And you know how good it is. Well, the great libraries, also in the Ring, refused it. All the booksellers, who are in the Ring, refused it. Of course this check to the success of the book destroyed its commercial value. I never got back any part of the money which I had advanced. No- body bought any copies at all. Yet you see the book, after seven short years, torn to pieces by the eagerness of its admirers. We find it so in every library round the whole of England. In every sea-side circulating library." "Strange," said her admirer. "It is Fame," said the sister.  ## p. 212 (#256) ############################################ 212 THE AUTHOR. "It is," said the admirer. "And Consolation. And Compensation." "The artist," continued the author, "must not put money considerations first. At the same time I did hope to get some of the hundred and eighty pounds back again. We could ill afford to lose the money, I assure you." "It was very hard." "Very hard. And in the end the publisher sold off the whole as a remainder stock at two shillings a set, and said the money belonged to him." "Yes, he would do that, I daresay. Remainder stock!" He started. For now he perceived that his first discovery was imaginary, but that another was in full view. "Remainder stock! Now I under- stand it all. My dear lady, your Fame is assured. That is the first thing to think of. You have full Consolation. Remainder stock! Yes—yes. Those empty wind bags—the men of the Ring—the so- called leaders—they never have any remainder stock to sell—the humbugs! Therefore—oh! I quite understand. Stupid not to have thought of that before. Remainder stock! Madam, you have your Consolation. Rich and full, it is. Rich and full." * AN ENGLISH ACADEMY. I. IN reading the November number of the Author I have been struck by the two papers on pp. 190-192, which, though bearing different signatures, appear to be happily printed one after the other. I venture to think that, so read, they go far to show that the following points ought to be taken as essential:— 1. If we are to have an Academy it must be made, from the first, and above all else, an organ of English philology; and, 2. It should contain English scholars from the United States no less than English scholars from Great Britain (not necessarily popular authors). 1. On the first point, it is well said by "R." that Matthew Arnold is to be accepted as showing that the technique of our language requires a guide. "French principles" are objected to; and it is elsewhere observed that some of the greatest French authors were not members of the Academy. But what were the principles of the French Academy, as originally constituted? They were dictionarial, grammatical, conservative; and it was natural that Balzac, Vaugelas, and Boileau should be members, rather than Moliere or I^a Bruyere: the former were experts in the French language, the latter mere successful artists. Let me quote Mr. Saints- bury on the change that has taken place since the Revolution :—■ "The language and literature have been flooded with new words, new forms of speech, new ideas, new models. ... At present it may be said, and not without truth, that, putting the work of extraordinary writers aside, ordinary French prose has lost some of its former graces, its lucidity, its proportion, its easy march." That this is not overstated maybe seen by setting down the names of a few of those writers who are the literary glory of France; Boileau, Racine, the Preachers (Bossuet, F^nelon), &c, with, among later but still Academical authors, Voltaire, Rous- seau, Chateaubriand. The English language has been, to a less degree, fixed by the unwritten canons of educated people, and by the practice of those who contributed to their literary pleasure. Now that everyone can read, and literature has to be produced for multi- tudes who, for the most part, are without the means of criticism, there does seem to be, at least, as much need for an antiseptic power in literary art as there was in France in the time of Richelieu. 2. But, besides the dangers to which our language is exposed by the unlettered condition of the great majority of readers on this side of the Atlantic, there is the further illimitable peril from a public like that of the Western part of the United States. That "cultivated people in the United States talk better than those of the same class here" is pointed out by " W. B.," and the true reason is doubtless assigned by him. But books are not written, chiefly or at all, for the use of the select few of Boston or New York. There was a time when it was so, and the fact is no less true than instructive that the American writers who have become classic are all remarkable as stylists. One need only to name Washington Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson, Wendell Holmes, and Russell Lowell. All these—and their like—are surely among the Immortals, not merely by virtue of their sincerity or depth of thought, but also by virtue of their purity of diction and the manly urbanity of their style. Nevertheless, there are some among their later followers who have not shown the same tender reverence for their mother-tongue, and many modern writers among ourselves have been no better. The great evils against which writers of English, however able, have now- to be guarded are—abridgment of phrase and neologism. The first arises from every one being in a hurry; the second, the desire to attract by smartness and by  ## p. 213 (#257) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 213 using new locutions where words of excellence and sufficiency already exist. If an Academy of philological experts could really do anything to provide against these practices, it would surely render valuable service to the cause that we must all have at heart. H. G. Keene. II. In this matter why instance the French Academy? The French are an academic people; we are not. In their judgments of works of art, Frenchmen are directed by artistic impulses; we are not so directed. The Royal Academy of Arts should he, to us, "a solemn warning." This august body does not and never did represent British art, and yet, until quite recently, the letters "R.A." after a painter's name were as dust in the eyes of the ordinary English- man. The Royal Academy of Arts is in its decadence, as any art dealer or any Academician, were he to speak the truth, would admit. In founding an Academy of Letters we shall bring into being, on parallel lines, all the abuses and foibles which the critics have so valiantly combated in the case of the existing institution. The R.A.'s are the carriage folk of art; why should we not also have, it is asked, the carriage folk of literature? Un- doubtedly the prospect has attractions. It would be pleasant to know what authors were really great, really entitled to respect; what authors might be freely and openly received. The British Philistine wants names with which he may safely conjure. But surely we can do without ribbons and medals. Art is the highest end to which a man can devote his energies, and when the silent recognition of his fellow workers is vouchsafed, the artist should feel, if he be anything of a man, that he has gained a distinction which neither kings nor heralds, nor bodies collegiate, nor societies inchoate can give him—a distinction, moreover, readily granted to him by so much of society generally as he need trouble himself about. An Academy of Letters would, without doubt, ignore the original and sincere workers. The men who concern themselves with the training, perfecting and accentuating of their own individuality would be left hopelessly in the cold, as the Royal Academy- has left in the cold the painters who have worked to a like end. Such an Academy would, in the nature of things, be mainly formed of men who had successfully tickled the palate of the ground- lings, or mildly reflected classic models. I am convinced that there is not an evil of over production, nor of gold or notoriety hunting which the institution of an Academy of Letters would not increase tenfold. As for the standards of language and style, they are not to be obtained or preserved by such means. Again I instance the Royal Academy, which has done nothing for English art in the concrete sense, and in regard to individual artists of the highest distinction, has done all it'could to crush them out of existence. The things actually desired by men seeking election would be the purple and fine linen. Literature would go into competition with shoddy men, the brewers and bankers, the newly-rich generally, and hang about the Court for title and preferment. Membership of such an institution, although it would seem a great thing to the ordinary British trader, would make a man contemptible in the eyes of his fellow workers. To found an Academy of Letters would be to institute, open- eyed, another crying evil. J. Stanley Little. * A REMINDER. WILL you allow me to remind the writers of magazine articles, and journalists, what injury they may inflict on their fellow- workers byofferingtheir contributions "for nothing"; or on "low," "moderate," or "nominal" terms. Perhaps they share the apparently prevalent idea that authors live on nectar and ambrosia, with a drink of the water of Helicon for a change. Authors do not, and the bread-winners among them are finding to their cost that remuneration is being lowered, and that if they ask a fair price for their work, it is rejected in favour of the "low priced" or "gratuitous " article. If literary work is worth publishing, it is worth paying for. A Sufferer. * A HARD CASE. —♦— VII. THIS case, like all those previously selected from the Society's archives for comment, illustrates in a typical way the disadvan- tages under which the author labours in his business arrangements with publishers, when he does not quite understand his agreement, or at any rate does not quite see the position in which it places him.  ## p. 214 (#258) ############################################ 214 THE AUTHOR. The book in question was published on the half profit system, the following being the terms of the agreement:—The publishers were to take all the risk and expense, subject to a payment to them by the author of ^40. They were to debit the book with the invoice amounts paid for printing, paper, binding, and advertisements, together with 10 per cent, on all sums expended. This last was "to defray the cost of establishment." The pub- lishers were to retain as profit any discount they might receive on the accounts for printing, paper, binding, and advertisement. Author's corrections were allowed gratis, to the extent of 15X. per sheet of 32 pages. The author was to have a dozen copies for nothing: otherwise he was to pay trade price for them. Accounts were to be made out half-yearly. Arrangements for remainder sales were to be left to the publishers. Profits were to be shared, and one would have thought it reasonable that the cost of the publishers' estab- lishment should be defrayed out of their half of the profits. The author's establishment costs will have to be defrayed by his share. Here is an agreement that has in it almost every fault, from the author's point of view, that is possible. It is all the more objectionable a document because it has upon its surface an appearance of fairness and candour. "We will bear all the expense," say the publishers, "and you shall give us ^40." There are here no petty details, no hair-splitting reasons given for requesting ^40 from the author, as well as his brain-work. It is quite conceivable that the payment by the author of .£40 was a very reasonable proceeding, but one cannot know that, until one knows what the publishers' risk actually was. However, letting that point go, we come to the fact that the author is not to receive payment until the cost of production is covered—that is, until there are profits to be halved—and this happy result the publishers can indefinitely post- pone by increasing the cost of production, left entirely to their discretion 1 Of course the situation is a very common one, but it is none the less a very extraordinary one, and one for which no parallel could be found in other business transactions. The publishers are to debit the work with the invoice amounts for the various items of production, advertisements, &c. Excellent! But, firstly, they receive 10 per cent, of all sums so spent, which is hardly an inducement to keep the cost low; and, secondly, though it is an admirable thing to know exactly where the money spent on advertising has gone, the author would often be much better off by being placed in a position to prevent its going The author has a direct interest in keeping the cost of advertisement low, for he then comes nearer to his profits; the publishers" have a direct interest in making it high, and so increasing their percentages. The publishers are again to receive all discounts for ready-money payment. Well, if they really were at all the risk and expense of publication, in accordance with the first clause of their agreement, this would be quite fair—though again hardly an inducement to keep the prices low; but the author is asked to contribute £40 ready money. Why then should not he share in the discounts? At the same time the allusion to the existence of such a source of profit is commendable. In many instances these discounts are secretly pocketed. The author is allowed to correct gratis to the extent of 1$s. for 32 pages. To what extent is this? How is the author to know when he is above, and when he is below an average of fifteen shillingsworth of corrections for each double-sheet. The clause sounds all right; it is a very common one, though a larger amount of correction is generally allowed gratis; but as far as the author is concerned it is nonsense. Under this agreement the publishers could arbitrarily charge any sum against the book as author's corrections. No item in the cost of production should thus be left to the caprice of the publishers, when the author's chance of remuneration depends upon the cost being low, and the publishers' best opportunity of "defraying the cost of their establishment" is to make the same as high as possible. The following was the result of the transaction :— The cost of production was returned as £202, inclusive of advertisements, returned as £50. The sales amounted to ^199. The author got back his ^40, and there were no profits to divide. He lost no money, but all the labour expended over his book went for exactly nothing. The publishers received certain percentages and discounts, and cannot be said to have made a good thing out of the trans- action. But it appears that they made as much as they expected to make, and that they made it in the way they intended to make it; for, firstly, the book was not moulded, so that a larger demand could only have been met by incurring all the original heavy expenditure of setting up the type, and, secondly, the results of the sale of the first edition were minimised by a remainder sale in November of a book published for the first time in March of the same year. This proceeding seems to us, unless it can otherwise be explained, an abuse of the discretion given to them by the last clause of the agreement. There is no special hardness about this case, which is a very good illustration of all the faults of the old half-profit method of publishing. There  ## p. 215 (#259) ############################################ THE AUTHOR 215 was a possible profit of say ^50 on this book, i.e., the production and advertisement could have been done for ^£150. In a fair half-profit agreement ^25 of this would have come to the author and ^25 to the publisher as shares of the profit. Under this rubbishy contract ^25 or more has gone to the publisher as discounts and percentages, and the rest has been wasted in over-expensive pro- duction : and to make the vicious circle complete, the more the cost of production is raised, the larger will become the publishers' perquisites. The author wrote the book, and backed its chances to the extent of /I40 ready money. He is glad to have got the money back, but he got nothing more. * IN GRUB STREET. EMIN PASHA literature, if we may so call the Stanley, Barttellot, and Jameson con- troversy, hasundergonetemporary cessation, and society is going into committee over the subject, seeing no prospect of a commission of inquiry. One does not like to deprive Assad Farranofhis origin- ality, but much of his story is, I fear, borrowed from Mr. Haggard's " She." There are plenty of parallel passages that might be printed to prove this. It is certainly pleasanter to read Mr. Haggard on Africa, for his heroes behave much better. It would be nice to think that Assad Farran is only one of Mr. Haggard's imitators who has misunder- stood the art of the master. If anyone has not read by this time Mr. Haggard's latest novel in collaboration with Mr. Lang, let him do so at once. It should be read for several reasons; firstly, because everything that comes from these authors is interesting; and secondly, because it is the best book of its kind that has appeared for some time. The "young men" who "do the books" for the evening papers have been very critical indeed. It has afforded them a splendid opportunity of airing their slight acquaintance with Egyptology and the classics they happen not to have forgotten since they left school. In these days, when Heliodorus, Achilles, Tatius, and Longus are household words, surely some- one could find that Mr. I^ng or Mr. Haggard had been plagiarising. It would not matter in the least if all Mr. Haggard's ideas were taken from some other author; as Lord Houghton would have said, it rather enhanced their value. It is said when someone asked him who was the first plagi- arist, he replied, "God, who made man after His own image." VOL. I. The "World's Desire " seems to be a complete answer to those who object to novels of prehistoric times or the antique world. Historians, of course, are jealous. Anything that soars above the level of a "chronicle " is to thera distasteful. And the archaeologist regards it as poaching. Flaubert's "Salambo" and Mr. Pater's "Marius," though of course not on the same platform, have been objected to for similar reasons. I think the "World's Djsire " is as successful in its own line as "Salambo" and " Marius " are in theirs. Mr. Lang, who has rescued so many classics from the school room, might give us a version (of his own) of Heliodorus, the Rider Haggard of the fifth century. Mr. Haggard might be tempted to try the "Middle Ages '• after his recent successes. '' Ivanhoe " and the "Cloister and the Heath" are the two suc- cessful mediaeval novels in English. Will Mr. Haggard give us a rival? k Mr. Wemyss Reid's "Life of Lord Houghton," about which everyone is talking and will talk for some lime to come, differs from the ordinary memoirs of an ephemeral value that come out every year, for it will always be an excellent book of reference. Mr. Reid is to be felicitated on his performance. He has allowed the letters to and from Lord Houghton to tell their own story, and has filled up the gaps with his own writing only when necessary. He has shown no want of taste in publishing letters prematurely calculated to wound the feelings of those who are living. It is hardly paradoxical to say that the merit of these two volumes consist not merely on their contents as on their judicious omissions. Among Lord Houghton's many and great merits was his appreciation of the times he lived in. He never brayed about the past. He was not one of those who thought that because a book was old, it must be also good. The present day has per- haps gone into the other extreme—we think things good merely because they are new. Lord Houghton was always the first to recognize genius, to mark the coming man; his ducklings were generally swans. Genius hunting is a dangerous game, but he played it very well. The story of David Grey has been likened to that of Chatterton, who also came up to London to gain a literary reputation, and Lord Houghton's generosity certainly compares favourably with Horace Walpole's treatment of the "Marvellous Boy." The difference between a paradox and a truism is said to be, "that while the former is usually true, the latter is always false." Lord Houghton's para- dox on perpetual copyright had far more truth in it R  ## p. 216 (#260) ############################################ 2l6 THE AUTHOR. than Mr Gladstone or Mr. Wemyss Reid seem to imagine. Everyone is now occupied in relating all the anecdotes and bon mots not included in Mr. Reid's pages. There is one against Lord Houghton not told in the life. "Why is Lord Houghton like St. Jerome?" was a riddle going about at one time. It is so obvious to anyone who has looked at old pictures that readers may guess the answer for themselves. The Scots Observer is now to be known as the National Observer, and there are rumours of the offices being removed to London. To change a paper's name is not unattended with risk, but there was every reason for the alteration in this case. The Scotch element was very small indeed, but there was enough of it to bore a great many- English readers. And it is said by some that its views are not always convincing. Some of Mr. Kipling's most delightful ballads have appeared in its pages, and the editor's poems are found there occasionally. Under ihe new title it will, doubt- less, appeal to a larger audience no less apprecia- tive. The old literary traditions of Edinburgh have passed away, and the Edinburgh Review will have all its own way in the north if the National Obsei ver comes to town. Dr. Verrall's new theory of the "Ion" has, as was anticipated in last month's Author, met with a great deal of opposition. He believes Euripides to have written the play with a profound didactic intention, namely, that of exposing the Delphic oracle. Those who are interested, however, must get Dr. Verrall's edition, which is published by the University Press. The performance of the "Ion" was a great success, and all the credit must be given to Mr. J. W. Clarke. The difficulties, though enormous, were completely overcome. The leading part of Creusa was very ably sustained by Mr. E. A. Neston, of King's College, who showed great power and a wonderful appreciation of the part. He, with Mr. Palk, of Trinity, as the old slave, rather eclipsed the acting of the others, who were pains- taking, but hardly satisfactory. Greek plays are very entertaining experiments, and if everyone was as capable as the two actors mentioned, the "Ion" would have been favourably received in London with a larger and less generous audience. Mr. Booth must be congratulated on having at last got the audience he has longed for. Polite society has been like the adder of Scripture—deaf to the voice of the charmer; though Sir. Booth's own music has largely contributed to the physical, if not moral, deafness of the community. The outside of his book is certainly sensational and the name was clever, so it deserves success. Philan- thropists and economists must judge as to the sound- ness of his scheme. I cannot see the alleged resemblance between the General and St. Francis of Assisi, nor did Professor Huxley institute such a comparison. Contradicting statements that have not been made is a journalistic trick becoming too common. He compared the two move- ments, not the two men; and pointed out that what wrecked the Franciscans might also prove fatal to the schemes propounded in "Darkest England." The boom in De Quincey's works has subsided. "Some Unpublished Letters of the Opium Eater" threatened to become to the magazines what the sea serpent and big gooseberry are to the daily papers in the silly season. Still there is a continual shower, however, of new editions and complete works. Mr. Saintsbury, with great felicity, speaks of him as a man "of great though capricious critical power." No one now is frightened by the perusal of the "opium eater," and the immoral tendencies it is said to have produced have been grossly exaggerated. The bogies of one age become the bores of the next, to adapt a very old proverb, and De Quincey is open to the charge of writing to "shock the great middle classes of England." Mr. Oscar Wilde has collected his brilliant "Dialogues and Essays," and they will be issued by Osgood and Macllvain, of Albemarle Street, shortly after Christmas. No one will have for- gotten the '• Decay of Lying," in the Nineteenth Century, some time ago the article of the month, in the opinion of many the best thing he has ever done. Hut as he never does anything like anything he has done before, best might be applied to all of them. Mr. Wilde will live to hear many of his aphorisms and paradoxes attributed to Sydnev Smith, who is constantly being found out and exposed in memoirs, and the book of Proverbs too will share the spoil. The dead prey too much on the living in these days. Mr. Wilde once said that an unbiassed opinion was absolutely valueless. And those who find fault with Mr. Meynell's Neivman (Kegan Paul) would do well to remember this. The duty of a  ## p. 217 (#261) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 217 biographer is to be prejudiced in favour of his subject, or the reverse, and to endeavour to convert his audience. None of us know how Boswell over- estimated Johnson; he fulfilled his task. We are of his opinion now. Mr. Traill's Strafford was another example of a prejudiced and successful biography. Mr. Pater's lecture on "Merimee," which he delivered in Oxford and repeated in London, was everything that one has a right to expect from this distinguished critic, whom we hear too seldom. His many admirers will look forward to its publica- tion in his next volume of essays. M. Taine is on the side of the angels; with Mr. Frederic Harrison, he thinks little enough of English fiction. Miss Rhoda Broughton, however, must be sensible of the high compliment paid her by the French Academician, who declares she is the only novelist who has enriched our fiction since George Eliot's death. It is not derogatory to Miss Broughton's high position among English novelists to say that she has been ably assisted by authors with whom M. Taine is unacquainted. —* A new work on " The Engraved Gems of Classical Times," by Professor Middleton, published by the Cambridge University Press, will be ready by Christmas. Jt is no exaggeration to say that Pro- fessor Middleton is one of the greatest living authorities on classic and mediaeval art. In an age when so much nonsense is talked on art questions, which English people treat as they would politics, anything Professor Middleton has to say will be especially welcome. Gems are things, however, which have not yet become the babble of the charlatans. So let us hope they will keep a discreet silence, until they know at least as half as much as Professor Middleton. One of the most pleasing of new books is the "Life and Letters of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S."; it is the record of a patient and useful life, not without pathos of a kind. Not only was he an enthusiastic student of science, but he retained throughout it all what many of us will envy, his faith. The task of a biographer, at all times difficult, becomes very arduous for the son who must treat of his father's life with fulness tempered by discretion. Mr. Gosse has fulfilled his task with his accustomed felicity. ♦ Mr. Frank Harbut is finishing a novel dealing with the genesis of an American millionaire. It VOL. I. will appear in three vols, early next year. M. Tessand Maissonneuve has obtained leave from the same author to translate his novel, "The Con- spirator," into French. A new novel by Scott Graham (author of " The Golden Milestone," "Sandcliffe Mystery," &c), entitled "A Bolt from the Blue," will be ready- shortly. It is published by Sampson Low and Co. A tale of the 15th century, entitled "The Goldsmith's Ward," by Mrs. P. H. Reade, will be published immediately by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. Mr. William Toynbee is engaged on a transla- tion of Beranger's songs for Mr. Walter Scott's Canterbury Poet Series. Among novels already published this season is "Kestell of Greystoke," by Esme Stuart (Hurst and Blackett). The sixth volume of the " International Library" (W. Heinemann) will be a new book by the eminent Spanish novelist, A. Palacio Valdis, entitled "La Espuma" (Frott). It has been translated by Mrs. Bell (that admirable translator whom the critics persist in describing as Miss Clara Bell). The Norwegian poet, Ibsen, has given all rights in his forthcoming drama, for England and America, to Mr. Gosse, whose translation of it will appear simultaneously in both countries. The English edition will be issued by Mr. Heinemann, the American by Mr. Lovell, of New York. The drama is understood to deal with a modern social problem not less interesting than that treated in "A Doll's House." Volumes I, II, and VI of Mr. Alfred H. Miles's "Poets and Poetry of the Century," are about to be issued by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. Among the contributors are Mr. Austin Dobson, Dr. Garnett, and other well-known critics. Mr. Mackenzie Bell has written the critical and biographical articles on Sir Aubrey de Vere and Mr. Theodore Watts. Messrs. Eden and Remington have just issued the third volume of the Rosslyn series "Old and New," by Walter Herries Pollock. Some of these poems r 2  ## p. 218 (#262) ############################################ 218 THE AUTHOR. have been published previously, and have been appreciated by a circle of readers that should be wider. It is unfortunate that the publishers have seen fit to clothe this often exquisite verse in such unattractive guise. The quality of paper, print, and binding may almost be said to be in inverse ratio to that of the verse. Mr. Pollock's masterly rendering of Musset's "Nights" has been included in this volume, and will satisfy the most fastidious admirers of the French poet. And the little poem quoted on page 205 is a masterpiece in its way. "In the Land of the Lion and Sun," Dr. Wills's popular book about Persia, will appear in the Minerva Series (Ward and Lock) shortly. This edition will be illustrated. * The scheme for providing comfortable residential chambers, combined with a restaurant and attend- ance, for educated women of limited means, earning their own livelihood, may now be spoken of as an assured success. The first block of buildings in Chenies Street, Bloomsbury, was opened last summer, and the applications for rooms was much greater than could be satisfied. The Company pays 5 per cent, to the shareholders, and the Directors feel justified in extending their operations. A site for another block has been leased from Lord Portman in Yoik Street, Bryanston Square. Every literary woman knows what a help it is to have the worries of housekeeping taken off her shoulders. Merely to have a dinner provided without having to think about it is no small assistance to the busy worker. The proposed new buildings will contain about 60 sets of rooms. Miss Agnes Garrett is one of the Directors, and the Company owes much to Miss Anne Townshend's untiring exertions on its behalf. * POINTS AND CASES. I. A Pictorial Paper. TWO months ago, on the occasion of a royal visit to my native town, I forwarded a description of the place to a well-known pictorial paper, and offered, if my article was ac cepted, to get some views to illustrate it. My offer was accepted, and the Editor wished to know whether any sketches would be taken of the cere- monial itself. On the 16th September I procured seve.al views of the town, and sent them off as I had promised, and asked in what issue my article would appear. My question was not noticed, but on the 16th I made enquiries, and found I could get sketches of the Duke's reception the following week. I wrote accordingly to the , and I also asked for some remuneration. Much to my surprise, I received a letter, some days later, thanking me for my trouble, but saying that as the sketches could not appear till the issue of the 4th October, it was useless for me to send any. and that he had forwarded me a paper of the 18th September. In this I found three views, but no article, and that, with the rest of the views, remains at the 's office, unless, indeed, they appeared in an issue prior to the 18th Sep- tember. Another letter in which I again urged my claims to remuneration, having purchased the views and supplied him with an article, the Editor hits not noticed. So, as it stands at present, I have had all my trouble for nothing, have had an article accepted, but neither printed nor paid for, and am out of pocket. I must add that one magazine, to which I sent an article, inserted it without my knowledge and without my signature, but on my writing to ask for payment, the Editor honestly sent me a cheque. II. "The Author." What costs nothing is worth nothing, and is thought nothing of! This is the rough principle underlying an author's business claims, and the standpoint of the Society, as I read it. What is gifted to the public is paid for by their magnani- mously reading it—well paid for, they think. Now, while there are numerous exceptions, I hold this principle to be a wholesome one, and not lightly to be parted from. Judge, therefore, how you are supporting this principle, when you yourself act in the style of the cabman who leaves it to "yourself, sir"! If the Author-is worth reading, it is worth paying for. If not definitely and positively charged for, it is either looked upon as an adverti'ement or a means of disseminating unsaleable material. I look upon it as really valuable to all who live or attempt to live by the produce of their pens, but my mind is influenced (through my pocket) by the fact that the owners themselves question its value. Do you not think you are breaking through your own admirable rule, in supplying good  ## p. 219 (#263) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 219 literature without a proper agreement, and that authors of mediocre talents and unbusiness habits will do to you as they are so constantly done by, and pay you by "magnanimously perusing your lucubrations." Have the courage of your con- victions, and supply the Author only on payment. It is the flood of unpaid productions that lowers the standard of payment of others. W. A. S. 2ind November, 1890. III. A Lost Chance. While in Australia, I wrote a farcical comedy. It was stolen from me, and brought out in London at a high class theatre by the "conveyor." It proved a great success, though the man rewrote the third act, and so spoiled the piece. The sup- posed author was called before the curtain and received the congratulations of the house smilingly. Afterwards he received with equal smiles the fees of the play. As soon as I read in the London papers about this "clever young dramatist" and his play, I sent home and stopped it at once, so the play was taken off the boards without delay. Meantime he has completely ruined my chance of doing anything with the comedy, as the London managers, though they like the piece, say that its removal from the stage counts for failure. F. H. IV. An Experience. In the first place perhaps the writer of "The Troubles of a Beginner," might like to know what would have been the sequel, had he per- severed in his dealings with "The Southampton Association." I received from that august body a most flattering letter stating that my MSS. were "admirably suited to their requirements"; and so indeed they were: that statement I can now accept without the slightest hesitation. I was also informed that they would appear in an early number. I paid my guinea, and 6s. 6d. for " Pen and Ink," and awaited the many benefits which were to accrue to me from joining so excellent a Society. What did I receive? About nine very trashy magazines, of which I have never seen a single copy except those which I myself received. I was told in the coolest manner, after about nine months had elapsed, that the magazine "would be discontinued for a time," but that "the business would go on as usual." I never received any report on MSS. sent to the Association except the letter to which I have already alluded. I was addressed by the editor as Rev. A. B., M.S.A. (Member of the Southampton Associa- tion), a style which I requested (with some asperity) might be discontinued. Moreover, I was informed that the rate of remuneration was 5*. per printed page; now the pages were so large that I assessed my little poems, judging by the space they would take, at about $d. each. I should be indeed sorry for myself if I had to depend for my livelihood on the good offices of such a Society as the South- ampton Association. You will not wonder that I gave the required three months' notice and sent in my resignation. About three months after I received a post card to the following effect:—"Your MSS., left in charge of the late Southampton Association, will be for- warded on receipt of postage." Now I should like to tell you of my dealings with the Church of England Temperance Society, a sore subject with me. To the C.E. T.S. Chronicle I have contributed in all some ten or a dozen pieces in prose and verse. After this had been going on some time, I wrote a letter to the editor, the gist of which was that if none of the writers were paid I would not press the matter, but if they were paid of course I should like some acknow- ledgment of my work. I saw the Editor a few days afterwards, when he told me that "All their writers were paid." I did get two guineas for a little Christ- mas comedietta, entitled "TheConspiracy," but with regard to any of the others I have got nothing but a few copies, compliments, and the acknowledg- ment "that I ought to be paid." Most of these temperance pieces, with one or two new ones, I sent in to the S.P.C.K. office, now nearly two years ago; but I cannot get any answer. Now for, perhaps, "the unkindest cut of all." I published at my own expense in 1887 a very small volume of poems, which was most kindly reviewed. Shortly alterwards I discovered, by accident, that one of my pieces under an altered name, but still attri- buted to me, was occupying the first page of a certain Christmas Annual. I had written previously to Mr. on one or two occasions, but received no reply. I did not wonder so much at this, though even as a boy at school I have been treated with courtesy by editors declining MSS., but I thought that the kind review, which I attributed to him, demanded a word of thanks, and also that the insertion of my poem gave me the entree. I wrote saying how glad I was that he had given me such a lift, and asking whether I might send some other small articles, since I was naturally anxious to add to my income by my pen. To this letter I  ## p. 220 (#264) ############################################ 220 THE AUTHOR. received no reply. It is due to Mr. to say that he may never have received my letter. But still he traded on my brains. I am easily accessible, and I think I ought to have had some acknow- ledgment. A. B. V. "The American Tongue." I would rather reply to the Autlior than to the Neiv York Herald, whilst, as one who has visited America, and admires the Americans ■—without considering them perfect, any more than ourselves—I wish to tabulate certain proposi- tions :— 1. No country, more than any individual, can be an impartial judge in a comparison of its own accent, language, intonation, and refinement with those of another. It is a mere vain contest of rival conceits. 2. In view of the glaring but cherished imper- fections of the home brewed English, even in its "purity," we should be careful in throwing stones at the Americans. 3. Many "Americanisms" are only common colonialisms; due to the aboriginal illiteracy of immigrants, to isolation, to necessity or convenience, and to the admixture of other foreign tongues. Others are mere relics of more conservative English, such as survives in remote districts of the home country, in the Bible, Shakespeare, &c, e.g., "sick" is Anglo-Indian, and Biblical as well as American. "Boss " and " loafer" appear to be Anglo-Dutch; whilst the American pronunciation of such words as "half" is simply the transported Irish pronun- ciation. Moreover, I have heard a Canadian assert that " the skin of the teeth" was a vulgar Ameri- canism. 4. The English tongue being of entirely foreign origin, its development is continuous in spite of rival lexicographers, and there must result differen- tiation according to variation of habilat. Each heir has an equal right to alter his share of the inheritance, as his stay-at-home kinsman does. Perhaps it might be better to nominally as well as actually differentiate American from Essexual, Australian from Oxfordian, English. 5. The American "twang" is partly climatic, as in Canada and New South Wales, but it is also partly due to previous isolation, and now largely to imitation. A species of "chronic catarrh " seems to afflict the residents of countries possessing such anti-English extremes of climate, so that the nasal accent is neither peculiar to, nor universal in, the United States. A visible nasal strcture is one physiological result; and this is just as clearly observable in some British-born Canadians, whilst, as far as this «<?«-employment of the nose in speech is concerned, the lower Cockney is not so very far removed from the Yankee. 6. There is no intonational standard of English accent, nor ever was. Anyone with a fair ear may perceive that scarcely two members of our own Houses of Legislature pronounce quite alike. There may be a certain or uncertain fashionably fickle standard of "good society," which each one makes or takes for himself; but it results only in a chronic contest between imitation and affectation. Concentred conceit is, so far, the sole criterion of linguistic culture. Even in the "highest circles" of our land the abuses of the r and the h are outrageous. 7. Any genuine hatred towards this country was, and is, due to several fluctuating causes, such as international jealousy, which is somewhat flattering to our national vanity; ignorance, which we all share from lack of intercommunication; a just resentment felt at the contempt which the average Briton so often manifests, even unconsciously, towards other nationalities; and, too often, a re- gretable inheritance of the hate of our Irish brethren transplanted to American soil. 8. Self-consciousness in the cultured American is not, it seems to me, a wholly satisfactory reason for his superior refinement; but still, the social absence of demarcated classes may make the better-class American more careful to act up to his assumed or inherited position, or noblesse oblige. Phinlay Glenelg. VI. Who is the Author? 21 st November, 1890. In reply to query by "H. G. Keene," on p. 194 of the Author, I give below the sonnet by Tennyson, of which he is desirous to learn the tenth and eleventh lines. As the poem differs considerably from the version given by the querist, I have concluded that I had better transcribe ihe whole fourteen lines. This sonnet appeared in an edition of Tennyson's poems in 1833, and has not since been reprinted in any save pirated editions of the poet's works. Ramsay Colles. Sonnet. Written on hearing of the outbreak of the Polish Insurrection. "Blow ye the trumpet; gather from afar, The hosts to battle: be not bought and sold. Arise, brave Poles, the boldest of the bold;  ## p. 221 (#265) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 22 r Break through your iron shackles—fling them far. O for those days of Piast, ere the Czar Grew to his strength among his deserts cold; When even to Moscow's cupolas were rolled The growing murmurs of the Polish war! "Now must your noble anger blaze out more Than when from Sobieski, clan by clan, The Moslem myriads fell, and fled before— Than when Zamoysky smote the Tartar Khan; Than earlier, when on the Baltic shore Boleslas drove the Pomeranian." [The word that you printed (Zmole?) in line nine should have been "smote." One sees reasons of technique which explain to us the reason why our noble President should have dropped his sonnet out of his works; but I think there is fire in it, and a genuine sincerity of expression.] H. G. K. [Several correspondents, including Mr. Ramsay Colles, have replied giving the sonnet as above.— Ed.] VII. Query. Who wrote the following?— "I never yet could see that face Which had no dart for me: From fifteen years to fifty's space, They all victorious be." VIII. A case has been submitted for consideration. It illustrates very well the maxim—a well-known trading maxim—that there is no friendship in business. The author gave a MS. to certain publishers, personal friends of her own. They undertook to publish the work, saying that they would give half profits after 1,000 copies were sold. This nobly generous offer was not put into writing. Hitherto the author has had no accounts and no profits. Asks what he should do, and whether the copyright remains with him or is lost. Our experience in previous cases of this descrip- tion is that there never are any profits. There never are any accounts. And the cost of produc- tion has been so great as to swallow everything, leaving the poor publishers with a heavy loss. The sensible procedure would be to demand an account and to sink, for the time being, the personal friendship. When the accounts are forth- coming, further advice should be taken. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. "Albert of E*bach." Translated from the German by H.R.H. Bea'rice, Princess Henry of Batlenburg. Allen, Grant. The Great Taboo. Ali.inoham, Edward. New and Original Poems. Arnold, Sir Edwin. Light of Asia. Elisions edition. Artemus Ward's Works. Austin, A. Tower of Babel: A Celestial Love Drama. Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. Complete Works. Edited by Edmund Gosse. 2 vols. Dent and Co. los. 6J. "Blackwood's Tales." Third series. Boisgobev, F. DU. An Ocean Knight. Child, Theodore. Young People and Old Pictures. Coleridge, S. T. Political Works. Crawfurd, Oswald, C.M.G. Round the Calendar in Portugal. Dean Stanley. Sermons, &c. D >nsoN, Austin. Four French Women. Fitzgerald, Percy, F.S.A. Music-hall Land. Froude, J. A. Earl of Beaconsfield. Gilbert, W. S. Songs of a Savoyard. Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E. The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. Goodchild, J. A., M.D. My Friends at St. Ampelio. Gosse, Edmund. Life of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. I$s. Gould, Baring. In Troubadour Land. Gunter, A. C. Miss Nobody. Haggard (Rider) and Lang (A). The World's Desire. Hetherington (H. F.) and Burton (Rev. H. D.). Paul Nugent, Materialist. New edition. Ingelow, Jean. Very Young, and Quite Another Story. "Ion " (Euripides). Translated by Dr. Verrall. Jekferies, Richard. Bevis: The Story of a Boy. "Journal of Sir Walter Scott." Lady Baker's Letters. Morris, Lewis. A Vision of Saints. Morris, William. The Earthly Paradise. New edition. Nisret, Hume. Bail-up: A Romance. Norris, W. E. Miss Shafto. Pollock, Sir Frederick. Oxford Lectures, and other Discourses. Pollock, W. H. Old and New. "Red Fairy Book." Edited by Andrew Lang. Rossetti, D. G. Poems. Serao, Matildf. Fantasy: A Novel. Translated h) If. Harland (Sidney Luska). Heinemann's Internntion.il Library. Edited by Edmund Gosse. Vol. V. W. Heinemann. y. 6J. Smalley, G. W. London Letters. Steps'I ak. Career of a Nihilist. T. de Quincey's Works. Tolstoi, Count. Work while ye have the Light. Troup, J. Rose. With Stanley's Rear Column.  ## p. 222 (#266) ############################################ 222 ADVERTISEMENTS. TYPE-WRITING. I MISS ETHEL DICKENS, AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND Writings by Post receive prompt attention. (Over the Office of " All the l'ear Round"). SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY. MSS. copied. Price List on application. MRS. GILL, MISSES ERWIN, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. MISS GILL, Authors' MSS. carefully copied from 1/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. References kindly permitted to many well-known Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on application. TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, 6, ADAM STREET, STRAND, W.c. TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND. JO. DARKE, M.T.S., LION CHAMBERS, BROAD STREET, BRISTOL. “The best of all Journals.” Published every FRIDAY, price 2d. The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY, NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and EASE of Manifolding. EDITED BY Dr. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E. Now is the time to subscribe. A New Vol. commenced 4th April, 1890. Send Post-card for Specimen Copy. AUTHORS MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the Publisher. Companies Reports and patent agents Specifications Dritten up and Manifolded. LITHOGRAPHY froin TYPING done in the best Style. MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY POST. WRITE FOR TERMS. HE AL TH. To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher- 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE. ESTABLISHED 1851. BIR KBE C K BANK, SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS CHANCERY LANE. TIIREE per CENT. 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THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of a pen, allowing yon to concentrate your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on. The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-Lock. Supplied for Cash, or on Our Easy Payment System by Twelve Monthly Payments of £1 19s., or on Hire at £2 2s. per Month. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited, 12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Type-Writing Taught by Experts. Author's MSS. Copied at is. $d. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.} is. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 3s. 5. The History of the Soctete" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms ot type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3-r. (A new Edition in the Press.) Other works bearing on tlte Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 222 (#268) ############################################ iv. . ADVERTISEMENTS. NEW MODEL REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER. WA He SNO IL For Fifteen Years the Standard, and to-day the most perfect development of the writing machine, embodying the latest and highest achievements of inventive and mechanical skill. We add to the Remington every improvement that study and capital can secure. AED AS VIS . INT TON STANDARD TYPEWRITERNO WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, Principal Office- LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C. (CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET). Branch Offices- LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET. BIRMINGHAM : 88, COLMORE ROW. MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 08 (December 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 08 (December 1890) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-12-15-The-Author-1-8 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/245/1890-11-15-The-Author-1-7.pdf 4de0a440632497d778a1ba227051e524 PDF Text Text ���������������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-11-15 Volume 1 Issue 7 Pages Page range in volume 163–198 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18901115 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.-No. 7.]. NOVEMBER 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. 162 (#202) ############################################ ADVERTISEJENTS. . . Bertan, Pest iga 1878 Men. Marie, Todd & Co. : we - . . I have seun me of your rus, to have a haina mended rough Meu Hoshin, leurs Ito. of theicity. Ion may like to know that I have nice this heu constantly frimure than twenty years, .. rine the days of a book of men called "The Autonatof the Breakfast talle "1857-8 nutie last Friday without repair and always with perfect satisfaction I have written with in halfa dozen or more volumes, a Targe number of Ennugs cle . are reusands of letters. Jue to it as o an ole rund and I hope you are do the best you can for it though I have in the mean en bought acustion of qui make' conugaad mashed C: . I do not know whether . que creue sir This testimonial, hat I feel as if the per White has Canece out to such of may thought and thought back To much in various forms in etuin was enlitted to this Certificate of hannaha tecnica Sau, Geethan yours truly Viva Wendell Hesmed. IllustraTED PRICE List of Gold Pens will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, Todd & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, London. i  ## p. 163 (#203) ############################################ (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. —No. 7.] 'NOVEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. Vol. I. C O N T PAGE News and Notes 163 Mr. Blaikie's New Poems 170 In Grub Street 170 Canadian Copyright. By \V. Oliver Hodges 175 Fin de Siccle ... 177 Literature as a Trade. By Edmund Gosse 178 "The Farrar-Cassell Case" (from the AWw York Tribune). By G. W. S 180 Mr. Brander Mathews* "American Authors and British Pirates" 182 The German Association of Authors 183 NEWS AND NOTES. READERS of The Author are most seriously warned not to forward MSS. to persons advertising for them, even though these advertisements appear in the most respectable papers. The practice is to advertise for MSS. on various pretexts—for descriptive articles, fiction, &c, and to promise payment. The MSS. are sent and are heard of no more. No respectable firm ever advertises for MSS. In a recent case a MS. sent in answer to such an advertisement, has been retained. No answer can be obtained by the victim, and the name of the advertiser is not given up at the office of the paper. The Syndicate Branch of the Society has been undertaken by Mr. W. Morris Colles, author of "Literature and the Civil Pension List," &c, as Honorary Secretary. All communications on this subject should be made to him at the address of the Society's office. In the Churches a very useful custom obtains of hanging up the Ten Commandments, so that first principles in the Conduct of Life should always be presented to the eyes of the congregation. Sunday after Sunday they have to read and to vol. 1. E N T S. PACE The International Literary Congress ... 186 A Curious Case ... 188 The American Tongue ... 190 An English Academy ... 190 An Encouraging Experience ... 192 Queries and Answers ... 193 The Late, Rev. Henry White. By Rev. W. J. Loftie ... 195 At Work ... 195 New Books and New Editions ... .96 Advertisements ... 198 hear these first principles, whether they like it or not. It is reported, by those who have oppor- tunities of knowing, to be a custom favourable to morality. In the same way we must, from time to time, advance the elements, the rudimentary laws, on which we rest every cause. Therefore we may be excused for setting forth, in this number, two or three truisms. They are as follows. Literature, in all times, has had two sides—the artistic and the commercial kind. The singer expects to be paid, the poet is rejoiced at solid recognition of his genius. What is more, the artistic work of the highest genius in no way suffers from a careful attention to its material interests. Does anyone in his senses pretend that the work of Byron, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade, lost anything in Art because these writers were good and careful men of business? Let us not confuse these two sides of the literary profession. They are equally important, because unless the latter is looked after, the artist perishes. Both must be guarded jealously, the one because Literature is Art, and the other because the artist must be a free man—not the slave of the man who has the money, nor a hack, nor one who drives his N  ## p. 164 (#204) ############################################ 164 THE AUTHOR. pen all day long for a daily pittance, nor a man continually fretted by a sense of wrong and injustice, real or fancied. When, therefore, we insist continually upon the necessity of safe- guarding literary property, of understanding what is meant by an agreement before we sign it, we are working in the highest and best interests of litera- ture. Consider, again. In no other branch of Art is a voice ever raised against those who fight for its material interests. The sculptor, the actor, the singer, the musician, the painter—all alike are understood to be working honestly at their art, even though at the same time they are watching carefully over their material interests. No one accuses Meissonnier of bad workmanship because his pictures are worth a pyramid of gold. Yet, directly a serious attempt is made to put these interests on a proper basis as regards letters, there is raised at once an outcry about degrading Art, taking all the joy out of Art, destroying the nobility of Art, and the rest of it. To which, in the words of Mr. Burchell—Fudge! To be sure, these charges are always preferred by the writers whose works do not possess any pecuniary value, or by those who dabble and play with literature, content to issue, now and then, a critical essay or a volume of critical essays. To them, but not to the men and women whom the world loves, it seems a degra- dation of Art to insist upon the rights of property, and they pretend to regard a great writer as deprived of the joy and nobility of his work because he looks after his own interests. Again, in the words of Mr. Burchell—Fudge! We mix up these two sides of literature. It is absurd to suppose that George Eliot was thinking of her commercial value when she wrote "Romola." Yet she thought very much of it afterwards. That is the way of it. The true artist thinks about nothing but his work while he is engaged upon it. The man who is not an artist cannot understand how he can ever think about the business side of his work at all. Yet he always can, and does, as soon as he is satisfied that there is a business side to his work. And to some minds—to most minds—the knowledge that there is this commercial value in it acts as a constant stimulus—a wholesome incen- tive; it gives the writer confidence and courage and selfrespect; it makes him watch over his work with jealousy, lest its artistic standard be lowered. He takes this recognition, this popularity, this de- mand, as a proof that his work is good and artistic. I have printed, in another part of this number, an article written for an evening paper by Mr. Edmund Gosse on a cognate subject, by his permission. Indeed, whatever Mr. Gosse writes on the subject of the literary life commands attention by itself, apart from the fact that he is one of ourselves, of our inner ring, one who has spoken for us, and will again, one is assured, become, if necessary, our champion. Therefore I would not willingly differ from him in any particular, and in this paper of his, which is mainly a protest against the wretched gossip about authors' prices which is con- stantly published in certain journals I wholly and entirely agree with him. To observe the extrava- gant curiosity about money realized in literature and art disgusts one. And it is not only true, but most opportune, to point out that "such curiosity about literary prices is unwholesome, and because it tends to make money the standard in a species of labour where the rewards are in no degree analogous to the deserts." Nothing is more true; some of the finest work produced has wholly failed from the commercial point of view. Again, it is most true "that no great work was ever com- posed primarily for the purpose of making as much money as possible." Yet, in my judgment, he overstates a very good case when he arraigns authors with a want of modesty in the pursuit of guineas. It is not greed that actuates the author, it is an instinctive yearning for justice and fair play. Let us be fair to our own motives: once secure this justice and all will be secured. We ask for nothing more. But let us, above all things, keep separate the two sides of the literary life, the side of Art and the side of affairs—the soul that animates and the body in which the soul must live. There is a certain sorrowful significance about this incessant and prying curiosity into literary prices which should not be overlooked. It is a time when the difficulties of getting on in any calling or profession are increasing daily. But it is not a time when simplicity of living is also increasing. Further, it is a time when women are longing for their independence, and rushing into every kind of work by which money may be made. Especially they long to enter the literary profession. It seems so easy. Anybody could write like—say Mrs. Gaskell—the thing is so simple, and there seem to be such splendid prizes. Think of a book like this or like that being worth thousands! Or, again, since journalism is itself a branch of the literary profession, the young country journalist is always dreaming of an exchange from his hard work and scanty pay to the splendour and ease of a successful novelist. Therefore he collects assiduously all the scraps— most of them pure inventions—about the prices obtained by this man and by that man, and dangles  ## p. 165 (#205) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. them before his own eyes, and sticks them in his paper for all the world to read. In this curiosity I discern that of yearning after the impossible, which makes the literary aspirations of ninety and nine out of every hundred tragic and mournful. There has been a special utterance on the subject by Mr. Andrew Lang. It contains one or two ser- viceable statements. Thus, he says, quite truly, "the author must conquer his casual disposition." It is what the Society insists upon in every paper and every report. Let the author bring to his literary business the same common sense that he brings to other business, and half the trouble will vanish. Again he says, "one has very little sympathy with authors who grumble at the publishers getting their share." No sympathy whatever. Let us only agree upon what should be the publisher's share. That settled, the whole of the trouble would vanish. One thing he says which seems to me mis- chievous, because everything is mischievous which is not based upon a knowledge of facts. It is this. "The publisher, I think, in spite of Mr. Besant, does incur a good deal of risk, not per- haps on one book or two, but on the general result of his business." Exactly the reverse is the truth. The publisher, who very, very seldom knowingly runs any risk at all, may lose—because in all trades there are mistakes made—on one or two books, but as the general result of a large business he is certain, as his business is now conducted, not to lose. This is a very delightful result, and one does not grudge the honourable House its income however great it may become. May such a House increase and continue in prosperity as in honour! Another point to which he takes exception is the assumption that the Society is inimical to publishers. This is an unwarranted assumption, calculated to injure the Society, and contradicted by every utterance of the Society. Suppose a novelist draws the character of a scoundrel attorney, is he therefore hostile to all lawyers? Is it fair to call his attention to the fact that some gentlemen have friends among solicitors? Yet this is what Mr. Andrew Lang does. He says, "extraordinary as it may appear, there are even cases of friendship between authors and publishers." I suppose there is not one upon the Committee of this Society who is not proud to number a publisher among his friends. lastly, I have had many letters from ladies calling indignant attention to one clause which I regret to see at the close of the paper. "As far as I can see, the authors who do suffer are those who should receive ioj. 6d. and only get ■js. . . . Their work is worth very little, VOL. I. and they get even less. . . . Generally, they are women easily ' put upon' and rather unreason- able." "Why," ask my correspondents, "should not even a woman demand and receive justice? Why should she take "js. $d. when 10s. 6d. is due to her?" Really, one cannot give any reason. And considering that the poor wretch who steals a handkerchief worth twopence is sent to prison as much as the bold burglar who robs a bank, there does seem no reply to this question. We must maintain the sacredness of the contract, because that underlies every kind of trade, exchange, or service rendered. Without the keeping of agree- ments nothing could be done. All that can be done is to implore authors not to sign away their property, and to hope that sweating by certain publishers will speedily become as disgraceful as any other form of dishonesty. When, however, one reads of certain cases, it is difficult not to wish that a contract, obtained by studiously withholding the facts of the case from one party, should be set aside. For instance, here is one. A certain specialist, a very popular writer, was asked by a firm to undertake a book on his own subject. They named a price. He took it. Therefore he had no right to complain. The book proved an immediate and very great success. The publishers then asked him to produce another. Remember—they knew that the first had been an enormous success. They knew that the second would prove equally successful. It is said that they began, in fact, with an edition of 100,000 copies of the second book. This seems incredible, and perhaps is an exaggerated statement. Edition has followed edition. It is still, after many years, a living book. The author received ^30 for the first book; and in spite of the full knowledge possessed by the publishers of what they had done with the first, and would do with the second, they gave him the same sum, ^30, for the second. What is to be said of such a contract? That the author was a fool? Perhaps. But what were the publishers? —« Piracy, with mutilation, is even more intolerable than piracy pure and simple. Indeed, as will be seen in another page, I think we should give up the use of the word piracy and write publishing-as-permitted- by-the-law. It is a long word, but at present there is no short equivalent. Here is a case of publish- ing-as-permitted-by-the-law, with mutilation :— "A few months ago I published a book on Bronchitis here in London, and made an arrange- ment with a publisher of Philadelphia for the production of an American edition. It appeared and was selling well when Wood and Co., of New n 2  ## p. 166 (#206) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. York, reprinted it entirely without a word of com- munication with me or my real publishers. This firm has, within the last year or so, published some fifty medical and surgical works or monographs; and, as far as I can learn, they have in every case been taken without permission. I have quite a collection of letters from men who have suffered in this way. We have no legal redress, but our Medical Associations on both sides of the Atlantic have promised to take up the matter, and will go to work pretty energetically." Mr. Louis Stevenson has been interviewed by the Melbourne Argus. 'Tis the common lot. He is reported to have said a good many things of which one, at least, is important, as a contribution to the vexed question of plagiarism. Everybody knows how novelists are perpetually charged with plagiarism. It is, indeed, a difficult thing to refute such a charge. Given the facts, given the absolute coincidence, character for character, incident for incident—how could they occur, one asks, in the later work unless they had been copied from the earlier? To speak only of one who can speak no more. I once dis- covered an extraordinary resemblance between an incident in one of Charles Reade's books and an exactly similar incident in a book published some forty years ago before. The resemblance was so striking, the events were so exactly the same, that I at once, in my ignorance, set it down to inten- tional plagiarism. I am now convinced that I did Charles Reade a grievous wrong. How then did he contrive to reproduce so exactly that part of the earlier work? The following illustra- tions supplied in the course of this interview pro- vide an answer. This is what Mr. Stevenson is reported to have said :— "I suspect most of our inventions are docu- mentary enough, and taken out of the note-book of the memory. I will give you a couple of examples from my own case. Some five or six years after I had written 'Treasure Island,' I picked up Washington Irving's 'Tales of a Traveller,' and there I find Billy Bones, with his voice, his manners, his talk, his sabre-cut, his sea-chest, and all that is Billy Bones's. I had read it long ago, and, if you will allow me a bull, I had forgotten, but my memory had remembered. Again, I fondly supposed I had invented a scene when Alan Breck quarrels with one of the M'Gregors in a house in Balquidder. Here, in Sydney, not two days ago, a gentleman informs me that I had read the out- lines of that scene, even to the names of the three principal characters engaged, in Pitcairn's ' Criminal Trials.' I do not remember. I do not suppose there is a copy of Pitcairn in the Colonies, so that I cannot make sure, but I have not the least doubt that it is so. We all, idealists and realists alike, rearrange that matter of observed life with which our memories are charged, and the most we can mean by the word invention is some happy con- gruity or surprise in the method of arranging it." This is a novel but a sufficient explanation to those who know that the accused is a man of honour. The mind forgets but the memory remembers. In the last number of The Author the arts and wiles of the gentry who seek to catch the literary flats were exposed in some detail. I have now before me the prospectus of an enterprise whose object is to advance the interests of Rising Authors (with a capital "r "). Every effort of this kind, particularly when conducted in a disinterested spirit and with- out the least consideration of sordid gains, com- mands our sympathy. Here is the scheme, then. A new monthly magazine is to be started. It will be called by a most attractive title, viz., "Literary Fame." Literary Fame! The words cause the eyes of the Rising Author to glisten and his lip to tremble. Literary Fame! Nothing short of this. The magazine has no other objects in view—the prospectus, which cannot lie, says so indeed,]in plain words—than the true interests of English Litera- ture. It is designed to introduce to the great British Public that large class of writers who feel that they have a Message to convey to the world at large. To these—as the candid prospectus says —" Literary Fame" offers an unexampled, nay, an unparalleled opportunity. I should think so indeed. The Rising Author has only to send in his contribution. It will be read for nothing—it is well-known that in all other magazines the editor has to be bribed before he will read anything. Each "suitable" contribution—here a note of discord— are not all contributions from Rising Authors, who have a Message for the world, suitable ?—will be accepted and printed, signed with the author's name. Why, what could be more disinterested? The only condition—a ridiculous one—is that the author shall pay beforehand for fifteen copies of the magazine for every column of his paper. Thus, suppose he has a paper of twelve pages, or twenty- four columns, and a Message to the world can hardly be delivered in less, he will only take 180 copies, which will cost him the sum of j£g. Who would not gladly pay j£g for the privilege ot delivering a Message? Should he run a serial story for a twelvemonth, taking twenty-four pages each number, he will only pay ^216 for the year! Of course, thousands will jump at the offer.  ## p. 167 (#207) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 167 In other words, how great must be the belief in the credulity of writers when they are calmly invited to consider such a proposal? Let us see how it works out. An ordinary magazine con- tains about 120 pages or 240 columns. This if paid for at the rate of 15 copies a column, pro- duces ^90. To this must be added the advertise- ments and the sale, if any. And after paying for printing and paper, there will remain a very com- fortable little property indeed. But I observe that in case of novels a higher charge will be made. Excellent, enterprising, benevolent editor! When Germans undertake to found and to manage a society, there are no half measures. The pro- gramme of their yearly meeting, a somewhat bulky document, is so thorough that I have had it translated and published for our own instruction. When one considers the infinite trouble we have in inducing our own brethren to unite, it is refreshing to read of such enthusiasm and belief among the Germans in the cause. One lives in the hope that we are really succeeding little by little in bringing literary men and women to make common cause. The difficulty is being illustrated at the present moment by a series of papers in the Daily Graphic on the proposed National Academy of Letters. First the scheme was proposed in general terms by an anonymous correspondent. It has been fol- lowed by a succession of papers from men of letters invited by the Editor. My own paper, which happened to be the first, was taken hold of as a peg by all who came afterwards, and the scheme has been everywhere attributed to me. It is not mine at all. I was only asked what I thought of it Now observe, I began by a most serious warning, as follows:— "The influence of the English Academy would depend entirely upon the position and reputation which it might obtain in the estimation of the world at large, and of litterateurs in particular. If every- body was agreed that to be a R.A. in Letters was as great a thing as to be a R.A. in Arts oraF.R.S. in Science, then the distinction would be an object of ambition, and the voice of the Academy would be potent and authoritative. If it failed to command this respect; if the true leaders refused to enter its walls; if it was considered to be under Court favouritism or to be involved in party interests, or to be the home of the second rate, it never would acquire any influence at all. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that it should, from the very outset, number in its body all the leaders of the day in every department of literature." "Supposing," I added, "this extremely difficult preliminary accomplished, what could the Academy effect?" I then proceeded to show what, in my opinion, such an Academy might accomplish. Most of the letters, beginning with that of Mr. Leslie Stephen, have proved that it is utterly impos- sible in the present condition of things for men of letters to work together as an Academy—a National Institution. They have nearly all written as if union was a thing impossible, and practical aims were out of the ques- tion. Why cannot men of letters act together? First, I believe, because they have got into the habit of speaking and writing about each other as men of no other profession would be allowed to do. A barrister would be disbarred who should dare to speak of another barrister in terms that are con- stantly and without censure used by one man of letters concerning another. Now were there exist- ing a great critical body, a controlling power, pos- sessing the power of leadership, the power of wealth, jhe power of bestowing distinction, the power of reprimand—this curse of literature, this license which fills the history of authorship with con- temptible quarrels and fish-wife recriminations, would instantly cease. An Academy, however, after the manner of the French would be absurd in this country. It is obsolete in Paris. It survives, but it has ceased to be a great power. Such an Academy as I should like to see founded in this country would deal with everything connected with literature. Mr. Leslie Stephen, whose name and work I hold in as much respect as those of any living writer, says dis- tinctly that such a body could not deal with prac- tical things. Why not? One does not expect the individual academician to become at once a steward in the House of Literature: not at all. We engage officers and pay them for such services. Every day the profession of letters is becoming larger; every day the dangers which threaten litera- ture, because its followers are a scattered crowd with no leaders, no authority over them, no guides, and no advisers, are growing greater and greater. Farther on, in this number, will be found a paper showing the views of another writer on the subject. Let me therefore only repeat what I advanced in this paper of mine in the Daily Graphic. 1. Such an Academy must have the support of all the leaders in literature of every depart- ment, or it will be ridiculous.  ## p. 168 (#208) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 2. It should recognize and honour good work by public recognition, and by distinction of some kind. 3. It should regulate and control the production of literature on principles which would, once for all, destroy the present friction between authors and publishers, and would make the present widespread frauds and sweatings disgraceful, if not impossible. 4. It should contain the official register of every book published. 5. It should take over and administrate the annual grant for Literature. 6. It should concern itself with every question that may arise in any one of the numerous interests of Literature. These were the principles which I laid down in my paper. The longer I consider them, the more I am convinced that such a body, so constituted, with such work before it, might confer the greatest benefits upon letters. Some of the work has been attempted, not without success, by this Society. But it would come with more authority from an Academy. The last few weeks have also been enlivened by a correspondence in the Times. Whenever the Society has been publicly proving its existence and its activity in some way which makes certain of its friends wriggle, there is sure to occur such a corres- pondence. Then we have the old, old things—the bogey of risk; the awful losses in publishing; the misstatements; the trail across the scent; the misleading suggestions—everything to keep the public in the dark. Newspapers either in the interests of dishonourable houses, or in ignorance, take up the cry, and with paragraphs, letters, and leading articles repeat the misstatements. Then we repeat the truth again—and they are silenced for awhile. Meantime the Society advances. —♦— The controversy was conducted on the usual lines. Hardly any of the writers seemed able to conceive that there were any principles of justice underlying the question. There was misrepresen- tation, there was misstatement, and there was deliberate falsehood—there was no attempt at reasoning. The worst letter of all—the most silly and the most spiteful—was written by an "Author." It illustrated exactly what was advanced in the last number of this Journal on the ill-bred malice which some writers permit themselves to use towards others. This person, who says that he has been treated with fairness—very likely—but he does not understand what is meant by fairness—states that he received a bigger cheque than he expected, and was afterwards told by the publisher that his book had been a loss of so much. "Hit or miss," said this airy speculator—" Hit or miss." He saw no accounts, and asked for none. He took the man's word. In no other business transaction known would he have taken the man's word There is a sweet simplicity about this author which seems to point to the country clergyman. He is often an excellent person, but it is his foible to believe that he is a good man of business. This person, so skilled in matters of business, goes on to call a scholar, a gentleman, a dignitary of the Church— the author in fact of the work under discussion— a publisher's " paid clerk." A clerk copies, casts up accounts, and writes letters to order. A clerk does not, as clerk, produce a work of art, genius, and learning. This is the first time that one has heard an author called a publisher's paid clerk. Now that the thing has been started it will not doubtless be the last we shall hear of it. The main point of the recent controversy in the Times was, of course, ignored from the outset. It is this: A. B. engages C. D. to do a piece of literary work on a subject in which he is a specialist. He is certain to do it well, and to produce a popular book. C. D., not knowing the extent of his own popularity, which A. B. does, produces this work, and receives a sum of money. A. B., in order to secure this popular writer for another work, after- wards gives him four times what was bargained. Now what is the profit of A. B.? He will not say —nor, of course, can he be expected to confess. But it can be guessed by experts, and it is variously reckoned at sixtyfold and a hundredfold what he originally gave C. D. Yet C. D. has no right to complain, because an agreement must be kept. But when A. B. asks C. D. to write another book, knowing that he is certain to make again an enor- mous sum, how far is he justified in offering the writer a sum equivalent to about one-fiftieth of what he himself reasonably expects to make? That is the question. We shall have no answer to it from the other side; but the question itself should be laid to heart by every writer. Sooner or later it will be laid to heart, and then such an agreement will become impossible. The deadly rancour shown towards the Society in most of the letters showed the mind of the writer. It is a most healthy sign. The revelations made in our publications have begun at last to make the author want to understand his agreements, what it  ## p. 169 (#209) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. is he gives, and what he gets in return. An end of the good old days, when the author would sign anything that was put before him, is seen to be approaching. He now understands, or can easily learn, what it costs to produce a book, and what is meant by a royalty of ten, fifteen or twenty per cent. Therefore the gentry who have been accustomed in every account they make up, to overcharge on every item, find that they can no longer do so with impunity. Also those who have been fattening on ten per cent, royalties find that their gains are now discovered. In order to divert public attention from the real point at issue, of course side issues have to be found. This has been done chiefly by mis- stating or wilfully misunderstanding what has been advanced by the Society. Especially, and as a matter of course, the old bogey of great risk and enormous losses is trotted out. Let us again affirm very seriously that publishers very, very seldom take any book at all about which there is any risk. They may make mistakes, of course. This is the rule, even with the great houses. Indeed, they would not be men of business if they did not avoid risks. As to the smaller houses, they never take any risk at all. Of course they cannot afford to do so. They have discovered a better plan—to make the author pay. * For instance, this is the busiest time of the year. The publishers' advertisements are now the longest. I take up a paper and examine the publishers' lists in its columns. The following is an analysis :— a. A firm of the first rank. Eighteen books advertised. Nine of these are new editions. Seven are new books. Of the seven five are absolutely without risk, unless of course, they were over-printed or under-priced. Two are novels of which we can only say that this firm has always been careful to produce none but good work, and therefore that it is probably well advised that there is no risk in producing them. B. A small firm. Seven books. Six certainly paid for by the authors. The seventh presents no risk. c A small firm. Four books, all by popular authors. No risk. D. An old established firm. Six books, of which three are new editions. The other three carry no risk whatever. E. Another great firm. Sixteen books advertised. Ten are by authors whose names command a large sale. Five are educational, of the better kind. Of the whole lot one only appears doubtful. f. A new firm. Fourteen books. Four belong to well established series. One is a standard book. Three have names which command success. Of the remaining six, four are cer- tainly paid for by their authors, and probably the other two. G. A firm of high standing. Fifteen books. Eleven are by popular and well-known authors. Three are reprints. One is a work whose subject commands success. H. Another high class firm. Seven works only advertised out of their longer list. Three of these books will command a certain success, that kind of success which remunerates the publisher, but does not enrich the author. Four are by popular authors. This is the kind of illustration that might be followed up every week. I have taken eight houses at random in the order in which they advertised out of the whole list. I can find but three books out of eighty-seven which appear to me doubtful. Of the three I strongly suspect that two are paid for by the authors. We shall have in course of time, a good deal more to say on the general questions of publishers' contracts, unexpected and enormous profits, alleged losses and so forth. Meantime, here is an instance of what we re- commend to the consideration of Messrs. Cassell and Co., the Literary Handmaid of the Church, and other firms like-minded. In the year 1884 a certain author produced with a certain provincial publisher a little work which both believed would prove a modest success. It obtained, however, an enormous run. The publisher, meantime, had bought his modest venture for a modest sum. When the success of the book became known, he voluntarily, unsolicited, tore up the agreement and made another, based on the success of the book. What can be said of such an act? It was spon- taneous, and it was based upon the honourable feeling that, agreement or no agreement, the author should share in this unexpected good fortune. The publisher was Mr. Arrowsmith, of Bristol, the author was Mr. Fargus. The Editor of the Critic (New York) invites his readers to select twenty American literary women as Immortelles. In order to assist the reader, he gives a list of 139 living writers " not unknown to the reading public." In looking through this list one is struck with a profound sense of ignorance, because one knows so few of these names. Sixteen only are known to me. Can there be a rising liter-  ## p. 170 (#210) ############################################ 170 THE AUTHOR. ature in the Slates wholly apart from, and unknown to, ourselves? Yet it seems as if every good book which appears in the States is welcomed here. Are there, again, 139 English women of letters all known to our own reading public, of whom no more than sixteen are known across the Atlantic? Literature has many branches, but these ladies represent fiction almost entirely, and fiction is the most popular of all the branches of literature, and as Mr. Brander Mathews explains later on, American novelists are here published—by per- mission of the law—in great numbers. Walter Besant. * MR. BLAIKIE'S NEW POEMS. IT is now a good many years since a little volume of verse, the first work of two very young writers, made its modest appearance. The book was perceived at the outset to possess far more promise than is usually shown in first essays at verse. It is now among the very scarce books, and is worth its weight in silver. One of these writers has gone on producing poetry and is now read and known wherever the English language is spoken. The other has remained silent until now. He is about to publish a new volume which will appear immediately. The name of the former is Edmund Gosse—of the latter, J. A. Blaikie. The following are taken, by his permission, from his new volume (Percival & Co.). r. Love, like a bird, with gladsome wings did fly, In jocund springtide's first delicious hour, Unto my heart's forlorn and wintry bower, And rested there, and sang, till suddenly It opened flowerwise that was like to die; And all the winds his singing, as a shower, Took, and outpoured on tree and herb and flower, And life was light, and warmth, and ecstasy, Until the first rude breath of winter's power;— Then Love, a bird of passage, winged the sky. II. As when a weary troop doth eastward file Through many a dreary league of Lybian sand By wind unwinnow'd, and a listless band Doth struggle, hopelessly, depress'd the while; Till keen the cry of one doth them beguile, Who, catching the first breeze from Nilus fann'd, Scents the faint odours of that verdurous land, Syene's height and Philx's palm-set isle; So I when, mid the city's grinding roar, Thy presence fills the vacancy of eyes, Work-wearied, with thy grace beneficent;— That antique Garden view I where of yore Tu live and love were one, and paradise; And the twain trees in Beauty's vine are blent. IN GRUB STREET. THE most attractive volume that has lately been issued is undoubtedly Mr. Frederic Tennyson's "Isles of Greece" (Macmillan.) Anything coming from a member of the Laureate's family will have an interest for Englishmen in all parts of the world. But Mr. Tennyson's volume can well rest on its own merits. A writer in the Saturday Review says, " Whatever poetic fruits the present season may yet bring forth, be they notable or the reverse, Mr. Frederic Tennyson's new poem is alone sufficient to make the season memorable." Mr. Lecky has completed his monumental work, "The History of England in the Eighteenth Century." Those portions of it which deal with the Irish Question have of course a peculiar interest in the present time. It is a great tribute to Mr. Lecky as an historian, that even those who differ from him are agreed as to the good taste, modera- tion, and judgment he has shown in dealing with a very vexed question. Prejudice and bias are said to be an ornament of history, but restraint is even a greater gift. The work is worthy of Mr. Lecky's already considerable reputation. Both political parties are promising to quote from him in support of their own views. »— Dr. Verrall's edition of the "Ion of Euripides," witha translation into English verse, an introduction, and notes, comes very opportunely at the present time in view of the forthcoming representation of the drama at Cambridge. He certainly throws a great deal of new light on the play, and takes up a very original position on the plot as it is usually received. That a general acceptance of his theory will be adopted cannot, of course, be expected. Commentaries on the classics are not, as a rule, exhilarating to the ordinary public, but Dr. Verrall's introduction should find readers beyond the sphere of scholarship. From the same centre of learning comes Professor Jebb's "Philoctetes," welcome to all lovers of the classics. Such able scholars give the lie to the old charge, " What could Cambridge do but quote?" —♦ Mr. Froude's life of Lord Beaconsfield has been of course a disappointment to those who relish back-kitchen biography. One would think that the public craving for that sort of thing had been more than satisfied. Someone discovered not long ago an unpaid washing bill of Shelley's, which was considered an important contribution to  ## p. 171 (#211) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 171 "Shelley's Biographia." It is, no doubt, the absence of a similar item in Lord Beaconsfield's recent biography that is the "felt want." Those, however, who considered Mr. Froude's "Carlyle " a little too circumstantial will not regret any omission of a similar nature. The death of Simonides, the forger, will awaken painful memories among those persons who are wise after the event. Simonides was in many ways a great genius, and he had also indefatigable industry wherewith to apply his art. Some years ago he gave out that he had died of typhoid in the East, and sceptics may still refuse to believe in his demise. There is an amusing story of his which is characteristic of his amazing audacity. After his MSS. and letters of introduction had been exposed by Tischendorff and Mr. Aldis Wright, he revenged himself by admitting the forgery and volunteering the information that he had also written the authentic MS. of the Gospel which Tischendorff himself had unearthed. In these days of popular series, when English Men of Letters, English Men of Action, Remarkable Women, and Talented Journalists have been so successful, why should we not have a Criminal Series? It of course must not be a vulgar reprint of Newgate Calendar heroes, but lives of such men as Chatterton, Samuel Ireland, Shapira, and Simonides. Some enterprising publisher has already, I believe, commissioned the "Buccaneers" and the "Highwaymen"; and "Forgers" would make a very entertaining third volume. Neo- Christians have their Elsmere House and Oxford culture its Toynbee Hall, but the criminal classes have been overlooked, that is, from their own point of view. They have had no vehicle wherein to express themselves hitherto. The Times of November 5th has an interesting reprint from the North China Herald on the subject of " Celestial" novels. The latest expounders of Confucian philosophy have condemned the art of fiction, and one Shih, emulating Savanarola, estab- lished a pyramid of vanities, where all immoral novels were burnt. If this condemned literature was of the "Sweeney Todd " and "Cheeky Charlie" order which the respectable Quarterly Review has been denouncing lately, no one will regret the con- flagration. But pedagogues and philosophers have not always been the best judges of an art for which they have had no sympathy. Roger Ascham, who, if he was the first schoolmaster, was also the first of prigs, denounced as harmful to youthful morals the delightful Morte d'Arthur, the gay stories of Cynthio and Bandello, and Mr. Herbert Spencer has announced that literature nauseates him. Apropos of conflagrations it is very satisfactory to know that the famous library of Siena Cathedral with its magnificent frescoes and illuminated missals has been spared in the recent fire. A correspondent in the Times the other day drew attention to the very careless way in which the library of St. Mark in the Ducal Palace at Venice was exposed to danger. All this does not reflect much credit on the municipalities of modern Italy, who are always throwing stones at the religious bodies who have any works of art in their keeping. The Liberals are ever looking with envious eyes on the Vatican Library, but until they can prove themselves better curators, the longer the collection remains with its present owners the better. It is pleasant to see that some of the shorter stories of Balzac have been issued by Walter Scott, under the title of " Don Juan,'or the Elixir of Life." Those who are unable to read French have hitherto only been acquainted with the longer and more famous portions of the Com£die Humaine as the Peau de Chagrin and the Pere Goriot. Mr. Saints- bury says, "he is happiest when his subject has a strong touch of the fantastic," and in this collection the fantastic is remarkably well represented. With regard to the correspondence on the English Academy in the Daily Graphic, and which is discussed elsewhere in these pages, it may interestpeopleto see again the 40 immortals selected by a plebiscite in 1887, which by the courtesy of the Pall Mall Gazette is here reprinted. W. E. Gladstone. Cardinal Newman. Tennyson. Walter Besant. Matthew Arnold. Leslie Stephen. Professor Huxley. Benjamin Jowett. Herbert Spencer. John Bright. John Ruskin. Frederic Harrison. J. H. Froude. William Black. Robert Browning. Justin Macarthy. John Morley. Lord Salisbury. Professor Tyndall. Sir Theodore Martin. Professor Freeman. Henry Irving. A. C. Swinburne. George Meredith Archdeacon Farrar. Wilkie Collins. Professor Max Miiller. Canon Liddon. Sir John Lubbock.' Duke of Argyle. William Morris. R. D. Blackmore.  ## p. 172 (#212) ############################################ 172 THE AUTHOR. W. E. H. Lecky. Andrew Lang. G. A. Sala. Bishop Stubbs. R. L. Stevenson. Cardinal Manning. Sir Frederic Leighton. Professor J. R. Seeley. Six of this forty are now unhappily dead. There are many names one would have included, as there are others one would have excluded, not because they lacked greatness, but because their connection with literature is remote. The list is a remarkable one in many ways; for instance, there are only three Anglican clergymen, the present Bishop of Oxford and Archdeacon Farrar,and the late Canon Liddon. Mr. Sala, about the same time, gave an academy of his own contriving in "Echoes of the Week," then in the Illustrated London News. Among his im- mortals not included in the above were Mr. Lewis Morris, Mr. Alfred Austin, and Sir Edwin Arnold. I believe it is considered very vulgar now to talk about the price of a book, and when one speaks of the value of any particular volume, the aesthetic value is meant—the value of the binding, the type, the paper, and the contents. Sordid commercialism must not enter into the sacred profession of letters. Booksellers no doubt will soon be giving away first editions and luxe editions for the pure love of pro- pagating these new ideas. One advantage of an academy would be that it could decide on such niceties of language. ♦— The interest which was aroused by the publica- tion of "Lux Mundi" has of course begun to subside, and Churchmen are turning their attention to the Lincoln and St. Paul's Reredos and reconci- liation cases. But its success has been phenomenal; no book of the kind has had such a sale since "Tracts for the Times," and "Essaysand Reviews." The controversy still continues in seme of the Church papers, and the " Luces Mundi " have been explaining doubtful points to remove any suspicion of heterodoxy that has attached to their remarkable essays. Someone has taken the trouble to collect all the grammatical solecisms in the late Cardinal Newman's works, and confided the result of his labours to one of the Scotch weeklies, and has refused to ac- cept the Cardinal as a stylist in consequence. Such attempts remind one of those theologians who, having added up all the animals in the Ark and worked out other mathematical problems from Genesis, reject Christianity because they cannot find a satisfactory answer. How many great authors could one not put to a similar test? and how many would come out unscathed? Thackeray, above all 'things a stylist, often made slips in grammar, but are we to reject him as well? When Sir John Everett Millais was asked by him to write something for the Cornhill and the painter ex- pressed doubts as to his grammatical proficiency, Thackeray replied, " D n the grammar!" No one that I know of has as yet criticised the fifty-copies-on-large-paper-system—of which twenty- five are sent to America, wherever that is, five are reserved for the author's friends, and the next ten are destroyed. We hear of the republic of letters, but this is surely the plutocracy of letters. There are a number of books that could only be printed or published by subscription, and it is but fair to the subscribers that only a limited number should be issued. Such are expensive catalogues, Art books, or works like Burton's "Arabian Nights"; but why should a work, already well printed and "got up," have a sort of extra special edition for the benefit of wealthy people who very often never read it? It only gives a book an artificial value, except in the cases I have mentioned. Very often it takes a very selfish form, and ordinary purchasers are deprived of a good deal of matter, to which they are fully entitled, because they are unable to pay two guineas, instead of "\s. 6d. On the propriety of publishing Sir Walter Scott's journal a good many people will differ. From the review in the Times it does not appear that it tends to shatter an idol, and only confirms the prevalent belief in the nobility and integrity of his character It will raise, however, the old questions of how much a public has a right to know of a writer's private life, and how much private life a public man is permitted to have. It depends, one would think, on the author himself. Mr. Browning, a few years before his death, destroyed boxes full of letters, so fearful was he of the biographers, while writers like St. Augustine, Rousseau, Maria Bashkirtseff, and Sir Austin Feverel, all gave their " bruised heart to the world." It is quite impossible to dogmatize on the subject. How far has the popularity of Scott waned? Some people get very angry at the bare idea of it. Mr. Swinburne, in one of his essays, says, " His pop- ularity may fluctuate now and then with olderreaders —so much the worse for them . . . but when it comes among English boys and girls, a dooms- day will be dawning of which as yet there are most assuredly no signs orpresages perceptible." Now it is reported that among boys his popularity has waned. Older readers who knew him in their youth, read  ## p. 173 (#213) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 173 him again and again, and like him better each time. Boys prefer the more flashy novels of the elder Dumas. Scott's position in literature is as firm as Shakespeare's, but as a novelist for boys par excel- lence he has been succeeded. In the same way Byron is no longer the poet of young men, or Moore of young ladies. Thackeray, with very natural dislike of affectation, killed Byron the man—the hero of society, and the same able critic quoted before has no doubt influenced popular feeling as to Byron's rank on Parnassus. By a curious irony of fate it is Mr. Swinburne himself, the poet of his early volumes, who has taken Byron's place. It is " Faustine, Fragolletta, Dolores," who occupy in youthful minds the place of the " Bride of Abydos," the " Maid of Athens," and "Donna Julia." Not very long ago there existed at Oxford and Cambridge a Dolores Society, and as a well-known man of letters once said, "Swinburne set us on fire at Oxford." To appreciate Byron we must talk to foreigners. They seem to regard him with unflagging admira- tion. Wherever he went he left the stamp of his wonderful personality, and cities which he has celebrated in "Childe Harold" (now irreverently called the "Rhyming Baedeker"), remember him with'gratitude. The Greek colony in London cele- brated his centenary with great pomp two or three years ago, and after a memorial service in the Orthodox Church in Moscow Road, and an address in modern Greek on the services Byron had rendered to their country, they marched to his image in Hyde Park and placed a wreath there. But the centenary was quite ignored by the English people. The two English names which are most familiar in Italy to-day are those of John Ruskin and Lord Byron. The guides will always tell you what "Rusconi" has said of a particular building, and the street Arabs point out the palace where Byron lived. The publication of "Major Barttelot's Diaries and Letters" has been speedily followed by Mr. Rose Troup's "With Stanley's Rear Column," and the Jameson Diaries are promised shortly. This literature of recrimination which has sprung up is not very edifying, the more so as it seems to be the only tangible outcome of the ill-considered Emin Relief Expedition. It would not be surpris- ing, after the criminal nature of the charge which Mr. Stanley has preferred against the] unfortunate commander of the rear column, to hear Mr. Stanley himself and the advance column accused in turn of subsisting on pigmy in the wilderness. The French genius for delineating character was never more highly displayed than in the "De Goncourt Journals," of which the third volume has just been published. Although it professes to be a memoir of the literary coteries of the period, it is really little more than a description of the nightly dinners at Brebants, and it is the figure of Renan which is the most vividly drawn. Half philosophic, half mystic, Renan certainly values himself hugely. "I should have made an indul- gent paternal charitable priest," he has said of himself. As a rule humility is also an advantage in an ecclesiastic. A writer in the current Quarterly errs when he describes him as a second Voltaire, who had a keen sense of humour, while Renan, if he is to be judged by his own words, apparently has none. "London City," by Mr. Loftie, bids fair to be the book of the month. It will be enriched with vivid illustrations of London city as it is to-day, engraved from original drawings by Mr. William Luker, and every possible care has been taken to make the book a model of artistic and skilled pro- duction. Mr. Loftie is to the nineteenth century what Stow was to the sixteenth—he is this and a great deal more besides. I believe the fashion of writing confessions in ladies' albums exists no longer, but if anyone was asked now who was their favourite writer, after the favourite novelist and favourite poet had been decided on, the favourite writer would be Mr. Andrew Lang. But Mr. Lang is a poet as well, and this month in collaboration with Mr.'Haggard, he has become a novelist too, "The World's Desire" having been just issued in one volume. His fairy book (red this time) gives a number of stories which will be new to a great many of us. There are two from the Russian. Has Mr. Lang reconsidered his strictures on the Russian novelists? He has written a preface to a translation of Langisms which has given occasion for the Scotch to make a bad joke. Homer sometimes nods, but Mr. Lang never seems even to wink. » Mr. George W. Smalley, the London correspon- dent of the New York Tribune, has collected his famous letters to that journal in two volumes, en- titled "London Letters and Others" (Macmillan). They are certainly the best things of their kind that have appeared, and were well worth republish- ing in book form. The stories or anecdotes are many and excellent.  ## p. 174 (#214) ############################################ 174 THE AUTHOR A new work is announced by Ralph Iron, the talented authoress of "The African Farm." And Messrs. Methuen have just published a second series of Mr. Baring Gould's fascinating " Historic Oddities." In his last volume Mr. Baring Gould certainly succeeded in raising history to the level of romance, which should be the first duty of a con- scientious historian. The new edition of Matthew Arnold's complete poems, lately issued by Messrs. Macmillan, as a companion to Lord Tennyson's, will be welcome to the increasing admirers of the poet. Those who prefer Arnold the poet, to Arnold the essayist, will regret his unfortunate excursions into theology. His keen critical ability no doubt hampered his poetical achievement—for thorough criticism, if rightly considered, is a creative faculty. The greatest poets are not, as a rule, great critics. Theirs is the magnificent endowment of bias and enthusiasm, and though their opinions are always interesting, the critical power is not infrequently developed at the expense of their poetic gifts. Matthew Arnold is one of those who are pointed to as an example of a man who excelled in many things at once—poetry, criticism, and theology. Censuring Bishop Colenso he said, "Let us have all the science there is from men of science; from the men of religion let us have religion." As a poet, and as some think as a critic, Mr. Arnold excelled, but what about his theology? From theologians let us have theology! Rossetti, on the other hand, is given in support of the other view, that a man cannot excel in two different arts. To say this is like saying that a person must not be able to talk two languages, or that if you are a good runner you must not be a good walker, or a good rider. But if the quantity of Rossetti's produc- tions is meant, the remark becomes a platitude. It is entirely a different thing when science and art get mixed up, as science and religion are sometimes. It is terribly old-fashioned to say so, but I believe literature and art are nearer to one another than we think; at any rate, they are not so distant as the brand-new critics tell us. A paper on the " Drift of Religious Thought in England" will shortly appear in the Forum—where a good many excellent papers have lately appeared. It is by the Rev. Prof. Momerie, author of " Church and Creed." Mr. Moinerie is one of the very few men in the Church of England to whom the posi- tive and negative aspects of truth (positive in the metaphysical foundation, and negative in his con- tempt for ecclesiasticism) have equal attractions. In his forthcoming article he will show how, in spite of its tendency to retrograde, the Church of England is being forced by circumstances towards Rationalism, the goal which all Churches must, in his opinion, reach or perish. Another novel of Egypt—or partly of Egypt— not an imitation of " She." It is by Clive Holland, whose name is becoming better known, and appears at the end of the year. I also note "Mademoiselle," by Frances Mary Peard, to be published immediately by Messrs. Walter Smith and Innes. The following is from a publisher. Of course we all agree with him in his claim that the purchase outright of a book releases the purchaser from any further payment unless he chooses. The other points are also in substantial accord with the views of the Society. "I am much obliged by your note. I am myself most anxious to offer fair terms to authors. "The one broad principle on which I prefer to take my stand, is that the author should share in the success of the book up to the sale of the last copy; and this can only be attained by the use of the royalty system in one form or another. The difficulty is when authors cannot afford to wait and demand a sum down. This at once increases the risk and forces the publisher to provide for emergencies at the cost of the author. The ideal method is to pay a sum down in advance of royalties, and to pay the royalties after that sum has been reached in the sales. "The recent developments of the quarrel between authors and publishers are evidently due to those new and more generous views on social and economic problems which are forcing their way to the front. Political economy is rapidly becoming less a cold science treating solely of the distribu- tion and nature of wealth, and more an inquiry into the means available for improving the condition of the producer, and for discovering an equitable method of distributing profits. Authors are pro- ducers, and though there may be something repug- nant to a sensitive mind in the publicity given to details of literary commerce, we must allow that literature, which has now to be reckoned with as one of the great wealth-producing limbs of com- merce, has every claim to be paid in accordance with recognised principles. "The proportion of divided profit is a delicate question. Where an author has a sure audience, he may claim two-thirds to the publisher's one-third.  ## p. 175 (#215) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 175 But when the publisher is working out an idea of his own with trouble and thought, he may justly claim a higher proportion. I think that the royalty paid to an author should be increased in case of a largely increased sale. "The half profit system is an abomination. If resorted to, the sums charged against the book should be those really paid. But of course the publisher may charge a preliminary fee for his trouble. "When a publisher issues a book at the expense of the author, he should charge a reasonable sum, but he has a right to say 'I will produce the book at such a sum; whether you can get the book produced more cheaply elsewhere is not to the point—my charge is so and so.' "When a publisher agrees to give a fixed price for the copyright of a book, the author's claim vanishes with the payment of that sum. The publisher pays for his bargain and has a right to any profits which may accrue. If I buy a plot of ground and find coal on it, the seller could hardly claim an additional share of the profits. Per- sonally, I would give the author a share of any such profits if they were large. But this is hardly a matter of honesty. At the same time such bargains should not degenerate into sweating. "These remarks are crude and written hastily, but I think they are in the main just. "I fear you will never be able to stop the depre- dations of those who infest the shady places of publishing. At the same time your Society has done a vast amount of good, and has, I should say, greatly increased the safety and profits of literary folk." —♦ It is pleasant to announce that Mr. Sprigge's "Methods of Publication " has already run through one edition, and that another is in preparation and will be out in a few days. Contrary to reasonable expectation, the greater part of the edition has been taken by the general public, and not by the members of the Society. Now the book is written especially for the benefit of the members, and could not have been written but for their support in maintaining the Society. It throws a flood of light upon the meaning of the various methods pursued in this chaotic business, and upon the frauds which are often perpetrated under cover of these methods by unscrupulous men. The book ought to be on the shelf of every literary man. Some, perhaps, will not trouble to "do the sums." They may take the general conclusions and note the warnings. With this book should go the "Cost of Production," published only for mem- bers. A new edition of this is in preparation. Messrs. Clowes and Son, of Fleet Street, have in the press, and will publish very shortly "The Law of the Press," by Mr. J. R. Fisher, of The Standard, and Mr. J. A. Strahan, LL.B., Regius Professor of Law, Queen's College, Belfast. The object of the authors has been to present in handy form a com- plete digest of all the laws affecting the Periodical Press, whether from the point of view of editors, contributors, or proprietors. There has of late been growing up a consider- able body of statute and case law of the utmost importance to the literary profession, but although we have excellent works on libel, copyright, and other branches of the subject, there is no book covering the whole ground, and written expressly with a view to the interests of the journalist. For purposes of comparison a chapter is added giving a full account of the Press Laws of France and Germany. * CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. THIS is a subject which has been much dis- cussed during the year by those interested in the Copyright question. Canada, it is well known, occupies a peculiar position with regard to copyright legislation. On the one hand, as one of our colonies, literary pro- perty receives there the same attention and protec- tion as in any other Imperial Colony. On the other hand, such legislation is very little use to author or publisher. A long and easily crossed frontier between Canada and America renders payment for and publication of copyrighted works a thankless task in Canada; the unshackled American can do the job so much cheaper. Canada has for many years designed to obtain leave from Imperial Parliament to regulate copy- right in the colony by domestic legislation, and the idea has met with varying and various support from ministers of all ways of thinking. The position is now as follows :— In 1889, the Government of Canada passed an Act (entitled 52 Vic, cap. 29) relating to the law of copyright in Canada, and this Act is now awaiting the Royal Assent—or was awaiting it in the spring of this year. But since that date the Ministers of the Ciown, whilst regretting the fact, have been unable to authorize the Governor-General of Canada to issue a Proclamation to bring the Act into force. The principal provisions of the Canadian Copy- right Act, 52 Vic, cap. 29, are briefly these :— i. Sec. 1 enacts that the conditions for obtaining copyright in a work in Canada, shall be that  ## p. 176 (#216) ############################################ 176 THE AUTHOR. the work shall, before publication or pro- duction elsewhere, or simultaneously with the first publication or production thereof elsewhere, be registered in the office of the Minister of Agriculture, by the author or his legal representatives, and further that such work shall be printed, published, or produced in Canada, or reprinted, repub- lished, or reproduced in Canada, within one month after publication or production elsewhere. ii. Sec. 3 (i) enables the Minister of Agriculture, in the event of the person entitled to copy- right failing to reprint or republish as pro- vided in Sec. 1, to grant licenses to persons domiciled in Canada to print and publish the work, for which copyright, but for such neglect or failure mi"ht have been obtained; but no such license shall convey exclusive rights to print and publish or produce any work. Sec. 3 (ii) provides that a license shall be granted to any applicant agreeing to pay the author or his legal representative a royalty of ten per cent, on the retail price of each copy or reproduction issued of the work; and he shall also give security for such payment to the satisfaction of the Minister. Sec. 4 enacts that the royalty shall be collected by the officers of the Department of Inland Revenue, and paid over to the persons en- titled thereto, but the Government shall not be liable to account for any such royalty not actually collected. Sec. 5 provides that if a license has been granted for the publication of any work, and evidence has been adduced to the satisfaction of the Governor in Council that such work is being printed and published or produced in such a manner as to meet the demand therefoi in Canada, the Governor-General may by proclamation prohibit the importation, while the author's copyright or that of his assignors is in force, of any copies or reproductions of the work to which such license relates. Sec. 6 enacts that no such prohibition as last mentioned shall apply to the importation of copies of such works from the United Kingdom. In June last the above-mentioned Act was brought under the notice of the Sub-Committee on Copyright, as was also an announcement in the press that Sir John Thompson, the Canadian Minister of Justice, was on his way from Canada to confer with the Colonial Office authorities relative to the Canadian Copyright Act. In consequence of this announcement, Sir Fredk. Pollock, the Chairman of the Sub-Com- mittee, communicated with the Colonial Office in July last, drawing attention to the fact that the Canadian Copyright Act was ultra vires, as being inconsistent with and repugnant to the Imperial Copyright Act of 1842. The receipt of Sir Fredk. Pollock's letter was duly acknowledged by the Colonial Office, and then for a time nothing more was heard of the matter. On the 17th September, a letter was written by the direction of Ixird Knutsford, from the Colonial Office to the Incorporated Society of Authors, but owing to a mistake of the Post Office autho- rities the letter was delivered to a wrong address, and was not received by the Society until some weeks afterwards. The purport of the letter was to the effect that Lord Knutsford had directed Sir John Thompson's report on the Canadian Copyright Act, together with other official documents, to be forwarded to the Society of Authors, and ended by saying that his Lordship would be glad to be favoured with any observations which the Society might desire to make upon the questions raised in the report and other documents. Sir J. Thompson's report really consists of a very powerful argument as to why either the Canadian Copyright Act should receive the Royal Assent; or, if the Crown cannot properly give its assent to the Bill on account of its being in conflict with the Imperial Act, that the Government should promote legislation in the Parliament of Great Britain to remove any doubt which may exist as to the power of the Parliament of Canada to deal with the question fully and effectually. The main points upon which this demand is based may be shortly summarized thus :— 1. The Imperial Government has, during the last 40 years, on several occasions promised to pass a Bill whereby the Canadian Parlia- ment might legislate upon the subject of copyright in Canada, although such legis- lation might be repugnant to or inconsistent with the copyright law of this country. This is proved by reference to various despatches from the Colonial Office to the Governor-General of Canada, which are set out at length in Sir J. Thompson's report. 2. The rights which British authors and pub- lishers have under the Imperial Copyright Act have been greatly abused by the sale of their copyright privileges to American publishers and by their refusal to sell to Canadian publishers on like terms. 3. The prices of American prints are so low  ## p. 177 (#217) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 177 that British publications have no chance of competing with them in Canada—the price of British publications exceeding by four to tenfold that for which reprints are purchased in America; the result being that the business of publishing British literature for the Canadian market is done almost exclusively in the United States. 4. The American publisher is free to reprint any British work and to supply it to the Canadian public, while the Canadian pub- lisher is restrained from publishing such work on any terms, except with the per- mission of the copyright holder in Great Britain. 5. On account of the facts mentioned in para- graph 4, publishing establishments have been transferred from Canada to the United States. 6. The peculiar position in which Canada is placed on account of her proximity to the United States, and the copyright policy of the United States demand peculiar treat- ment in legislation. 7. The royalty provision of the Act is reason- able, and affords ample facilities for collec- tion. 8. The royalty system was recommended by the Royal Commission on Copyright in their report of 1876. Sir J. Thompson also adds that any suggestions as to details which the Colonial Office may think proper to make, will receive the earnest and re- spectful attention of the Governor-General. On October the 23rd a meeting was held at the Society's offices, to discuss the answer which the Society should return to Lord Knutsford's flatter- ing letter. The purport of Sir J. Thompson's report having been explained, the following reply was sent to the Colonial Office :— "In answer to the letter from Mr. Robert Herbert of the 17th September, 1890, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that a meeting of the General Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors, including the Sub-Committee on Copyright, has been held to consider the questions raised by Sir J. Thompson in his report to your Lordship of July 14th, 1890. I am directed by the Committee to inform your Lordship as follows:— 1. "They can express no opinion on the question of the general policy which Her Majesty's Government may think fit to adopt towards Canada with regard to the question of copyright. 2 "They hope, however, that if Her Majesty's Government think fit to undertake legisla- tion in order to give effect to the principles of the Canadian Copyright Act, such legis- lation will embody due precautions for making "the collections of royalty charges really efficient. 3. "They submit that the clauses relating to the collection of royalty charges as drafted in the Canadian Copyright Act, 52 Vic, cap. 29, are not sufficient for the proper collec- tion thereof; and 4. "It appears to the Committee doubtful whether the Canadian Copyright Act, 52 Vic, cap. 29, does not purport to abolish copyright altogether, unless the person entitled thereto reprints or republishes in Canada within one month after printing or publishing elsewhere. At best, the language of the Act is ambiguous on this point." It must be remembered, though I hope I may be pardoned for pointing out anything so obvious, that these views of the copyright question in Canada have been forced upon us by the enterprise of America. It is hard on the English author to lose his problematical rights in the colony, but the blow is tempered by the remembrance that America has taken due care that he should lose his real rights. W. Oliver Hodges. Hon. Sec. Copyright Committee. * FIN DE SIECLE. THERE is much talk about the fin de stick or decadent writers at the present moment. Most of it, however, springs from an entire misconception of the true application of the phrase when literature is in question. As applied to social manners or morals, it is the merest affectation to use the term to describe anything but what has become at least jejune, if not absolutely decayed. When applied to literature, on the other hand, the phrase does not necessarily bear any such interpre- tation. Quite the contrary. An author may be described at once as the typical decadent and the greatest living writer with perfect propriety. It may not be out of place at the same time to remind some persons that the decadent spirit is not absolutely dissociated from the vilest writing. The school, however, is honourably d stinguished by great technical excellence. It may fairly be asked then, "What is a decadent}" A complete definition is at all times difficult to obtain, and we do not pretend to offer anything of the kind; but a writer is rightly described as a decadent when his  ## p. 178 (#218) ############################################ 178 THE AUTHOR. work reflects decay, or even triviality, in any shape. The true decadent never really cares to handle any subject when those elements are wholly absent; he is always a literary voluptuary and generally dabbles in psychology. M. Jules Lemaitre, speaking of the decadence literature, goes so far as to say that it should perhaps be regarded rather as the dawn of a new era than the decay of an old. If this be so the term "Neo- Romantic" even might not be considered as a misnomer as applied to the school. Again, M. Jules Lemaitre in reviewing a piece by M. Catulle Mendes, hails its author as "the true decadent, the decadent of the classical period, the Grasco-Latin decadent full of knowledge and dexterity." M. Catulle Mendes, he says, is like Callimachus, Claudius, Ausonius, and then further on, "M. Catulle Mendes loves literature with the ardour of a voluptuary who is never glutted . . and this debauchee is an artist with the most tender conscience, whose style is immaculate. I am sure that he would rather lose his head than write an ill-turned sentence." And finally in regard to his subjects, "I am obliged to recognise that he has written much on the details of psychology less with the avowed object of satisfying his own sensuality and exciting that of his readers. He has offended in the same way as did his I>atin name- sake, Ovid, Martial, and nearly all the poets of the Renaissance, in the same way as Montesquieu, Crebillon fils, Voltaire, Gentil-Bernard, Parny, &c." In fact, we may say that the decadent may be generally recognized by his unsavoury subject and his superb style. Many excellent persons, believing themselves to be lovers of literature,condemn decadent literature on this ground alone, and hold the hetero- dox view that no literature can be truly great which is not also truly good. There is a wide margin of taste in letters as in other things; but those persons who really hold this veiw do not care about literature at all—what they like is a popular treatise on moral philosophy written on the anecdotal method. With the exception of Mr. Pater and Mr. Symonds, we have no decadents, though Mr. Henry James is spoken of as a novelist fin de siecle, and there is one story about which there has been a great controversy lately; it is the only work of fiction a Frenchman would recognise as the work of a true decadent. But the spirit is here, and in Mr. Pater's postscript to his delightful Renaissance will be found a system of ethics that has a large following in England. Mr. Pater, it may be said, is among the greatest of our stylists. A writer to the St. James's Gazette once spoke of an infatuation for a certain painter, and fin de siecle is an "infatuation" for all forms of art and all things with form. But we have as yet no one to correspond to Pierre- Zoti, Huissmans and Paul Verlain. LITERATURE AS A TRADE. {Reprinted from the Sr. James's Gazette by permission of the author.) THE day is long past when the Muses lived in retired and modest seclusion, in a place that smelt "sweet as the vestry of the oracles." Those ladies came up to town many years ago, and are well known to have cultivated business habits. They are no more afraid of its being understood that they work for money than a reduced viscountess blushes to have it said that she sells bonnets under a pseudonym. But the importance which they attach to the commercial aspect of their duties, and their extreme anxiety to take care of the pence, have never been insisted upon as they have quite lately. Literature, which was still looked upon in 1889 as a sort of pro- fession, is treated in 1890 as a mere trade; and it seems worth while to note this curious change of sentiment, and to gauge the effect which it will produce. The signs of the new position are too numerous to be overlooked. Mr. John Morley and Mr. Walter Besant wrangle about the number of literary persons in Britain who earn a thousand a year—that very princely sum. A congress of unfortunate foreigners of dubious distinction, in- vited by nobody knows whom, meet in the golden recesses of the Mansion House, and talk in French for a week, about the way in which more francs may be secured in this way, and that way, and the other. And, finally, the columns of the Times reverberate for many successive days with angry voices discussing whether or no the chromo-litho- graphy of a certain " Palestinian" divine (as they say in America) is properly paid with eight, or eight thousand, or eight hundred thousand guineas. That literary work, like all other work, should be honestly and sufficiently rewarded, is so obvious that it seems hardly necessary to go on repeating it. What appears to a mere child of nature ex- traordinary is that so great a wrangle and a chatter should be made about the returns of this one particular kind of employment. It cannot be on account of the huge sums involved. A maker of agricultural machinery or of ordnance, the pro- prietor of a large mill or of a successful patent medicine, would scoff at the figures which are bandied to and fro in the existing discussion. If money-making is the first object, and if it needs transcendent gifts to make ,£8,000 in twenty years, those gifts might surely with advantage be diverted to the selling of dairy produce. In spite of all that is said about its profits, literature remains, and is likely to remain, the only profession in which the  ## p. 179 (#219) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 179 most genuinely successful man cannot make a comfortable living. Not all the optimism of Mr. Walter Besant is likely to rob it of this unique distinction. Why, then, are the modest emolu- ments of such a poor trade the object of keen public curiosity? This is a conundrum to which I cannot even suggest an answer. It may be asked whether I think there are no abuses in the publishing trade, and whether 1 ignore or depreciate the service of the Society of Authors. Neither the one nor the other. I am afraid that there have been, and perhaps even still are, irregularities and injustices which require to be remedied. I have been admitted to the debates of the Society of Authors, and have been proud to think that I was allowed to share in work so obviously useful. But I fancy that there are dangers even in the necessary process of reform; and I dread that the personal interests of authors may be given a prominence which will be injurious to the development of literature. The present extravagant curiosity about "royalties " and "intel- lectual property" and the like, goes far beyond the circle of those who are disinterested trying to remove certain trading anomalies. It begins to supersede all other curiosity about literature. This species of talk pervades what is styled "literary gossip." Do you know that Orpheus has published a new volume of his "Argonautics "? Ah 1 that magnificent passage about the Sirens and the sunset! And are you aware that he insisted on being paid five pounds a line for it? You have seen, of course, the new Nemaean ode that Pindar has written in honour of young Adrastus, who won the glove fight at the Cormorant Club? Oh ! such a splendid stanza about the sunlight flashing oft* his left elbow; and they say that the father—the great soap boiler, you know—is so pleased that he has sent Pindar a cheque for a thousand pounds! Pindar, very properly, would not cash it till the old fellow had altered it to guineas. I venture to ask whether all the columns of correspondence in last week's Times amounted to much more than this? Why such curiosity about literary prices is un- wholesome is, that it tends to make money the standard in a species of labour where the rewards are in no degree analogous to the deserts. It directly encourages the measurement of intellectual prestige by the amount which an intellectual pro- duct fetches in the market. It leads at once to deadly errors of taste. If gaudy " Lives of Christ" are valued at ,£4,000 apiece, what is the price of divinity by a Lightfoot or a Westcott? Four millions might perhaps be taken as an average answer, if this is to be a simple sum in the rule of three. But the retailer of gossip pursues his in- vol. 1 quiries, and discovers that theology, as it was and is understood at Durham, is practically not rewarded at this rate. The concentration of his attention on price immediately thereupon produces its effect on his taste. The direct result is that he makes up his mind to regard the famous Bishops as persons of very much smaller literary importance than he had vaguely believed them to be. They are weighed in the golden balances and found wanting. They are looked upon as two small hosiers might be measured by the magnitude of Mr. Whiteley. How far we have diverged, in these last days, from the ambition of Keats, who desired to live like those primitive Sicilian bards, who died content on pleasant sward, Leaving great verse unto a little clan? O, give me their old vigour, and unheard Save of the quiet primrose, and the span Of Heaven and few ears .... .... my song should die away Content as theirs, Rich in the simple worship of a day. That is the last thing that our modern authors are expected to be content with. Yet sooner or later, unless literature is doomed to pass into a mechanism and disappear, the spirit that actuated the noble and poor masters of our language must be revived. It may safely be said that no great work in prose or verse was ever yet composed primarily for the purpose of making as much money as possible. The very spontaneity of the art would disappear in so gross a fume. Nor will those men and women who are led by the current gossip to "take up" literature as a trade, and to write novels, theology, or criticism, for the sake of competing successfully with the best-paid favourites of the hasty public, add anything at all to the riches of our language. The tendency of the moment is to reverse the natural order of things. The principle nowadays is not to write because we must, and then, if necessary, to sell the product, but to write for money mainly, and to get praise and pleasure, if possible, into the bargain. There should be a little modesty, one feels, in this pursuit of the guineas. It looks as though authors were such a hungry set that the mere jingle of gold intoxicated them. A measure of dignity must surely be aimed at, even by novelists, or we shall refuse to be interested in plots that are sold across the counter like cheese, or love-passages that are plainly ticketed as "very cheap at 31. i\d." No one wants to return to the old hypocrisy about "obliging the town " or " publishing at the earnest request of friends." There need be no mock modesty about the processes of literary business. Manuscripts must be sold, agreements entered into, 0  ## p. 180 (#220) ############################################ i8o THE AUTHOR. and a proper care taken that the author does not let himself be defrauded. But these functions should be performed in private, not flaunted before the public. I no more desire to know what my neighbour the poet makes by his verses than I crave to see the account books of my other neighbour the lawyer. I am anxious that each of them should make the best of both worlds—the world of praise and the world of profit; but I am not listening at either wall to hear the clink of the money-bags. It is time that literary people should be requested to show the same decent reserve about their money matters which is shown by doctors and stockbrokers, and shopkeepers. Edmund Gosse. * THE FARRAR-CASSELL CASE. (From the New York Tribune by permission of the author.) London, October 13M. The Farrar-Cassell correspondence has taken, as such correspondence is apt to, a wide range. The personal issue between the particular author and par- ticular publisher gave place, after awhile, to a general discussion of the relations that exist and of the other relations that ought to exist between these two in- teresting classes of the community. Various sorts of people have taken a hand in it, and their contribu- tions fillaltogetherrathermore than twelve columns of The Times. They would make a respectable volume; very amusing and instructive, too. If any American publisher likes to act on this hint he may do so without fear of copyright, or royalty, or any demand for payment from any author whomsoever; least of all from the author of the hint. But he should, I think, have the courage to reprint all, and not a part merely. Some of the letters, for example, may not seem to him, or to anybody, intrinsically valuable, but they are all so connected as to make one whole. It might not be easy to say what the impression of the whole is on the general public. The Times itself is not a safe guide in such matters. In any controversy where the interests of trade are con- cerned, this very commercial journal is prone to take the trade side. It does so in this case. There is a plausible case, though not a real case, for Messrs. Cassell, and the great organ of the great nation of shopkeepers makes the most of it. Messrs. Cassell gave Archdeacon Farrar some thousands of dollars more than they were bound to give him; therefore they were generous to him; therefore he ought not to complain. Such is, in substance, the view of this journal; a view which ignores nearly everything that has been said from the other point of view, and takes no account of the fact that it was Messrs. Cassell, not the Arch- deacon, who published the figures on one side only of the transaction, and on the strength of this one-sided statement appealed to the public to say whether they had not behaved equitably. The challenge to set forth the facts on the other side remains unanswered. We know what Messrs. Cassell paid Archdeacon Farrar for the "Life of Christ"; some $10,000 in all. We do not know, and they stubbornly refuse to tell, what their own profits were, and their silence leaves us nothing better than the conjecture of my last letter to go upon. They are supposed to have made at least a quarter of a million. Is it, then, an equitable transaction by which the author of a book makes $10,000, and the publisher $250,000? Some of the letters printed during the last week are written by publishers; not the least interesting, by any means. It is well when the publisher unbosoms himself, and states his claim nakedly. One of them thinks the notion that the division of profits in this case may have been inequitable an "impudent" notion. "The creation of the property was in a very large measure due to the publishers, and the author was paid all he asked, and, presumably, all he wanted." Mr. Andrew W. Tuer, whose view is less extreme than those of most of his colleagues, says: "If an author is to share profits with the publisher he must in equity be made a partner in the business, and then he shares losses also." This is one of those arguments which proves too much. Every author who is paid by a royalty is, in the sense Mr. Tuer means, a sharer in profits. He is paid in proportion to the sale of the book. But he does not share losses on other books. The partner- ship between him and the publisher, so far as it exists at all, is confined to the particular book of which he is the author. If Messrs. Cassell had agreed to pay Canon Farrar a fair royalty on every copy sold, his share of the profits might still have been much less than theirs, but it would have been a share of the profits. Among the most cynical of these correspondents are a firm who sign themselves contentedly "West End Publishers." "It is believed," say these gentlemen, "that the 'Life of Christ' was judiciously advertised, and the work being made well known by that means in our opinion, made Archdeacon Farrar as an author." And they ask—the question is a favourite one with the letter-writing pub- lisher: "Would the reverend gentleman have re  ## p. 181 (#221) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 181 couped Messrs. Cassell for their large outlay if the work had been a failure?" Probably not, but whether he would or not the question frequently and triumphantly as it is put, has absolutely nothing to do with the point under discussion. The point is not whether Messrs. Cassell paid all they agreed to, and more besides. It is admitted they did, They point is simply whether upon a voluntary statement by Messrs. Cassell of what they paid Archdeacon Farrar, and a continuing concealment of what they themselves made, they are in a position to ask the public to say that the adjustment and distribution of the profits derived from the " Life of Christ" was or was not equitable. A publisher asks a similar question: "If I paid an author 820,000 and lost 810,000 by the book, would he repay me the difference? If not, why should I share profits with him if I make 850,000?" Such is the question, stripped of circumlo- cutions, and put, I hope, not less pointedly and not less strongly for the publisher than he puts it. Leaving the dispute between Messrs. Cassell and Farrar on one side, the question is one which a publisher is entitled to ask, though I do not imagine he will be satisfied with the answer. For the true answer can only be given by referring once more to the relations that have in times past existed, and to some extent do still exist, between the publisher and the author. It is, in fact, a question of circumstances. I can imagine a case in which I should answer yes to the first part of the question, and say the author ought to make good the publisher's loss. But such cases would be infrequent, for this reason. Nineteen times out of twenty the publisher is a man of business, and the author is not. A con- tract is entered into between two parties, one of whom knows all about the business side of it and the other knows nothing. The publisher draws the contract, fills it full of technical clauses designed to protect his own interest, each one of them or many of them covering a "custom of the trade" of which no warning is given the author. The publisher not only draws the con- tract for his own advantage, but interprets it by a code known to himself only. Nineteen times out of twenty such a contract, in which every right is safeguarded on one side and none on the other, is put before an author to take or to leave. It is perhaps the only transaction among all the millions of commercial transactions in which one party has everything to say, and the other nothing. If the author refuses to sign and goes elsewhere, he may or may not get better terms, but he will be in precisely the same position with reference to the one publisher as to the other. He must, as a rule, VOL. I. publish upon the terms of the trade or not at all Is it then probable that the publisher will have an equitable claim on the author outside of and beyond the terms of the contract which the publisher himself has framed in his own interest? Is it not, on the other hand, extremely probable that the author may have an equitable claim against the publisher? That is one answer. There are others, but this is not a treatise on the general question, and I pass on. It will be time enough to produce the other answers when a sufficient reply has been offered to this first. I add only on this point that I make no accusation. I state what I believe to be facts. I assume that the publisher acts after his kind, and up to the standard of his pro- fession. "Business men," writes another of these numerous correspondents, rather forcibly, "are largely colour-blind when any higher standard than that of their particular trade is concerned. Every- thing shady in their respective callings has its ready defence." I will, however, instead of going on to another branch of the subject, as I meant to, and adding other testimony from other publishers, turn to a letter which illustrates what I have just been saying-—a letter which I have read since I wrote the foregoing. The letter appeared in The Times of Monday, over or under, the curious signature "Ellbee and Eebee"; which perhaps might at a guess be read L. B. and E. B. Some seven years ago, say these writers, they issued as joint authors a book on terms which are known as "Agreement for publishing on commission." They do not name the publishers. They conveyed to them the right to act as publishers and wholesale vendors for Great Britain, the rest of Europe, and the United States. The authors were to bear all cost and risk; the publishers receiving a commission of 15 per cent, on net sales, and taking the risk of bad debts. They add: "This 15 per cent, was subject to the trade reduction of one-third from the pub- lished price (thirteen copies being considered as twelve), with an additional embargo on special sales, the number of which we had no power to check or control, at a reduced price. But we were still further charged the full retail, or, at any rate, the estimated price on all outlays, of printing, binding, advertisements, &c.—items on which it is not unreasonable to suppose the publishers received discount from the firms they employed." This book thus published ran into six editions at $3 75 a copy. A popular edition was then issued at $1 25, for which the type was not reset, but two pages condensed into one by taking out the leads and omitting photographs. Eight editions were thus disposed of. It was a successful book. o 2  ## p. 182 (#222) ############################################ l82 THE AUTHOR. How much do you suppose the share of the authors came to? They shall say. "We were debited with a considerable sum, almost double the amount of the original deposit, and so sick were we of the whole transaction that we were glad to compromise it by surrendering all our rights—save the mark! The book is now in its twelfth edition—it may be even in a still more advanced issue." Will some publisher who is fond of letter-writing tell us how much he supposes the publishers made out of this transaction? No comment on it or explanation of it has yet appeared, and I venture to predict that none will. Yet the publishers' story would be extremely interesting. Any paper would print it with alacrity. Or, if the firm with whom these unlucky authors dealt do not care for publicity, another publisher's view of the case would be welcome. G. W. S. "AMERICAN AUTHORS AND BRITISH PIRATES." ATU QUOQUE retort is, in popular minds, considered as an excellent and most effective argument. And in fact it has its advantages, because, if it is true, it convicts the accuser of hypocrisy. With what face, for instance, can we charge the Americans with wholesale literary piracy, when they can round upon us with the statement that we are doing just exactly the same thing ourselves? Everybody knows that we do practise literary piracy. But we have hitherto been under the comfortable delusion that it was only on a small scale, and in the case of small and unknown authors. Mr. Brander Mathews, in a pamphlet issued by the American Copyright League, for the first time enables us to realize the extent of the injury and loss inflicted upon American authors by British pirates. As the pamphlet will not probably be published here it will be well for us, before we bring our own charges of piracy, to illustrate the American case by the actual cases and figures ascertained by Mr. Brander Mathews. In Novem- ber, 1874, Longfellow wrote to a lady in England, whose works had been republished in America without permission or compensation, " I have had twenty-two publishers in England and Scotland, and only four of them ever took the slightest notice of my existence, even so far as to send me a copy of the books." Hawthorne has long been among the most popular novelists of the time. It would be diffi- cult, now, to number all the British editions of Hawthorne. Emerson, Lowell, and Holmes are also among the popular writers of the time. How have they been treated? As everybody knows, there are a great many collection of books called "Series" in libraries. Mr. Brander Mathews examines some of these with the following results :— (1) Series A. (*) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) \8} 9 10) 11) 12) B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J- K. L. No. of books in the No. of American collection. books. 91 ... 36 19 ... 17 .. not given ... 4 38 ... 30 .. not given ... 7 20 ... 17 27 ... 7 .. 400 ... 30 100 ... 20 79 ... 60 80 ... 65 52 ... all This is instructive. It is clear, to begin with, that we must give up using the word pirate in con- nection with either New York or London publishers. Henceforth we shall speak of books thus issued as published-by-permission-of-the-law. Let us descend to special cases. The following are some of the little stories told by Mr. Brander Mathews concerning these publishers-by-permission- of-the-law. First, they alter titles. Mr. Bret Harte's name is affixed to a work called "Tid Bits "; Mr. John Habberton is made to call a book of his "Rich Sells and Horrid Hoaxes"; Mr. J. G. Saxe writes "Fie, Fie, you Flirt"; and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is made to produce a book called "Yankee Ticklers"! Mr. Noah Brooks's " Boy Emigrants" was pro- duced in England by the "Religious Publishing Society," which gave the author a trifling sum for a preface and nothing for the book. Here we are a little in doubt. There is no " Religious Publishing Society " so called, though there are three or four religious societies which publish books. Which Society was it? Not the S.P.C.K. They would not give the author a trifling sum for the preface and nothing for the book. They would have given him the trifling sum for the preface and the book. They are nothing at all if they are not just and generous. Of Mr. O B. Bunce's ingenious little manual of manners "Don't," three editions were issued in  ## p. 183 (#223) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 183 England. One of the publishers sent the author a five pound note. "Helen's Babies " was reprinted by nine houses here—the author received something from three of them. Dr. Holland thought to protect his "Arthur Bonnicastle," by causing the number of Scribner's Monthly which contained the last part, to appear first in London. It was reprinted, however, with the last part altered and garb'ed. On mutilation, indeed, which is even worse than piracy, Mr. Brander Mathews has a great deal to say. Professor William Mathews, for instance, has written two popular and successful works. Both of these have been republished in this country, cut to pieces and garbled. Mrs. Champney's tale, "The Bubbling Teapot," is actually printed here with the word "England" substituted for "America" all through. Finally, to make an end, Mr. Brander Mathews states that his own book, "Common Sense about Women," published in 1881 at Boston, was re- printed here with a whole third part bodily cut out! Now Mr. Brander Mathews frankly and readily admits that the wrongs of English authors in America are and have been very great. But it is clear that Americans have also suffered much. He acknowledges that far greater protection is afforded by English than by American law. But before our hands are quite clean, before we can raise the cry of pirate with clear conscience, we must purge ourselves of our own piracy. "What we desire," says Mr. Mathews, "from Great Britain, is the enactment of a law which will give full copy- right to every American book exactly as if its author were a British subject." Exactly. This is what we must do as soon as we can. Not retalia- tion in wrong-doing—but an example in right— is most likely to bring about the understanding we all desire. * THE GERMAN ASSOCIATION OF AUTHORS. MEETING AT BRESLAU, AUGUST, 1890. Saturday, 16th August. 3 p.m. Meeting of the General Management at Gebauer's Hotel, 13, Tauenzienplatz. 8 p.m. Reception of the Members and Guests by the Management of the Second District Society, and by the representatives of the public authorities at the Breslau Concert House, 16, Gartenstrasse. To conclude with an entertainment, at 10.30, provided by the "Breslauer Dichterschule" Club. Sunday, \-]th August. 8 a.m. Visit to the Breslau Town Hall, con- ducted by Mr. Maximilian Schlesinger. 9.30 a.m. Meeting of the Association in the small saloon of the Concert House. Programme for the Day. 1. Financial Report of the Executive Com- mittee. 2. Report of the Treasurer and Statement for the coming year. 3. Report of the Auditors. 4. Election of two Auditors for the year 1890. 5. Resignation and fresh election of three members of the General Management. 6. Fresh election of the Syndicate's Committee of Experts. 7. Motion of Dr. Robert Keil:— "That the General Meeting be pleased to resolve: taking into consideration that the regula- tion of Copyright in the German Empire is always becoming more necessary; taking into considera- tion also, that the petition sent to the Chancellor a year and a half ago, in accordance with the Munich resolution, has up to the present not proved success- ful; taking into consideration further, that the resolution arrived at on the 4th May of this year upon the proposal of Mr. Robert Voigtlander has chiefly in view the interest of the book trade, and does not satisfy the well-grounded wish of the German Association of Authors, as the authoritative representative of German literati, to be included in the Committee in question; taking into considera- tion finally, that the German Association of Authors, according to paragraph 1 of their Statutes, has as its object the protection and furtherance of the interests of the profession of its members :— "(a) That a Committee consisting of six mem- bers be elected from the German Association of Authors, who, with the assistance of the Syndic of the Association, as a qualified voting member, shall prepare a draft of German copyright. "(b) That the Committee be allowed to add to their number, by their own selection, from among the members of the German Associa- tion of Authors, (c) That the travelling expenses and other disbursements of the members of the Com- mittee be paid out of the funds of the Association.  ## p. 184 (#224) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. "(d) That the draft when prepared be published by the Committee in the Deutsche Presse, nnd be submitted for discussion. •' (e) That the same be submitted to the General Meeting of the Association in the year 1891, for possible alterations and final approval. "(/) That, after such approval, it be forwarded by the Committee of Management to the Office of the Imperial Chancellor, with the request that, upon the codification of the German Copyright, the said draft may be favourably considered." 8. Report of the Committee on the formation of a Provident Fund for the Aged. 9. Report by Dr. Moritz Brasch as to a general lottery in aid of the German Association of Authors' Provident Fund for the Aged. 10. Proposal by Dr. Bienemann and Dr. Hans Blum. "That the General Meeting be pleased to resolve further:— "I. That a Committee of five members be elected to examine the Statutes of the Association, in order to thoroughly and minutely investigate the following provisions— "(a) The acquisition and loss of membership. "(b) The privileges and duties of the Manage- ment and its members, of the Executive Committee, and of the General Meeting. "(c) The privileges and duties of the District Societies and their respective Committees. "(d) The sphere of activity and the duties of the Literary Bureau and that for controlling pirated editions; as also of the Syndicate, and of the Court of Arbitration. "II. That the Chairman of this examining and editing Committee be not a member of the Executive Committee. In other respects, the Committee to be free to elect its Chairman from among its members, by means of voting papers, by an absolute majority of votes, which may also be effected by letter. The preparation and conduct of the election to be entrusted to the oldest member or to the one whose name stands first in alphabetical order at the General Meeting, or soon after the close of the same. "That the elected Chairman appoint the time and place of the deliberations of the Committee. The members of the Committee not residing at the locality where the meeting is held, to receive their travelling and daily expenses out of the general funds of the Association, in the proportion mentioned at paragraph 21 of the Statutes. "III. That the proposals for changes accepted by this Committee, as well as the views of the minority, should the proposers consider them of sufficient importance, be published by the Chair- man in the organ of the Association, and be soon afterwards laid for acceptance before an Extra- ordinary General Meeting, or, in the case of a protracted termination of the business of the Committee, before the next Ordinary General Meeting." Breakfast and dinner, a la carte, served in the Concert House during the pause in the proceed- ings. 6 p.m.—Festival of the Town of Breslau, at Liebichshohe. Monday, i&t/i August. 9 a.m.—Meeting of the Association. Programme for the Day. 1. Notice of the allotment of offices among the members of the General Management for the ensuing year. 2. Reports of the District Societies as to their activity during the past year. 3. Proposal of Dr. Robert Keil. "That paragraph 7 of the Statutes, so far as it refers to No. 3, be supplemented as follows: in the case at 3 on decision of the District Management. Against this decision, 'which is only to be taken after hearing the accused, and, in order to be valid, requires a majority of two-thirds of the voters and to be com- municated to the General Management with a statement of the reasons, the accused is at liberty within seven days to deposit in writing with the District Management an appeal to the General Management, which is bound to allow the accused, who may be represented by counsel, a verbal or written defence. The Chairman of the District Management is excluded from participation in this decision of second existence. It is necessary that there should be a majority of two-thirds of the voters to confirm the decision of the District Management. Only after the lapse of the period allowed for appeal, and in case of appeal, only after issue of the confirmation to the District Management and to the accused, can the latter be ejected. No appeal to the law against the decisions of the Association can be entertained. Should a member of a District Society have offended against paragraph 7, 3, tlie matter is to be transferred from the Chairman of the General Management to the Chairman of another District Society for treatment and dec.'fioi in the first instance"  ## p. 185 (#225) ############################################ THE AUTHOR, '85 4. Proposal of the Eighth District Society, repre- sented by Dr. K. von Thaler :— "(a) That the following resolution be added to paragraph 5 of the Statutes of the Association, 'The third part of the contributions of members to be retained for the District Societies.' "(b) That paragraph 21 of the Statutes be altered as follows: 'The members of the Executive Committee, as also the remainder of the members of the General Manage- ment, perform their functions in a honorary capacity and gratuitously; nevertheless those members of the Executive Committee who take part in the General Yearly Meetings, are indemnified for their travel- ling expenses, at second class railway fare, along with a daily allowance of fifteen marks.'" 5. Proposals of the Second District Society, represented by Mr. Maximilian Schlesinger:— "(a) That to paragraph 33, section 1, of the Statutes the following resolution be added: 'The Aid Fund out of its resources renders assistance towards the support of members, who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in straightened circumstances; and especially to those who, in consequence of illness or bodily infirmities, have become unfitted for their avocations.' "(b) That the highest amount be fixed which the District Societies may go in rendering aid independently. (Paragraph 34, 3)." 6. That the apportionment be fixed which is to be granted (under paragraph 29, 3) to the District Societies out of the proceeds from theatrical per- formances, concerts, lectures, &c, given on behalf of the Association. 7. Proposals of the First District Society as regards the organ of the Association, the Deutsche Presse, represented by Dr. A. von Hanstein. "(a) That the organ of the Association, the Deutsche Presse, introduce for the future amongst its articles only those which have relation to the social and ethical circum- stances connected with German literature and the German literary world; all other belle lettristic matter, such as novels, &c, to be excluded. The newspaper to be viewed as an organ for the furtherance of the interests of the Association, as an official medium of correspondence for the authorities of the Association, and as a journal devoted specially to the social and ethical efforts at reform espoused by the German Associa- tion of Authors. "(b) That the Association undertake the publi- cation and sale of the organ of the Associa- tion. "(c) That the organ of the Association, the Deutsche Presse, be forwarded gratuitously and free of postage to the members, in con- sideration of an adequate increase in the amount of the yearly subscription. Amendment by Dr. J. Riilf:—" That the organ of the Association be delivered free of charge to each member by augmenting the amount of the quarterly subscription by the addi- tional sum of 50 pfennigs." 8. Proposals by Mr. Ernst Lunge. "A. I. That the German Association of Authors may resolve to appoint an Enquete (Commission of Enquiry) upon the business relations of German journalism, especially as to the "(a) Conditions of engagement and of salary of editors. "lb) Mode of payment, and tariff for assistants. "(c) Business usages in the treatment of for- warded manuscripts. "II. That the results of the said Enquete be brought under the notice of the members in a suitable form. "III. That proper steps be taken to arrange for a uniform system in business relations as regards assistants and editors, or at least to insure this mode of treatment with members of the German Association of Authors. "IV. That the Executive Committee or a Special Commission be instructed to see that the resolutions of the Enquete be carried out. "B. I. That the German Association of Authors resolve to establish a central station for the distri- bution of (actual) news, specially for reports on festivities, noteworthy events, &c, which news would be afterwards spread by correspondence. "II. That the German Association of Authors take into consideration the erection of a telegraphic central station according to the pattern of the American 'Press Association.'" 9. Proposals as to the time and place of the next General Meeting. 5 p.m.—Social Dinner in the Saloon of the Wine Tavern of Chr. Hansen, 16, 18, Schweidnitzer- strasse. 7.30 p.m.—Gala performance in the Lobetheatre (Silesian historical comedy, for this evening.) After the performance a convivial meeting at the Lowenbrau, 36, Schweidnitzerstrasse. Tuesday, 19th August. Excursion to Fiirstenstein.—Departure at 8 a.m. from the Freiburger Railway Station (Berlinerplatz)  ## p. 186 (#226) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. by special train to Sorgau. From thence at 9.45 a.m. by carriage drive to Fiirstenstein. Ramble through the grounds of Fiirstenstein to the old Castle. At 11 a.m. a social breakfast in the Castle ruins. At 2 p.m. carriage drive to the Baths of Salzbounn. Social dinner in the Kursaal. Coffee in the gardens. At 8.30 p.m. return to Sorgau and arrival at Breslau at 11 p.m. For those members who desire to visit the Riesengeberge, the County of Glatz, Adersbach, Weckelsdorf, and other parts of the Sudeten, it may be mentioned that the junction with the Gebirgsbahn at Sorgau must be made at 8.30 a.m. Those who participate in the meetings will each have to pay three marks in order to defray expenses. The charge for the Gala Dinner on Monday, 18th August, will be four marks each person. Those who join in the excursion to Fiirstenstein must pay eight marks, which includes railway fares and cost of carriage drives, breakfast, and dinner. It is requested that all communications be addressed to Mr. F. G. A. Weiss, Chairman of the Breslau District Society, 6, Kleine Fiirstenstrasse, before the 12th August. The Reception Bureau will after the 15th August be at Gebauer's Hotel, 13, Tauenzienplatz, where members of the Associa- tion may obtain rooms at reduced prices. In fact, lodgings are amply provided for by the Reception Committee. Considering the exceptional importance of the matters to be discussed, we earnestly request the members to participate personally in the General Meeting of the Association at Breslau. We submit a form of proxy to be filled up by those who are unable to attend; as according to paragraph 26 of the Statutes, the vote may be transferred to other members; we may mention, however, that no member is allowed to represent more than ten votes. With the compliments of the Executive Com- mittee. Robert Schweichel. Berlin, 12/A July, 1890. AUTHORIZATION. I hereby authorize, in accordance with paragraph 26 of the -Statutes of the German Association of Authors to represent me at the deliberations and votings of the General Meeting at Breslau on the 17th and 18th August, 1890. Place and date. Signature. * INTERNATIONAL LITERARY AND ARTISTIC CONGRESS. HE Congress met on Saturday, October 4th, at 3 o'clock, being received by the Lord Mayor and a Reception Committee. As already stated it was unfortunately impossible for the Society to be officially represented at the Congress, and not a single English man of letters was present at the Congress. On Monday the 6th, a report by M. Eugene 1'ouillet on the "Convention of Berne" was pre- sented to the Congress. It stated that, thanks to the initiative of the association, an international conference met privately at Berne in 1883, drew up a scheme for a convention which seemed likely to serve as a basis for official negotiations, and asked the Swiss Government to present it at an opportune moment to other Governments. Switzer- land gave her consent, and, having been assured of the favourable inclination of a certain number of States to the project, convened a conference, this time official, at Berne in 1884. It was from that conference and the discussions to which it gave rise that the convention had sprung. The object pursued by the "Association Litteraire et ArtistiqueInternationale,"andalready accomplished in some measure by the convention, was the protection of the rights of authors in all civilized countries, the passing of laws which would assure to the author the profits of his work and defend him against those who enriched themselves at his expense. Such an object could not be effected in a day, but only step by step. Intellectual needs were not the same among all nations; the degrees of literary progress were not everywhere alike. The convention of Berne did something to fulfil this aspiration. It created a minimum of unifica- tion among a few countries. Nevertheless, it was of its essence to be revised from time to time, and in order to bring about such a revision the association organized a new congress every year. In regard to the question of translation, a point of some difficulty, the convention had made a step in advance by fixing at ten years from the time of the publication the right of the author to prevent unauthorized translations of his work. In 1884, the Swiss Government went further, since it proposed that at the end of ten years the author, if he had himself published a translation of his work, should be invested with the exclusive right of translation during the whole period to which his right over the original extended. This pro- posal seemed to be logical, but was thought too sweeping to be adopted. It was to be hoped that at the next revision of the convention the idea would be found to have made headway, and  ## p. 187 (#227) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 187 would be taken up by all the countries which had signed the instrument. Translation was to literary work what engraving was to painting; it merely gave sufficient expression to the same thought. M. Pouillet asked the Congress to pass, as before, the following resolution :—" Translation is only a mode of reproduction; the right of reproduction which constitutes literary property, includes of necessity the exclusive right of translation." At the second meeting of the Congress, a report on copyright in the United States was read. It stated that the Association heard with deep regret of the issue of the discussion raised in the House of Representatives on the Copyright Bill. 126 members opposed a third reading, 98 were favourable to it, and 103 abstained from voting. As Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, proudly pointed out, 13 Bills of a similar character had already been introduced with the same result— namely, the positive rejection of any measure designed to extend protection to non-American authors. The views endorsed by the definitive vote were not of a nature, despite the hopes entertained in Europe, to indicate any progress, however slight, in the tendencies of the American Parliament; indeed, some of the arguments employed tended rather to make the situation worse. It was not merely the modus vivendi proposed that had been the object of violent attack, but the principle of in- tellectual property itself. To all impartial observers it was evident that the debate was governed by considerations quite foreign to that principle. The opposition was determined by two particular motives —the first, irreconcilable antagonism towards Eng- land, a country directly interested in the vote, and the second an intestine struggle between the east and west of America. The most rancorous opponents of the proposed reform belonged to regions the least given to reading and study, countries purely industrial, where writers and publishers were seldom to be found. In the constituencies of these representatives, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas, intellectual rights were not tangible and real things. The people disregarded alike the security and dignity of authors, whom they treated as speculators and monopolisers. On the other hand, authors might be proud of having been defended by the repre- sentatives of States which constituted the intellectual elect of the country. New York, New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia had contended for right and justice, and it was to them that the Association would owe a crowning victory. It would be of interest to glance briefly at the arguments advanced by the opponents of the law. The notion that an idea once put forth belonged to the whole world had long since been exploded. Mr. Hopkins, however, had not feared to take up the most untenable positions. According to him, authors created nothing, but simply gave form to elements with which their predecessors had provided them. They found their ideas in books, and merely put them in circulation again. This was equivalent to saying that a man could not create his house, since he took his material for it from the earth. Mr. Hopkins added that a writer worthy of the name would not work for money. He had to be thanked for that proof of esteem, but at the same time it must be pointed out that even the best of writers had a right to live by his work, like every other human being. Mr. Hopkins did not seem to think that in refusing to an author the right of remunera- tion he was closing the door of a literary career to every one without fortune and without patrimony. It was the doctrine of silencing the poor in all its cruelty. Another argument was that the interest of an author was opposed to the general interest, as the remuneration which he claimed would tend to increase the price of books. Mr. Payson, of Illinois, desired that even American writers should not be protected. An author, it was said, "ought to be a devotee, an apostle who sacrificed himself to the pleasure of the greatest number. The public owed him nothing. He was free not to write. If he did write, the delight of expounding his thoughts to millions of readers should appear to him a suffi- cient recompense for his labours." Mr. Hopkins and his friends said that if they admitted a right in the American writer to protection it did not follow that they should do the same in regard to the foreigner. "What is there in common between us and other countries?" Mr. Parson asked; "they take interest in us only because we are a source of profit to them." The antipathy against England was here shown in the clearest light. It was England and England alone that would profit by the law. Why should America favour the pub- lishers of the land of feudality? As to the authors, what good was it to speak of them? They made money at home. America owed them nothing. The Copyright Bill had no other object than to open to foreigners the vast market of the American reading public, and that without exacting any re- ciprocity on the part of other countries." One speaker added that in order to ensure protection to a foreign author in England it was necessary that he should live there and take an oath of allegiance to the Queen, and no one had replied to such fantastic statements. Americans knew that in most countries of Europe their rights were protected even now. In France, among other countries, was not the principle of protection, even without reciprocity, embodied in the law? To speak only of England, what connection was there  ## p. 188 (#228) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. between a registration at Stationers' Hall and an oath of allegiance to the Queen? Had not Eng- land always offered a treaty to the United States, and had the Association lost the recollection of a project submitted for its consideration in 1881 by the Board of Trade—a project which established the principle of reciprocity between the two countries? Let the United States enter the Con- vention of Berne, and they would at once have a proof that no condition of a nature to wound their sentiments of American loyalty would be imposed upon them. The American people were great readers, there being scarcely a farm or cabin, even in the remotest places in the Rocky Mountains, where a book or magazine was not to be found. Owing to the present system the works of European writers had been published at too cheap a rate. What cost 5of. in England, cost 1 sf. or iof. in the United States. General Gordon's "Journal," worth in London 21s., was sold at Chicago for a dollar and a half. The protection of the author's right, it was maintained, would lead to a for- midable increase in the price of books. It was singular that in a country which piqued itself upon being eminently practical, the representatives of the people in Parliament seemed to be so ill provided with trustworthy documents bearing on the ques- tions which they discussed, for a man having any knowledge of what was going on in Europe might easily refute that argument. To leave England for a moment out of the question—the price of books there, on account of special circumstances, such as circulating libraries, being high—in France, in Spain, and in Germany the extreme of cheaphess had been reached. Where was the right of authors more respected than in those countries? Could the Americans cite a single work for which the author's right had not been paid in some form or another? And yet, with the exception of some editions degrand luxe, the average price was 2f. 50c, two marks, or two pesetas and a half. There had been published a number of "libraries" at if. the volume. The masterpieces of contemporary authors were even republished by Marpon at 60c. the volume. Was it supposed in America that the rights of the author were not paid on all these works? Did not Tauchnitz pay English authors for permission to bring out cheap editions of their works? As a matter of fact, were not contracts daily entered into between the publishers of Lon- don, Leipsic, and Madrid with European authors? This was a proof that respect for the author's right was in no way incompatible with low prices. In regard to the special relations between the United States and England, it was to be observed that the payment to English authors would not be increased by the cost of translation, inasmuch as the lan- guages were the same. Belgium arranged with French authors for the reproduction of their works on better conditions than Germany and England. The requirements of the author were not such that the increase of price would appear so formidable. The average rate could be fixed at 10 per cent, on the price marked. As a conse- quence, the book brought out in America for half- a-dollar—that was, about 2s., or 2f. 50c.—would go up to 2f. 75c—an insignificant increase when it was considered that in return for it a great and admirable country would be in the paths of probity. Should such a sacrifice be thought impossible? Let the United States declare themselves ready to accept these conditions, and they would have the signature of every man who used a pen. * CURIOUS CASE. VI. THIS case was only prevented from turning out a hard one by the agreeable readiness on the part of the publishers to see with the author's eyes. The question at issue was a very curious one, and one which might often crop up in badly worded agreements. It was this: if a publisher has covenanted to pay an author a certain sum on a certain number of sales of his book, the book being originally issued at a certain price, can he raise the price of the book legally, no mention of the price being made in the agreement and the copyright being his? In other words, having in the first instance covenanted to pay a larger royalty, can he at his discretion pay a smaller royalty? This is the case. An author delivered a course of lectures on a technical subject, and their favourable reception prompted him to issue them in book form. He received a promise of two hundred subscribers for the book at five shillings each, and armed with this guarantee against total loss he issued the book with the best publishers he could have found for such a subject. He drew up a contract of which the following is the abstract:— a. The publishers shall print and publish the book at their own risk. /3. The author shall receive from them five pounds for every fifty pages of MSS. he supplies; twenty-five pounds, when the first five hundred  ## p. 189 (#229) ############################################ THE AUTHOR copies are sold, twenty-five pounds for the second five hundred copies sold, and, in each case, money in the same proportion for any less number; and thirty-five pounds for each five hundred copies sold after the first thousand. 7. The publishers shall keep accurate accounts, accessible to the author or his accredited agent. S. The publisher shall have the copyright. We have here an admirable agreement in its first three clauses. The idea of the sliding scale royalty—the most equitable method of publishing if well carried out—and the demand that both parties should have access to the accounts of their joint venture, are both most sensible. But the author forgot to mention the price at which his work was to be issued, and he assigned his copyright unreservedly. to the publishers. Nothing short of an absolute breach of the agree- ment could ever regain for him any power over or discretion in the management of the book he had written. There was an understanding that the book should be issued at five shillings. Under this agreement, therefore, the author proposes to receive a small sum down proportionate to the length of his work, and a royalty of 20 per cent, on the first thousand copies, and of 28 per cent, on subsequent editions, the royalty being, as usual, calculated on the nominal or published price. That a nominal price of five shillings was throughout in the minds of both parties, when the agreement was made, is proved practically by the fact that the author brought with him to the publisher two hundred subscribers at that sum, after which the agreement was drawn by the author himself. In time two thousand copies were sold. The publishers then applied for a reduction of the royalties, stating that the book would not bear such large payments to the author. This state- ment they demonstrated by submitting the accounts. Now certainly a very large sale must be effected before a book will bear a royalty of 28 per cent.,* when it is issued at the publisher's expense. If the sale of the book can be calculated by tens of thousands, such payments can be easily made to the author, but here we have a book whose sales attained only to two thousand copies in two years, although it was an extremely successful book, and has run into two new editions since. It is easy to see that the author had much the best of the bargain, although the publisher was not actually at a loss. The author offered to accept a royalty of 20 per cent, throughout, i.e., he was willing to accept is. * Compare table in The Author, No. 2—a leaflet entitled "Royalties "—and " Methods of Publishing," p. 68. per copy for every copy sold. The publishers wished to reduce his share to gd. per copy. To this demand the author refused to accede. When the third edition appeared, it was issued at a nominal price of 7s. 6d. It will be seen at once that this change reduced the author's royalty at a stroke from the 28 per cent, designed in the agreement, to under 20 per cent. Was the publisher's action legal? The agreement enacted that ^35 should be paid for every 500 copies sold over the first 1,000. That is all, and that was done. The agreement said nothing whatever about the price at which these copies were to be sold—a most foolish omission. But there is distinct evidence that the agreement was drawn upon the mutually understood basis of a nominal price of 5.?. for each copy. Did therefore the raising of the price to 7*. 6d. constitute a breach of agreement, under which the author could regain possession of his copyright, and make other arrangements for publication? We were advised that such a view was tenable. The publishers, also advised, did not share this view, but expressed themselves willing to enter into a new contract, whereby the royalty paid to the author should be always 20 per cent, of the nominal price of the work, whatever that price might be, and an agreement was duly signed upon those lines. To us it seems that it is a most instructive case. We have often been told, and have often read, (this is when we are being called grasping), that no case is on record where an author has foregone any advantages he may have obtained over a publisher, and are requested to remember that publishers have done this thing scores of times for authors. Here is an author, who seeing that his book would not bear a royalty of 28 per cent., voluntarily consented to its being lowered. We have been assured that no publisher who respected himself would allow his books to be inspected by an author or an author's agent. (This is when we are being called meddlesome.) Here is a publisher—and there are many such— who inserts a clause giving this right in his agree- ment. Once again a badly worded agreement has brought trouble. Once again an unreserved assign- ment of the copyright to the publisher has made the trouble acuter. It is very gratifying that the case has been brought to an amicable termination.  ## p. 190 (#230) ############################################ 190 THE AUTHOR. THE AMERICAN TONGUE. THE New York Herald has sent, through its London correspondent, a circular asking a few questions. He proposes to write an article on "American English," and desires to incorporate in it the views of English men of letters. The questions are as follows :— 1. VVhether you think that the English language has suffered in its purity and elegance by transplantation to American soil? 2. Whether you regard the "Yankee twang" and "Yankee slang" as unfortunate lin- guistic developments? 3. Whether you think that the best classes of American men and women speak with less refinement than corresponding classes in England? I lay these questions before the readers of The Autlwr. They may perhaps be inclined to answer them. The address of the New York Herald is no, Strand, W.C. The development of the - language on the other side of the Atlantic for nearly three hundred years for the most part with no influence at all of one country upon the other, that is to say, upon the language of the common people, requires a philolo- gist to investigate and to describe. For a hundred and fifty years, that is to say, from the beginning of the last century to the middle of this, there was hardly any emigration from this country; very few Americans ever came here, very few Englishmen ever went to America. After the War of Indepen- dence, the Americans simply hated England—one can never understand why—we need only read Hawthorne, Thoreau, and other writers of fifty years ago to understand the unreasoning and childish hatred then nourished towards the mother country, a feeling never in the least degree felt by ourselves. By reason of this long separation, this hostility, this absence of intercourse, and the lack of any American literature worth bringing over, changes in the language of the Americans produced no effect whatever on this country, while the bulk of their people, being illiterate, were not influencd by our literature. Now that our people read American books by the million, our common speech has become greatly influenced by theirs. It is from them, for instance, that we learned to use the substantive for the adjective—as, a monster bal- loon for a large balloon. We have learned most of our exaggerations from them: we have received a great quantity of new words which are certainly no improvement on the old—as "boss, loafer, boom, corner," and a thousand others. We have caught from them that trick of irreverence which runs through the whole of American literature. I cannot say, for my own part, that I think the language has been improved across the Atlantic. As regards the second question, the "Yankee twang " is a mere accident, to be explained I know not how. The Americans remark our English twang or brogue, or manner of speech. Formerly, every county had its brogue. The Cockney twang which says "laidy" for "lady," "whoy" for "why," is the Essex brogue. As for the third question, I am convinced that cultivated people in the States talk better than those of the same class here. The reason is that they think more about their manner of speech. This is natural in a country where manners alone prove the cultivation and refinement which are here taken for granted when one stands on a certain social level. For the same reason their manners seem to me in one sense better, because they think more of manners, yet they are self-conscious, simply because they do think of manners, while English people who have been well-bred from infancy, wear their manners unconsciously as they wear themselves. W. B. * AN ENGLISH ACADEMY. THE English writer whose letter to the Daily Graphic provoked the interesting discus- sion on an English Academy of Letters, has been so long in Paris admiring French institu- tions, that he has had no time to read our contemporary literature, of which he seems, like Mr. Frederic Harrison, to hold a very poor opinion. The question was discussed by Matthew Arnold in his first series of " Essays in Criticism," and the Pall Mall Gazette, in February, 1887, gave a list of forty names elected by the popular vote, to form an English equivalent to the French Academy. The Daily Graphic has already printed the opinions of several eminent writers on the subject. Mr. Leslie Stephen, Mr. Lang, and Mr. Swinburne have objected to the scheme, and other daily papers have been occupied in misunderstanding Mr. Besant. They say he has been clamouring for an academy. If his letter on Friday, October 24th, be referred to, it will be found that Mr. Besant only pointed out what the advantages of an academy might be as compared with the disadvan- tages. He did not say that he wished for an academy on the French lines, consisting of forty immortals, who were to be regarded as the only  ## p. 191 (#231) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 191 representatives of English writers, all entitled to tombs in the Abbey, and statues in Trafalgar Square. He sketched out what he considered to be the functions of an English academy, and he rather invited the opinions of others than dog- matised on the subject. Mr. Leslie Stephen was among the first to respond, and his name carries weight on any subject connected with English letters. He dreads the formation of cliques, the canvassing that would inevitably come about, nepotism, and the creation of a State convention inimical to new theories. He only sees in an academy a society of greybeards, who resent originality and look with suspicion on a coming author. A letter, signed by Mr. Whibley, shows the absurdity of pointing to the Royal Academy of Arts as a model. "The English writer" is again shown to be entirely ignorant of current opinions in England, when he talks of Burlington House "as an inducement to do good work, not merely saleable work, but epoch-making, with the gloriole of the National Gallery, of which I presume the Royal Academy is an almost certain ante-chamber." Imagine our National Gallery, now one of the finest collections in Europe, choked in future with works of art now exhibited annually at Burlington House. The Academy of Arts is a terrible warn- ing rather than an inducement to found an Academy of Letters. As Mr. Whibley says, it has resolutely set its face against new methods and new schools. Our younger painters of any eminence go to Paris now to study in the ateliers of the leading French masters. Mr. Andrew Lang admits that the technique of our language might be improved, but at the expense of its idiosyncrasies, its individuality, its peculiar genius. Now it is the want of technical excellence, not only in our art, but in our literature, that the French are always throwing in our faces, assisted by a chorus of Philo-Gallic Britons. Mr. Arnold called this national want a lack of intelligence, quick and flexible. Mr. Lang seems to think that professional jealousies, intrigue, and personal enmity would be the natural result of an academy, and those unhappy differences between authors, now, alas! too common, would only be aggravated. This is a very pessimistic view. One would hope that those national virtues of which Mr. Lang is so sincere an admirer would overbalance any such evil passions latent, as he would have us believe, in our philosophers, authors, and historians. And Mr. Swinburne animadverts rather on the sins of the French Academy than any possible crimes or virtues of the unborn English society. He says, with great truth, "The mere fact that the names of Honors de Balzac and Dumas do not appear on the academic register of contemporary distinction, is enough to dispose of its claims to our notice as a literary institution," and writing in 1867 he said, "Does it include one of high and fine genius besides MeVimle?" M. Coppe"e does not take his own academy very seriously, but his remarks are of the greatest importance. According to his view it has not influenced a single writer either for good or bad, but it has supplied writers with the words they may use without incurring the reproach of using, slang, and that in England an Academy would dignify the profession of letters. M. Coppee has crystalized in a few sentences most of the arguments that can be said in favour of an academy. Slang, whether it be the slang of the Sporting Times, of the art critic, or the reviewer, always encourages poverty of language and expression. All the correspondents have concurred with Matthew Arnold that the technique of our language requires a guide ; that genius requires a rein to direct it; but gentlemen who may be regarded as literary experts condemn the formation of an academy on the French principles. But—and here is another proposition—how if we were to form an academy, not consisting of our great creative or imaginative writers such as poets, novelists, essayists, or historians, but of those who are universally considered authorities on the technique of language, criticism, and style, men like Mr. Leslie Stephen, Professor Max Miiller, Professor Skeat, Professor Seeley, and Mr. Saints- bury? It would avoid those jealousies so feared by Mr. Lang and Mr. Leslie Stephen, and the exclusion of great names in imaginative literature, as Mr. Swinburne anticipates. We should not have people writing and saying "A is a greater novelist than B; C is a much greater poet than D. Of course academies always encouraged mediocrity; there has been some jobbery and chicanery some- where. B and D to our personal knowledge can- vassed and squared the Electing Committee." No, this academy would be an association of scholars and philologists; its members would be, if I may use such a term, the "nurses" of the language. They would encourage the science of letters and proficiency in expression; they would encourage that intelligence Mr. Arnold extolled. Scholars are not made in a day; it would not be in obedience to a popular opinion that they elected a new member. They could not aggravate the populace by rejecting a coming author whose book had lately taken the town by storm, whom they believed would remain—promising. Admission to its ranks would not be a certificate  ## p. 192 (#232) ############################################ 192 THE AUTHOR. of immortality, but a certificate of scholarly proficiency. We might not agree with its conclusions, but it would teach us how to arrive at conclusions instead of jumping at them—the methods of criticism, construction, and grammar. If there had been an academy of the precon- ceived type, would Martin Tupper have died a member? If he had escaped election how much abuse would have been heaped "on the old- fashioned conventional fogies who did not know what real poetry was." If it had taken him to its bosom, others more discriminating would have said, "How very premature! our academy is truckling to the vox populi." Such are some of the dangers of an academy founded on the prevailing notions of such an institution. Mr. Besant suggests other functions as the duty of an English academy, but these seem to belong rather to a body like the Incorporated Society of Authors, as Mr. Whibley pointed out. Another point M. Coppee referred to, namely, the Dignity of the Profession of Letters. In France, he said, the author is considered in a way he is not in England. Complaints on this score are often made. The Bar, the Church, and Medicine are a kind of passport to a social standing. Why should not the Arts and Letters be a similar "open sesame." An English academy, M. Coppee thinks, would have the requisite effect. No doubt, but it would create at once an aristocracy in the world of letters which in England at any rate has up to now been a Republic. It opens up, however, new paths for discussion divorced from the immediate question, "Shall we have an English Academy of Letters?" R. * AN ENCOURAGING EXPERIENCE. I. A. B. entered into an agreement with a firm who proposed to publish his book on the half profit system " for the first edition." What was meant by that does not appear. Two years later, no accounts having been sent in, A. B. found that a new edition had been issued, without his consent or advice being asked. The publishers then sent in their accounts. They stated the cost of pro- duction, including a sum of ^17 for illustrations and ^10 for advertising, as j£no. This did not include stereotyping, and there was a very small sum for corrections. Of course every item of this bill, which seems monstrous on the face of it, should have been examined and audited. They had sold the whole edition, producing £io. There was therefore a loss of ^30. They offered to take over the loss and to buy out the book for £,\o. This was done, and the book still lives and is in its twentieth edition. Moral.—The author should not have accepted the account without an audit. II. The same author was so unfortunate as to fall a victim to the payment-in-advance dodge. He paid ^45 down, and was to have two-thirds of the proceeds. Some time afterwards he received £8. He then suggested that it would be as well to spend something in advertising it. The publishers did so—at the author's expense—and charged him with .£36 on this account. This, together with a bill for ^16 for copies taken by the author, made up a very pretty account. Thus:— £ s. d. Paid by the author... ... 45 o o Do. for advertising ... ... 36 5 o Do. for copies taken ... 16 2 6 £97 7 6 £ s. d. Received by the author on account of sales ... ... 8 o o Received from private sales, say ... ... ... 20 o o £28 o o Loss of author by the transaction, ^77 is. 6d. Moral.—The only protection which can be afforded to writers who fall into such a trap is the publication of the figures as above. If they will not deter the unwary nothing will.  ## p. 193 (#233) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. QUERIES AND ANSWERS. By Way of Precaution. The following is from the Nation (New York), of October 2nd, 1890 :— "Two Lost Centuries of Britain," namely, the period immediately following the departure of the Romans, is the title of a historical study by William H. Babcock, which J. B. Lippincott Company will shortly issue." I do not know what views and opinions Mr. Babcock has formed and is about to publish. But it so happens that I have been myself engaged in an attempt to restore the lost history of London during these two centuries. There is only one set of documents open to those who investigate this subject, and in case my own opinions should also be those of Mr. Babcock, I place on record that my paper was handed to the type-writer on Monday, October 20th, and has been posted to the Editor of Harper's Magazine, before I have had had any opportunity of seeing Mr. Babcock's paper. Walter Besant. Hampstead, October, 1890. On Accepted Papers. Will you tell me why writers have to give almost unlimited time to the editors of magazines for the publication (and payment) of accepted articles? To cite from many similar instances. In 1885 a story of mine was—with warm encomium— accepted for a magazine "payment on publication." That story only appeared in 1889—rather long credit! In 1889, also with approval, another story was accepted for the same serial, and I presume I may look for it in print at some distant period. When this happens in all quarters, though perhaps not such aggravated cases of delay as in the case of the serial I mean, how are writers who are not millionaires to get on financially? Why are not short articles met with ready money payments, and then if the editor chooses to reserve them months or years, no one is inconvenienced. This is done in America, but, so far as I have experienced, not in England, although such short papers are looked on in the light of " pot-boilers." S. An Authors' Club. October 1.0th, 1890. In the September number of The Author, and while referring to the Authors' Dinner, the following question is proposed :— "Would it be possible, or would it be better for us—in our own interests—to meet in any other way?" Now, although I infer that the Editor had in his mind the alternatives of a conference or a con- versazione when he put this question, I should like to make a reply on another issue. In fact, I wish to urge what I have urged before in the pages of The Author, and that is the speedy formation of an Authors' Club. It seems to me almost ridiculous that a city like New York can have a flourishing Authors' Club, and that London apparently can find no use for one. I have no late tidings of the New York Club, but when I was a sojourner in the States some three years ago, I know that it was not only an extremely popular institution, but .hospitable as well. A. M. —*— The Colonial Custom House. "I have read the article in the September issue of the Authors' Society, entitled 'English Authors and the Colonial Book Market.' "All the correspondents quoted in the article assume (with you) that Custom House officers have both the power and the duty to seize books printed abroad, in which there exists a copyright. I believe they have no such right. They are officers paid a salary exclusively to see that all dutiable goods pay their duty. There is no duty on books, and a Custom House officer seizing books would do so at the risk of an action to which I can see no defence. "How many Custom House officers know of what books a copyright exists? "I have been referring to the law as in England, and I assume that Colonial Custom House officers have the same power only as here. "C. A. G." —♦— The Distribution and Display of Books. How important this subject is, and how singular are the ideas of the distributors upon it were forced on my notice. Some years ago, on the occasion of the death in distressed circumstances of Richard Jefferies, the  ## p. 194 (#234) ############################################ 194 THE AUTHOR. charming, and in common repute, successful writer, public attention had been widely drawn to his case by correspondence and articles in the press, and I concluded that his books would probably, therefore, be prominently displayed in the book- sellers' shops. I went to several large shops in London, but none of his books were exposed either in the windows or on the stalls outside. Ultimately I entered one where I had been accustomed to deal, and made enquiries. After a little search copies of some of his books were produced, among them being an illustrated edition of "The Gamekeeper at Home," the very thing for a gift to a child. I bought the copy, the only one in the shop, and expressed my surprise at never having seen that edition before. "Oh," said the young man who served me, "very few people have. It does not seem to have been pushed. The public won't buy what they don't see, you know." "Then," said I, "why didn't you put it in your window?" "Oh, we only put books in the window for which there is a demand." I pointed out the contradiction between his preaching and his prac- tice, but he cut me short with a "Well, sir, it's our rule, that's all I know. Besides, it's an old book now." C. W. Radcliffe Cooke. —«— Query. "In a collection of Sonnets published many years ago—my copy of which has long been lost—■ was a sonnet 'by A. Tennyson,' of which I re- member so much :— "Poland. "Sound ye the trumpet; summon from afar The hosts to battle; be not bought and sold; Arise, brave Poles, the boldest of the bold! O, for the days of Piast, ere the Czar Grew to this strength among his mountains cold When, even to Moscow's battlements, were rolled The growing murmurs of the Polish war, Now must your noble anger blaze out more Than when Zamoyski [Zmole ?] the Tartar clan • • • • # * # • * * Or later, when, upon the Baltic shore, Boleslas smote the Pomeranian. "What was the word to which I have affixed a note of interrogation, and what were the tenth and eleventh lines? ib/h October. "H. G. Keene." Roman Numerals. "The question as to Roman numerals was one of the puzzles of my childhood. But did not the Romans use an abacus to calculate with? The Japanese do, or did a few years back, and their numbers do not admit of being added up in columns. "L. M. S." « The method of multiplication in Roman numerals will be understood by considering that the rotation is not decimal, but additive. Thus—dcviii x ix. may be effected in the following manner:— VIII X IX = LXXII. C X IX = LCCCC. D X IX = MMMML. And the total obtained by adding is :— MMMMLCCCCII. DOCTORESS? "If it were advisable to add a feminine termina- tion to doctor, would it not be better to use 'ess,' which is generally employed in English, rather than the German 'inn,' which we only have in a modified form in words translated from the German, as ' Mar- gravine ' ?" L. M. S." Literary Methods. "I have no intention of entering into the controversy as to Mr. Bainton's pamphlet, but should like, if you will allow me, to tell an anecdote apropos of it, which some who were at Brasenose at the time when it occurred, will still remember. "The then Bursar, jealous for the credit of his cuisine, desired ardently the receipt for a certain fondu, for which another college was famous. He therefore, made acquaintance with the rival cook, and after much amiable conversation, said cordially, 'By the way, I daresay you would tell me how you make that of fondu yours.' 'Well, sir,' answered the cook, frankly, 'I've no objection; I take such and such materials.' 'So do we. You must do something else?' said the Bursar. 'No, sir, I only use those I mentioned, and then I puts them into the fondoo dish and Ifondoos them' "That was all; he 'fondooed them,' but how, he could not explain, nor could the Bursar discover. "There are things which may be analysed and told, and yet can only be done by the expert, who in this case is the author. "The Author of ' Mademoiselle Mori. '"  ## p. 195 (#235) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. THE LATE REV. HENRY WHITE. THE first meeting of the Incorporated Society of Authors was held in November, 1883, at the offices of the Social Science Society at the Adelphi. In the assembly there was no figure more conspicuous than that of the Rev. Henry White, Chaplain to the Queen, and to the Speaker of the House of Commons. He had to move a resolution on the occasion, but with charac- teristic modesty, was content to do so without making a speech. Mr. White's connexion with literature pure and simple was but slender. He had published a sermon or two, and had edited a volume written by his Curate; but there was no preacher in London, with the exception perhaps Of Canon Liddon, whom literary men were more de- sirous of " sitting under." He had undergone the experience of other literary men, although in a modified way, and was well acquainted with the necessity which existed among authors for some such organization as that offered by the establish- ment of this Society. From the first, then, he became and remained a sympathetic and indus- trious member, and often expressed himself as pleased with the share he had taken in promoting the movement. Mr. White's literary tastes were unerring, for without being critical in the strict sense of the word, his reading traversed an enor- mous field, and wasentirelydevoted to theillustration of the subjects on which he touched in his sermons. He was extremely fond, in the pulpit, of making quotations from the thoughts of others, whom he esteemed greater than himself, and whom he always quoted by name. In this way the newspapers of the day came under contribution, and The Times, The Saturday Review, even Punch, were frequently named in their turn with Fenelon, Hyacinth, Mr. Spurgeon, and Cardinal Newman; in fact, the skeleton of the sermon was all his own, but it was like one of those Egyptian mosaics which so closely resemble cloisonnee enamel, where the framework is of gold, and the interstices are filled with precious stones. He was fastidious, though as we have said, not critical, and contrived to keep together for a protracted period—he was thirty years at the Chapel Royal, Savoy—a congregation composed of Cabinet Ministers, eminent actors, journalists, doctors, lawyers, and artists, ladies of every rank, and the tradespeople of the precinct. The most striking characteristic, which all now dwell upon who cherish his memory, was an unfailing sympathy with any who were in trouble. Those who knew him best loved him most. He was a man who was not to be "found out." He was as transparent as sunshine, except in relation to the secrets of others intrusted to him. vol. I, There is little to say with regard to Mr. White's life, except in connexion with the Savoy, to which he was appointed soon after taking orders. He lived and died at the top storey of 4, Lancaster Place, in the precinct. From this modest centre he wove a web which seemed to embrace, and we may confidently say, largely influenced, London Society. This influence did not come from money or ex- ceptional talent, or even position. It was the result of that charity that hopeth all things, believeth all things. By this he forged a chain of love which even death has not been able to break—for, being dead, he yet speaketh. W. J. I.OFT1E. * AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society^ who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. THE Christmas Numlier of Tinsley's Magazine con- tains contributions from Miss Mary C. Rowsell, Austin Dobson, James Stanley Little, and John Coleman. Mr. T. Bailey Saunders will bring out immediately a fourth volume of his selections from the Essays of Schopenhauer. Mrs. Price's last story, "Hamilton of King's," which appeared as a serial in one of Messrs. Partridge's Magazines, has just been reissued by that firm in one vol., 2s. 6d. The concluding volume of the "Henry Irving Shake- speare" has made its appearance, with an introduction from Mr. Edward Dowden and a preface from Mr. Henry Irving. Mrs. A. Phillips, author of " Benedicta," &c., is writing a series of articles on Social Bath in the last Century, for Murray's Magazine. Miss Mary C. Rowsell publishes with Mr. French (89, Strand), two Fairy Extravaganzas for amateur [icrformance. Mr. W. M. Rossetti edits the poetical works of William Blake for the "Aldine Editions" of the British Poets (G. Bell and Sons). Mr. Rossetti writes the biographical introduction. ^ Mr. Augustine Birrell is responsible for the lieauliful edition of the "Essays of Elia" just issued by Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. Mr. Andrew Tuer edits "■ Prince Dorvs," also by Charles Lamb. The edition is in facsimile of the original form in which the book was published, and is issued by the Leadenhall Press. Eleanor Stredder is engaged in writing a series of colonial and foreign stories for children for Messrs. Nelson and Sons. The first, "Jack and his Ostrich," appeared last Christmas. The second, "Archie's Find: A Story of Australian Life," is just ready. Mr. J. A. Blaikie's volume of Poems will lie issued immediately by Messrs. Percival and Co., Covent Garden. Mr. Walter Besant is writing a series of papers on London at various periods, for Harper's Magazine. They will probably be published in the course of next year. ?  ## p. 196 (#236) ############################################ 196 THE AUTHOR. Mr. Loftic's "London City" (Tuer and Co.) is very nearly ready. William Westall has written, specially for the Manchester JVeeily Times, a Christmas story, entitled " In Queer Street." The same author and Stepniak, encouraged by the success of "The Blind Musician," are translating, in collalx>ration, another of Korolenko's Russian stories. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Armstrong, Frances. The Fortunes of Ruby, Paul and Diamond. Hogg. Is. Besant, Wai ter. Armorcl of Lyonnesse. 3 vols. Chatto and Windus. £1 lis. 6V/. Birrell, Augustine. Obiter Dicta. Second scries. Third edition. Elliot Stock. $s. and 6s. Bramston, M. Dangerous Jewels. National Society. Buchanan, Robert. The Moment After: A Tale of the Unseen. Heinemann. 10s. 6d. Buckton, 0. B., F.R.S. British Cicada:. Illustrated. Vol. I. Macmillan and Co. £1 13*. 61/. Cressweli , Henry. Sliding Sands. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett. ,£1 nr. 6<l. Croker, B. M. Two Masters: A Novel. 3 vols. F. V. White. £1 lis. 6d. Daudet, Ai.phonse. Kings in Exile. Routledge. 2s- Haggard, H. Rider. Dawn. New edition. S. Blackett. 3*. 6d. Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stanleys: A Story of To-day. New edition. Low. 2s. and 2.(. 61/. IIarte. Bret. The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh, and other Tales. Macmillan. 3*. 6d. IIoey, Mrs. Cashel. Falsely True: A Novel. New and revised edition. Ward and Downey. 6s. Kipling, Rl'DVARD. Departmental Ditties, and other Verses. Fifth edition. Thacker. 5*. Soldiers Three; The Story of the Gadsbys; In Black and White. I vol. Low. 31. 6</. Wee Willie Winkie, and other Stories. Low. If. Langbridge, Rev. F. What to Read. Sunday Readings in Prose, is. 6d. Religious Tract Society. LYALL, Edna. Derrick Vaughan. I vol. New edition. Methuen and Co. Momf.rie, A. Wm. Treadling and Hearing, and other Sermons: Delivered in the Chapel of the Foundling. Third edition. Blackwood and Sons. 5*. Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian. 1 vol- Macmillan and Co. OLiritANT, Mrs. Sons and Daughters: A Novel. Black- wood and Sons. 3s. 6d. Peard, Frances M. The Locked Desk. National Society I'raf.d, Mrs. Campbell. Under the Gum Tree. Trisch- ler and Co. St. Aubyn, A., and Wheeler, W. A Fellow of Trinity. 3 vols. Chatto and Windus. £1 iu. 6d. Stuart, Esmk. The Vicar's Trio. 1 vol. National Society. Suter, Julie. Luther and the Cardinal: An Historical and Biographical Tale of the Reformation in Germany. New half-crown series. Religious Tract Society. is. 6d. Tytt.er. Sarah. A Voung Oxford Maid. Religious Tract Society. Nobody's Girls. Sunday School Union. Footprints: Nature seen on its Human Side. Fourth edition. Fisher Unwin. 3*. 6d. Underbill, G. F. The Hand of Vengeance. Trischler and Co. Wills, C. J., and Philips, F. C. A Maiden Fair to Sec. 13 illustrations by G. A. Storey, A.R.A. Trischler. Wills, C. J. In the Sunny South of France. 12 monthly illustrated articles. Atalanta. Jardine's Wife. Trischler and Co. 3 vols. —— John Squire's Secret. 3 vols. Ward and Downey. New 3 vol. novel. Gardner and Co. —— Pit Town Coronet. Cheap edition. Trischler and Co. Vonge, Charlotte M. The Slaves of Sabinus. National Society. OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property. 2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright. 3. The promotion of International Copyright. The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as follows :— (i. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing. ft. It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are injurious to their in- terests. 7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands of unscrupulous traders. c. It publishes from time to time, books papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province. e. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the pecuniary interest of their works.  ## p. 197 (#237) ############################################ Zhe Society of Hutbors (Jncotporateb). PRESIDENT. The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. COUNCIL. Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I. H. Rider Haggard. Alfred Austin. Thomas Hardy. Robert Bateman. Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G. J. M. Lely. Walter Besant. Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. Augustine Birrell, M.P. F. Max-Muller, LL.D. R. D. Blackmorr. George Meredith. Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S. Herman C. Merivale. Lord Brabourne. J. C. Parkinson. James Bryce, M.P. The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. P. W. Clayden. Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D. Edward Clodd. Walter Herries Pollock. W. Martin Conway. A. G. Ross. Marion Crawford. George Augustus Sala. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G. W. Baptiste Scoones. The Earl of Desart. G. R. Sims. A. W. Dubourg. J. J. Stevenson. John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S. Jas. Sully. Trof. Michael Foster, F.R.S. William Moy Thomas. Herbert Gardner, M.P. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. Richard Garnett, LL.D. Edmund Yates. Edmund Gosse. Bon. Counsel—Y,. M. Underdown, Q.C. Auditor—Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman—Walter Besant. Robert Bateman. I Edmund Gosse. W. Martin Conway. I IL Rider Haggard. A. G. Ross. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge. J. M. Lei.y. Sir Frederick Pollock. OFFICE& 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.  ## p. 198 (#238) ############################################ 198 ADVERTISEMENTS. TYPE-WRITING. I MISS ETHEL DICKENS, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED, 26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND Writings by Post receive prompt attention. (Over the Office of “ All the Year Round”). SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY. MSS. copied. Price List on application. MRS. GILL, MISSES ERWIN, TYPE:WRITING OFFICE, 13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAV SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. Authors' MSS. carefully copied from I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. References kindly permitted to many well-known Authors and Publishers, Further particulars on application. TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND. MISS GILL, TYPE-WRITING OFFICES 6, ADAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. . EDITED BY T T T. A E T JO, DARKE, M.T.S., LION CHAMBERS, * BROAD STREET, “The best of all Journals." BRISTOL. Published every FRIDAY, price 2d. The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY, NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and Ease of Manifolding. DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E. Now is the time to subscribe. AUTHORS' MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the A New Vol. commenced Publisher. 4th April, 1890. Companies Reports and patent @gento* Send Specifications Dritten up and Post-card for Specimen Copy. Manifolded. LITHOGRAPHY froin TYPING done in the best To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and Style. Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher- MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. POST. WRITE FOR TERMS. ESTABLISHED 1851. BIRKBE C K B A N K , SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE. THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand. TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS, calculated on minimum monthly balances, when not drawn below £100. STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold. SAVINGS DEPARTMENT. For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows Interest, at the rate of THREE per CENT. per Annum, on each completed £1. Accounts are balanced and Interest added on the zist March annually. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager. OW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate possession. Apply at Office of the BIRKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOciety. THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars, post free on application. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager. A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE. How  ## p. 198 (#239) ############################################ A D VER TISEMENTS. iii. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on. The writing of the BAR-LOCK. TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printers charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-I.ock. Supplied for Cash, or on Our Easy Payment System by Twelve Monthly Payments of £1 19s., or on Hire at £2 2s. per Month. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited, 12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22. Renfleld Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Type-Writing Taught by Experts. Author's AfSS. Copied at is. $J. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.^ 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W.. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 3-r. 5. The History of the Socidte" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms ot type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Price 3-r. (A new Edition in the Press.) Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 198 (#240) ############################################ ADVERTISEMENTS. NEW MODEL REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER - SH For Fifteen Years the Standard, and to-day the most perfect development of the writing machine, embodying the latest and highest achievements of inventive and mechanical skill. We add to the Remington every improve- ment that study and capital can secure. Sundation AS WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, Principal Office- LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C. (CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET). Branch Offices LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET. BIRMINGHAM: 88, COLMORE ROW. MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 07 (November 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 07 (November 1890) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-11-15-The-Author-1-7 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/244/1890-10-15-The-Author-1-6.pdf 0532c77a3e78b18cb72c00ba4f961aa6 PDF Text Text �������������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-10-15 Volume 1 Issue 6 Pages Page range in volume 129–162 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18901015 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.—No. 6.] OCTOBER 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT Published for iße Societê Be ALEXANDER P: WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUÀRË; LONDON, E.C: 1890.  ## p. 128 (#164) ############################################ ii. ADVERTISEMENTS. Berton, Sept 1y* 1878 muu. Málie, Toad y los : Gentleman I have sout me of your Reus, to have a hana mended trough Meus. Hoche, leurs Ito of theicity Tome may like to know that I have made this heu constantly . formue han twenty years, i Trine the days of a book of man called "The Autrict of the Bruckbank tere "1857–8 mutć . last Friday without repair and 1. aliray with herfect Oale jachten I have written with in halfa 1. . dozen or onare volumes, a Jacce neember of Enraps la ause Mousands of letters. Tere bit ai to an ole und and I hate you will do the ben you can for it hough I hura in the mean hier bought anotion of pain mate'' corigazine marked.C. Too not know whether que cau hir This testimonial har I feel as if the pen when bar caned out to much of Buy thought and thought back To much si ranon forms in whuan was enlithed to this Carlisicut of himnaha Reconce . Sans Eurther Homes tunly Miera Honeell Hemmer ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TodD & BARD, 93, Cheapside, LONDON,  ## p. 129 (#165) ############################################ (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly!) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 6.] OCTOBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. C O N T PAGE News and Notes — 129 "The Methods of Publishing." By S. Squire Sprigge 138 "The Literary Handmaid of the Church." A Reply by the Author of the Pamphlet 139 American Literature in America 148 An Old Man s Rejoinder. By Walt Whitman 149 Leaflet No. IV. Authors' Quarrels 151 Examination in Vanity Fair 153 A Model Agreement 153 A Hard Case, No. V. Through a Literary Agent 154 E N T S. PAGE International Copyright « *55 "Sing a Song for Sixpence." By W. R. Colles »55 Correspondence 156 Queries 156 Dreams and the Imagination *57 "The Authors' Manual" 158 At Work »58 New Books and New Editions »59 Advertisements 160 NEWS AND NOTES. IT is very much to be regretted that the Inter- national Literary and Artistic Congress, which has been sitting from October 4th to October nth, should have been managed with so little consideration for its success. Nobody knew that it was going to be held; nobody knows, now, who invited the Congress to assemble in London. They have received the hospitality of the Lord Mayor, who has proved himself ever ready to welcome every kind of work and every good worker. But that is not enough. English authors have been conspicuous by their absence. How could they be expected to attend? They knew nothing about the Congress. The Society of Authors was not informed until a few days before the Congress met. Nor were they officially informed even then, but heard casually through the Mansion House. Two or three of the members, however, joined, at this last moment, the Reception Committee. But the Society was absolutely ignored by the managers of the Congress. As a natural result, not a single English author took part in the proceedings of the Congress. The proceedings will be briefly reported in the next number. —« At the Church Congress, which has just con- cluded, Archdeacon Farrar read a paper on the "Ethics of Commerce." He began by saying that he would purposely take only the most obvious and elementary side. This is well. Men require to have always kept before them the elementary side. The Decalogue is extremely elementary, yet it is found most useful to hang it up, written large, in every Church. "Human beings," he said, "do not constitute a mass of dead, impersonal force, to be treated only in accordance with the laws of supply and demand; every living soul has rights, indivisible, inalienable, eternal, which cannot be trampled and crushed into the mire as though political economy were some monstrous Juggernaut which must be dragged along in triumph . . . . As for the law of honesty . . . what are we to say ... of bargains made by skilled prey- ing on the ignorance or the necessities of others; . . . of betraying a confidence fraudulently gained by pretence of simplicity? . .' . I might expose the dishonourable customs which in many cases taint what should be, and often is, the eminently respectable trade of the publisher; I might speak of the sweating publishers who, without a blush, toss to the author perhaps a hundredth part of what, by bargains grossly inequitable, they have themselves obtained. . . . There are many reasons why the conscience of England should be awakened on this subject. In the words of a vol. 1. K  ## p. 130 (#166) ############################################ 130 THE AUTHOR. living historian, 'When men live only to make money, and the service of God is become a thing of words and ceremonies, and the Kingdom of Heaven is bought and sold, a fire bursts out in higher natures. Show me a people whose trade is dishonest, and I will show you a people whose trade is a sham.'" Dishonest trade may be the buying or selling of things adulterated, bad, not what they pretend to be; or it may be selling at such a price as to give an unjust profit to the seller, over and above what he has given to the producer. He then becomes a Sweater. Now there will be found on p. i 39, certain examples of profit made by the S.P.C.K., which do not, indeed, touch the hundredfold spoken of by the Archdeacon, but they are double, treble, ten- fold, and even twenty-fold! Other traders Sweat for their private gain. These traders sweat for the promotion of Christian Knowledge. Which is worse—the poor wretch who only degrades him- self, or he who traffics in the sacred name of religion? My answer to this "Memorandum" of the so- called Committee of Inquiry of the S.P.C.K. will be found on pp. 141-148. The Standard has recently published a long string of letters coricerning a so-called Society 6f Science, Letters, and Art. It is an interesting ex- posure of human folly and human cunning. This precious Society confers upon a member the privi- lege of calling himself a " Fellow," of wearing a gowrt and a hood, showing a diploma, and even wearing a badge, like an omnibus cad. As for any qualifi- cations necessary to secure these privileges, there appear to be none; and as for any joy to be got by wearing the badge of the Society, this writer cannot understand where it comes in. Certain school- masters, it is stated, find it to their advantage to call themselves F.S.Sc, and on prize-giving days to wear the hood, which appears to be a very splendid thing. The Society, however, holds examinations, Well, so does the College of Preceptors, so does the Society of Arts; there is no reason why one Society should not hold examinations as well as any other Society, if they can persuade people to believe in their certificates. It does not appear that this Society of Science, Letters, and Art, does anything else at all to justify its existence. It is slid to publish no balance sheet, and the evidence is overwhelming that it offers its membership for sale, although the President—they have got a Presi- dent, as well as a Secretary—parades the fact that a form of election is gone through. Oneneednot, how- ever, be too hard upon the S.Sc.L. and A. It does pretty much what all Societies do which permit their members to put letters after their names. How many antiquarians, geographers, geologists, as- tronomers, would belong to the Societies represent- ing and supporting these sciences if it were not for the letters which they allow their members to use. Schoolmasters, writers, lecturers, and people gener- ally anxious to make themselves known,always try to make up for the absence of a degree by the addi- tion of these letters. To be an F.R.G.S., F.R.H.S., F.R.C.S, F.R.A.S., F.R.S.L., seems to the outside world a proof of distinction. Why not, therefore, F.S.Sc.? It means nothing, nor do any of the letters, except the plain old-fashioned M.A., R'.A. (whether Royal Academy or Royal Artillery), R.E., LL.D., D.C.L. or F.R.S. The poor schoolmaster who cannot use one of these legitimate titles might as well call himself F.S.Sc. as F.R.G.S. And if it helps him in his business, he will, I suppose, con- tinue to do so. As for the hood, it seems to be believed that only a University can confer a hood. That is not so. All that a University can do is to confer a certain kind of hood; and, indeed, if a man chooses to make and to wear an Oxford hood when he does not possess an Oxford degree, what pains and penalties does he incur? 1 once saw a reverend gentleman mount the reading desk in quite a splendid hood, of the Oxford colour, but ampler, fuller, more magnificent. I did not remember to have heard that he was an Oxford rrtan. He was not, in fact. He wore, I was told, the hood of St. Bees or of St. Augustine. Perhaps, after all, it was the hood of the Society of Science, Letters, and Art. Five guineas would have been cheap for such a hood. When a daily paper has exhausted all the sub- jects of the day, there remains, at the bottom of the basket, one—the novel of the period. The editor can always have a fling at the novelists. In every paper, once a year at least, and generally twice a year, there is the leader on modern fiction by a leader writer who never reads any modern fiction. His view, of course, is pessimistic. In the same way, when a man has attained a certain position —nd matter in what line—he considers himself qualified to address his fellow-creatures on the choice of books. This gives him also an opportunity of " slating" fiction of the day. Mr. Frederick Harrison, I learn from the fol- lowing extract, has been lecturing us on the Choice of Books, and has naturally seized the occasion to fling mud at the novelists. Let him speak— "But assuredly black night will quickly cover the vast bulk of modern fiction—work as perishable as the generations whose idleness it has amused. It belongs not to the great  ## p. 131 (#167) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. creations of the world. Beside them it is flat and poor. Such facts in human nature as it reveals are trivial and special in themselves, and for the most part abnormal and unwhole- some. I stand beside the ceaseless flow of this miscellaneous torrent as one stands watching the turbid rush of the Thames at London Bridge, wondering whence it all comes, whither it all goes, what can be done with it, and what may be its ultimate function in the order of Providence. To a reader who would nourish his laste on the boundless harvests of the poetry of mankind, this sewage outfall of to-day offers as little in creative as in moral value. Lurid and irregular streaks ol imagination, extravagance of plot and incident, petty and mean subjects of study, forced and unnatural situa- tions, moroid pathology of crime, duM copying of the dullest comm mplace, melodramatic hurly-burly, form the certain evidence of an art that is exhausted, produced by men and women to whom it is become a mere trade, in an age wherein change and excitement have corrupted the power of pure enjoyment." ♦ Let us add a few words of question and of ■ comment. Mr. Harrison not only watches the ceaseless flow of this miscellaneous torrent, but he carefully examines the bulk of the books which form the torrent. He reads masses of modern fiction. He must, else how can he speak with so much authority and precision on the subject? Unless, that is, he has evolved from his own brain the " lurid and irregular streaks of imagination " and nil the rest of it. Most of us do not read all the fiction, and therefore we must accept his judgment ho far. He complains, however, that he does not know whence it conies or whither it goes. Let us tell him. Three-fourths of the "torrent" consists of feeble, harmless, and imitative stories, the production of which is paid for by the writers in the vain hope of getting money out of them. Very few copies arc printed, still fewer are bought; they would be absolutely unheard of if the reviewers did not notice them; they die as soon as they are born. As regards the remaining fourth part, I suppose I may be allowed an opinion as a humble follower of the art, and I maintain that as regards that fourth part, the art of fiction never stood on a higher level than it stands to-day. It is not only ridiculously false—it is ridiculously foolish—to speak of the works that are now produced every year as a " sewage outfall." There is no Thackeray now living, but there are writers of fiction among us who would adorn any age. I say that the names of Black, Blackmore, Rider Haggard, Hardy, Howells, James, Litton, Meredith, Murray, Norris, Oliphant, Payn, Steven- son—which I write down not as exhaustive but as occurring to me at the moment—are names of writers who have advanced and are advancing the Art of Fiction. If anyone will take the trouble to read the novels of fifty years ago—it has been my lot to read a good many—he must acknowledge VOL. 1. that the art is far better understood now than then, that the style is infinitely better, that the work is more dramatic, cleaner, and clearer, better finished—in a word, that the modern work far surpasses the older work. Yet there is among us no living Thackeray, Dickens, Scott, or Fielding. ♦ This adviser on the Choice of Books further informs us gloomily that the Art is exhausted; that it is followed by men and women as a trade, and that the age has lost the power of pure enjoyment. Now let us consider this statement—so wide and so sweeping. First, how can an Art ever be ex- hausted? It is the first quality, the chief quality, of all Art, that it is as inexhaustible as the whole range of human emotion; nay, that for every new gener- ation Art shall be young, strong, and immortal. It is only when one is old, when there is no longer anything to hope, that Art appears decrepit or exhausted. The Art of Fiction can no more be exhausted than the Art of Painting. As to the trade of it, novelists have always, like painters, followed their art as a trade. If Mr. Harrison means that modern novelists turn out their work with no care or thought of Art, why—there is nothing to reply but a flat denial. I suppose that Dickens and Thackeray scorned to sell their books or to turn them out as a trade! What futile rubbish is this! 4 Lastly the age . . the age . . Alas! when was there ever an age which was not corrupt, ruined, hopeless? The present time is more especially lost and hopeless on account of the fin de sifrle. Let me protest against this fin de stick cry. It means that because the century is coming to an end, art, thought, invention, science—everything is senile too, in sympathy with the dying century. Let us consider again. For literary purposes there are only four centuries to think of. First, the sixteenth. Where is the fin de sikle in the last decade of that century? Shakespeare wrote fifteen of his plays in that decade; Ben Jonson began; Kit Marlow ran his brief course; Raleigh, Peele, Greene, Spenser, Lyly, Drayton, Harrington, Stow, Cervantes, Tasso, Montaigne, Du Bartas, Malherbe, all adorn this last decade. Where is the fin de si'ede here? Let us pass on to the years 1690-1700. What do we find? Any weariness, any decay, any senility? Not so—Dryden, Wycherly, Congreve, Steele, Dennis, Price, Swift, Burnet, Defoe, Bentley, Tom Brown and Ned Ward (a savoury pair), Garth, k 2  ## p. 132 (#168) ############################################ 132 THE AUTHOR. Philips, Rovve, Buxton, John Locke, Tillotson, Jeremy Taylor, Colley Gibber, Tom D'Urfey, Boileau, Racine, Calderon, Bossuet, Fenelon, La Fontaine, Fontenelle—all adorned the last years of the seventeenth century. Pass on to the years 1790-1800. Was there here any decay, any senility? Burns, Wordsworth, Crabbe, Bloomfield, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, Cooper, Priestley, Paley, Cumberland, Dibdin, Sheridan, Ferguson, Monk Lewis, Mary Godwin, William Godwin, White of Selborne, Ritson, Thomas Percy, Gifford, Erasmus Darwin, Anne Seward, Dugald Stewart, Jeremy Bentham, Hannah More, Frances Burney, John Aikin, Letitia Burbauld, Roscoe, Sir Joshua Rey- nolds, Porson, Edmund Burke, Boswell, Campbell, Rogers, Mrs. Inchbald, Malone, D'Israeli, Sir James Mackintosh, Charles Lamb, Landor, Schiller, Goethe, and a whole crowd of French writers wrote; why, so far from being a time of decay the last decade of each century has proved a period of great intellectual vigour—a time of youth and spring, as every time should be. Let us have done with the fin de sikle rubbish. There is no more connection between Art or Science and the age of the century, than there is between the news of this hour's post and the clouds in the sky. Last month I asked a foolish question. It was foolish because the wise man should not, speaking generally, ask a question to which there is no answer. In this case, perhaps, one was justified; one put, wisely, a foolish question. I asked why religious societies allow themselves to do things which indi viduals with any self-respect would not dare to do. I now ask another foolish question. Why is it that men professionally connected with religion are generally so extremely irreligious? There is no answer to this question. But I will illustrate it by a case in point. There is a certain religious publisher —from whose clutches may the Lord preserve us! —who found a lady with a MS.—they areas plenti- ful as blackberries. This MS., however, was a saleable MS. He consented to publish it, and 10 give her half the profits. Further, he agreed that a fresh arrangement was to be made for a second edition. The man, however, was too foxy to set down this in writing. He allowed the lady to make a note of the agreement, and forgot to send it to her in writing. Two or three years after- wards the author discovered that there had been a new edition published without reference to her- self and without sending her any accounts. She wrote and got no reply. The religious person took no notice of her letter. She wrote again and got at last a letter and a statement of accounts. It was as follows :— Cost of production ... By Sales Deficiency £ s. d. in 16 6 £ s. d. 80 II 9 31 4 9 in 16 6 The letter deplored the heavy loss of the firm on the book, said nothingabout breaking the agreement, and offered the lady ten guineas to finish up the business. She accepted the offer, and the book is now running triumphantly in its seventh or eighth edition. It may be argued, of course, that she need not have taken the offer, considering the nature of the account rendered. I think she was right to get anything she could. I have had an estimate made of the cost of the book. It comes out as follows :- Pubjishers' bill. £ s. d. £ s. d. Cost of production 67 3 4 ... 111 16 6 Supposing the other items of engraving and advertising to be correct, we reduce the cost of production from £\\i i6y. 6d. to £67 3.C 4*/., a difference of £42 11s. ?>d.! And yet they talk of the heavy loss to the firm. Mr. Radclyffe Cooke's letter in our last number has very naturally called forth a reply from the reader concerned. He says, "May I be permitted to say that while I certainly claim no infallibility, I think Mr. Cooke has a little mistaken the gist of my 'opinion.' I said that if certain alterations were made I thought the book, especially if got up in an attractive style, 'would be accepted, and would obtain a sale. I am glad that it has obtained a success greater than I looked for." Mr. Radclyffe Cooke himself writes :— "The Editorial Comment does not meet my point, which is, that if you invite authors whose MSS. have been rejected by publishers' readers to submit them for an independent opinion to one of the readers of the Society, that opinion cannot be independent if the readers of the Society and the readers of the publishers are identically the same persons."  ## p. 133 (#169) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 06 What is an independent opinion? A. B. receives a MS. from a publisher. He is asked to give an opinion on the MS., especially as to its commercial value. He does so. He does not give a long critical opinion for the author, but merely a note for the publisher. The author receives in polite language a plain No. Suppose—which is possible, but not likely—the same reader received afterwards the same MS. from the same author, he wou;d state at length his opinion of the faults in style, the errors of taste and judgment, and the other defects which —-always in his opinion—might militate against the woik, either from a literary or a commercial point of view. He would give, in fact, such an opinion as might be of assistance to the writer. -Publishers, in fact, do not give authors a critical opinion on the MSS. submitted. Considering that they have to refuse ninety-nine per cent, of MSS. offered, it can hardly be expected thattheycan act as teachers and coachesintheartofliterarycomposition. The author receives his MS. back with a courteous letter giving no reason, or perhaps only general reasons. This is the practice. I have seen one or two carefully drawn readers' opinions, calculated to help the aspirant, but these are rare. What the Society gives is such an opinion. The reader is asked to consider a MS. partly as a schoolmaster considers a set of Latin verses, and partly as a publisher would consider it, namely, from the commercial point of view. He is asked to give his opinion partly on the artistic, dramatic, and literary worth or demerits of the work, and partly on its chances as a saleable article. As a writer or a critic of experience he can do the former; as a publisher's reader he can do the latter. This part of our work, therefore, if it is properly carried out, may be very useful indeed, and in many cases has proved very useful; for instance, a recent work was altered in accordance with the suggestions of the very reader quoted above, and has proved a very considerable success owing to these very alterations. And many young writers in consequence of the "opinion" they received, have either abandoned further effort in a hopeless direction, or are working intelligently and earnestly in the right direction. Needless to add, that these opinions have kept many young writers out of the hands of the gentry whose readers never fail to "report so favourably that they are prepared to offer the following liberal terms." Our friends, the knavish publisher and the sweating publisher, are never weary of procuring misrepresentations of the Society and its objects and actions. I saw the other day an apparently harmless paragraph, beginning about a certain literary man of eminence, but ending with the slander which was the sole reason of its existence. It was inferred, not actually stated, that the Society advocated the breaking of agreements, and regarded keeping them as "the basest way of evading a moral obligation." A similar slander was admitted some months ago into a monthly magazine, and I daresay, will be admitted in a good many other papers whenever a tool, or a fool, or a busybody can be found. Let our friends meet such charges with the assurance that the Society has always pro- claimed the necessity of keeping agreements— indeed, the law takes care of that. But that, if the Society has any influence at all, it is persistently directed to encourage the examination of agree- ments; to awaken jealousy and suspicion as to literary, as well as any other kind of property; and to make writers insist upon knowing what they concede to their agent, as well as what he proposes to give them. It is this persistence, not any exhortations to break agreements, which makes certain tools and busybodies active, and it is a sure and most satisfactory sign of influence* that they are active. It is not until the wasps' nest is disturbed that the wasps try to sting. I have received from a Victim certain papers connected with a now defunct "Association." It perished perhaps under the weight of its own vast labours, which were concerned with the advancement of literature, art, science, music, the drama, and "&c." As regards the literary depart- ment, which was managed by a gentleman calling himself the Hon. Sec, it undertook for the small sum of one guinea a year: 1. To reply by return of post to questions of all kinds; 2. To read and report on MSS.; 3. To publish works at the expense of the Association; 4. To offer MSS. for sale; and 5. To give commissions to members. Here were in- ducements for young, and even for experienced writers. The Association would publish their work at its own expense, all out of the yearly guineas! If the work was not good enough for the Association, it would be sold to publishers, w-ho, it is very well known, are content with the leavings of such a Society, and deeply grateful for getting them; and it would, besides, give commissions—what writer would not leap at the chance of getting commis- sions? A benevolent Association, truly. In one case mentioned in the prospectus, a writer whose work had been refused by seven publishers in succession, got, through the instrumentality of the Association, the sum of ^157 io.y., cash down, for it! The oddness of the amount carries convic- tion with it. The commission offered to members  ## p. 134 (#170) ############################################ 134 THE AUTHOR. was noble. It could be obtained in this way: the Association ran a sixpenny monthly magazine, which was written entirely by members. Now, any member who should procure twenty new subscribers to the magazine might receive twenty copies of the magazine for £4 a year, which of course he would sell for sixpence a copy, to his twenty subscribers, pocketing £2 a year by the transaction. His yearly subscription was also remitted to such an active worker. Never was such a disinterested Association! » The Victim was a young writer who hoped to obtain in this Association the opening which up to that time he had failed to find. He became a member—he sent up a guinea for membership, and six and sixpence for subscription to the magazine; he also sent a MS. This was immediately read by the official reader of the Society, and as an acknow- ledgment of its worth, the writer was promoted from a simple member to a "staff member," that is, "one whose contributions can be accepted and paid for immediately proofs are passed by the Editor." Here was .success! and after the nasty envious editors of the other magazines had all with one consent refused this writer's works! He submitted accordingly more MSS. He was informed that one was accepted for the magazine, and would be shortly published and paid for; that another was under consideration; and that they were "sparing no efforts to place " a third, but as yet, unsuccess- fully. The result may be foreseen. He lost his money, his time, and his MSS. Nothing was placed, nothing was published; and in course of time the "Association" disappeared. There have been several other associations or societies of a similar character during the last few years. Considering the comparative safety of the enterprise, one is astonished that there are not more. One of them called itself the City of London Pub- lishing Company. Among other little dodges of this concern they proposed to publish a volume of poetry, a copy of which was to be bought byevery contributor of a one page poem for half-a-guinea. The aim of the projectors was, of course, to make unknown poets known to the public. I never heard anything more of this volume. The Company succeeded the Charing Cross Publishing Company, and took over, I believe, the valuable business of that eminent house. The Literary Guild started in the same year, and with the same address as the City of London Publishing Company, but I know not if the two were the same concern. The objects of the Guild were to afford to amateur and non-professional authors the same advantages of popularity and price enjoyed by established writers. The prospectus promised to "introduce them"—one does not know how—"to the reading public," and "to open to the inexperienced the road to one of the most agreeable and remunerative of the professions." Through the agency of the Guild, members, we are told, might publish on exceptional terms—and so on. The Guild, in fact, was an agency, whether connected or unconnected with the City of London Publishing Company does not appear. I do not know if the Guild still exists. Its members were entitled to affix the letters M.L.G. after their names. That, indeed, was a most valuable privilege. But the Company during its existence succeeded in pursuading a good many to believe in them, and published no fewer than a hundred and fifty books, and not one in the whole list that anybody ever heard of! The London Literary Society was the longest lived of these bogus publishers. It lasted for eight or nine years. The manager of this Society, in fact, the chairman and the committee, and the secretary, all in one, was a gentleman, now' un- fortunately bankrupt. He had some genius, as shown in the invention of a certain clause in the letter which he invariably sent on the receipt of a MS. He said, "Sir or Madam,—Our reader has reported so favourably on your MS. that we are prepared to offer you the following terms. We are willing to produce the work shortly .... and meet all demands for sales, through the trade, up to io,oco copies, at the publishing price of provided you pay us j£ "(generally double the actual cost of production), "and give us one-half the profits." The notion of modestlylimiting his liability to 10,000 copies caught the flats right and left, because they immediately sat down and calculated how much they would get on a sale of 10,000 copies at least. The London Literary Society (Manager, Playster Steeds) is now defunct, but a business of the same kind, including the favourable report of the reader, the offer to meet all sales up to so many thousand, and the proviso of the cheque down, is still carried on by a firm called Digby and Long. We have in the office a letter signed J. Baptiste Long for J. Playster Steeds. That gentleman when passing his examination in the Bankruptcy Court, stated that Long had been his clerk. Messrs. Digby and Long wrote to the Publishers' Circular, on Novem- ber 15th, 1888, protesting that their firm had never had anything to do with the Literary Society.  ## p. 135 (#171) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. i35 Lastly, we have a little legal document connected with Digby and Long, in which the Christian name of Long is given as J. Baptiste Long, so that, after all, there would seem to be a kind of a sort of a succession or connection, apart from the similarity in the conduct of the business. To make an end of these so-called companies, there was the Amateur Authors' Association, hailing from Windsor. The "manager " of this precious concern vanished with all the MSS. There was another man called Bentley who advertised for MSS. Many were taken in, thinking of the well known firm in New Burlington Street. This person also vanished with all the MSS. There was quite lately one McGuire, who vanished under circum- stances detailed in the first number of The Author. There are doubtless others contemplating the same career. Let us be on the watch for them. One thing is truly astonishing, that respectable people—people of decent position—should befound to give their names in support of these schemes. Thus the Literary Society had quite a long list of apparently respectable people who were called patrons. They thought, I suppose, that to figure on such a list, gave them a position in the literary world. As regards authors, it is quite certain, that credulity will never cease. It is as lasting and as full of life as the roguery which feeds and thrives upon it. It seemscruel to disturb the innocent faith of a guileless world, but really one is jealous! Why should publishers, alone of all trades, professions, and callings, bear upon their front the seal of perfect sincerity and honesty? We are always exhorting everybody to extend to this class of community exactly the same confidence—that, and no more—that is offered to every other trade or calling. Yet no sooner does a man call him- self publisher than the simple folk rush into the trap that he has spread for them. The other day an advertisement appeared in one of the morning papers to the effect that a "literary firm" was ready to give clerical work to ladies in their own homes. Applicants were instructed to write to "Publisher "—the advertiser knew the saintliness which clings to that venerated name—and to enclose a stamp for reply. In two days 1,100 letters reached the address. The advertiser, un- luckily, did not apply for them. His courage failed. One or two of the letters were opened. Finally they were all opened by the Post Office and sent back to their writers. Now here is a case in which an active detective should have rooted out the whole business. The man should be caught and prosecuted. To call himself a publisher, in- deed! To trade on the character for disinterested- ness and generosity which belongs to that body! It was a touch of genius, however. I would advise him next time to "go one better." He should advertise the address of the "S.P.C.K." He would then get a million answers, so great is the admira- tion of the world for that venerable Society and its publishing department. I have read in one or two papers that I am endeavouring to establish an Authors' Club. This is news to me. I am endeavouring no such thing. It is true that an Authors' Club has been spoken of, and that it may be attempted in friendly union with the Society, not as a part of it nor in oppo- sition to it. The Society exists for the purpose of advancing and protecting authors' material interests, pot for social purposes, and if authors will only be good enough all to belong to it—at present we number only 600 instead of 1,000 at least—there can be no doubt of efficient safeguarding. One difficulty in forming such a club would seem to be the fact that a club implies a certain uniformity of social level. Now authors belong to a great many social levels, and though there can be no reason why they should not, as members of the same profession, meet together in friendliness, we do not see that other professions do so. There is a Law Institute which is a kind of club, but it is really a society for protecting the material interests of solicitors. There are military clubs, but then all military men are supposed to be on the same social level. At the same time, for country or suburban members—even for town members—it would be a very useful thing if the Society could have near it a set of rooms with a library of reference, conve- nience for writing, facilities for getting lunch or afternoon tea, and so forth; in fact, a house of call and convenience. And this has certainly been suggested a rid advocated by several persons. ►— Mr. Brander Mathews has sent me the little book of the Authors' Club in New York. The objects of the club are stated in the prospectus to be for "literary and library purposes, and the promotion of social intercourse among authors." It is to consist of not more than 300 men—no ladies. All the members are to be actual authors; the sub- scription is four pounds a year and five pounds  ## p. 136 (#172) ############################################ 136 THE AUTHOR. entrance; the club is to assemble fortnightly; the committee elect; the fortnightly meeting means, I believe, a dinner; and there are about 250 mem- bers. I understand that the club rooms are generally empty except at the fortnightly meeting. This seems as if American authors were not exactly clubable among each other. Whether we have an Authors' Club or not, what we want most is a Members' House of Call—and perhaps some day we may get it, though our annual guinea sub- scription would not go very far towards supporting it. ♦ An interesting experiment in publishing is about to be tried, which we shall follow with great curiosity. It will, if successfully carried out, as there seems every hope that it will be, reveal practically what we have advanced and maintained from estimates and the piecing together of infor- mation, namely, the need of exact information as to the proportion of publishers' profits on successful works compared with author's. I would suggest to the inventor of this scheme that the greater reticence he observes about it for the present, the better it will be for the scheme. Once successful, all the world may know and follow the example. Once divulged, every kind of opposition, hindrance, and secret spokes will be set for it. An entirely new profession has lately come into existence, and though in these days every honest way of making money is immediately thronged, and this way will certainly prove no exception, it is in these columns freely offered and given away. There are as yet only two ways of practising it, but of course the wit of man will speedily multiply those ways. First, you write to as many well-known men as you can; you ask them, as if you were thirsting for knowledge, for an opinion on any point that happens to be under discussion at the time. When you have got answers from most of them, advertise autograph letters from W. E. G., or anybody else, containing his opinion on such and such a subject. Price of this unique autograph letter—two guineas. An industrious man who knows how to choose and to change the subject may do very well indeed on this lay. The second method is simpler. You write for an autograph, you keep on writing to everybody until you have got quite a nice collection, because it is surprising how many people will grant your simple prayer. You then advertise your collection for sale. One young gentleman of sixteen who has already begun to practise this business, confidently hopes to pay his expenses through Oxford out of the proceeds. The following lines seem to show that the practice is of great antiquity. We may yet chance somewhere upon a collection with the autographs of Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. Nomina facta manu venatur odora viri vis; En, sibi vir prcedam destinat ille suam; Nescit ut accipiter flecti, miserescere tigris, Sic quoque venator solvere nescit iter. Et licet aufugiens se victima torqueat usque, Haud mora; mox proprio sanguine tincta jacet Turn spolia assiduus retulit venator opima, Collectasque novo nomine ditat opes. To which the following is tendered as an imi- tation :— The autograph hunters are keen on the scent, The autograph hunters have singled their prey; As a hawk cannot swerve, or a tiger relent, So these never turn them nor stop on their way. And though he may wriggle and though he may run, The quarry will presently lie in his gore; And the autograph hunter, his victory won, With exult o'er the fallen with one name the more. * A scrap-book library is being formed in the Brooklyn Library to utilise the material relating to topics of interest which would be lost in the files of the daily papers. Its nucleus was the gathering of a large number of excerpts from the newspapers by one Wilcox, a war correspondent. The librarian, Mr. Bardwell, got his assistants to sort the scraps, and they were arranged by subjects and pasted on sheets of uniform size. They are not bound, but are on heavy manilla paper, and additions can be made at any time. Those relating to any particular subject are put together in a box, which is properly labelled, and the subjects are arranged in alphabetical order. For some subjects several boxes are needed, as biography, for instance. It is as easy to find any particular topic in the boxes as in an encyclopaedia or dictionary. Besides 50 volumes already made up, with about 350 clippings in each, there are three times as many not yet pasted and prepared for use, making a total of over 75,000 clippings. This seems a thing to be imitated. Mr. Howells made an onslaught in the August number of Harpers on the literary critic, and especially on the anonymous critic of the news- papers. The Boston Herald has taken up the case. Here the writer declares that so far as America is concerned there are not more than  ## p. 137 (#173) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 137 half-a-dozen journals whose critical judgments of current literature carry weight and credit for more than book-advertising. "Literary criticism in the United States was never at so low as ebb. Mr. Howells is justifiedin what he saysof the anonymous American critic. He is dreadful in his blunders, in his bad manners, and in the venom which is too often characteristic of his work. This is due to the fact that but little attention is paid to critical writing. It is thrown out of the magazines, it has but a precarious existence in the weekly papers, it lacks authority in the purely literary journals, and very few of the principal dailies employ critical writers who are competent for their task." ♦ What about our own criticisms? In the matter of literary criticism there are two or three pro- vincial papers a long way ahead of the London dailies, which have mostly got into the unholy habit of lumping all the books together, and dis- missing each with a few lines. Of the weeklies it cannot be said that they have in any way lost their authority. A good review in the Saturday, the Spectator, or the Guardian, is still excellent for stimulating the demand. Unfortunately the Spec- tator's notices are too often belated. I recall the case of a certain book which appeared in a certain month of May. By the month of November it had had a great run; but the first rush after it was over, the libraries could do without more copies, and people were borrowing copies instead of buy- ing them. At this time appeared a notice of the book—long and laudatory—in the Spectator. It was too late—the world had already pronounced (verdict, and the book had practically had its run. Another point in which authors veniure to disagree with the Saturday, the Spectator, the Athemcum, and the Academy, is the lumping of all the novels, all the theological books, or indeed, all the books of any one class, into one article, and reviewing them each with half-a-dozen lines. Now if a novel is worth reviewing at all, it is worth reviewing seriously, and as a work of art. Certainly there is not an average of two novels a week which are worth reviewing seriously. Again, ;t cannot but be known to the editors that three-fourths of the novels are paid for by the authors—that can always be told by the name of the publisher: that these things are always the sorry rubbish refused by the better houses; that nobody ever buys them, and that to review them is labour, time, temper, and space absolutely thrown away. Does one review all the trash and daubs that hang on the walls of the Royal Institute or the Grosvenor among and between the good pictures? An unadorned marble cross has been set up over the grave of Wilkie Collins in Kensal Green Cemetery with the words, "Author of 'The Woman in White' and other works of Fiction" placed underneath the name and usual dates. A few yards away lies Sydney Smith, and not much farther distant, Leigh Hunt. On May 7th of this year a MS. was sent to a certain journal for the editor's consideration. On June 5th, exactly four weeks later, the editor says that he thinks he can shortly use it. On this understanding the author allows the MS. to remain until September 28th, when he sends a reminder on September 26th. The editor writes that he may be able to use it for a Christmas number. Again on this understanding the author allows the MS. to remain. On October 2nd the editor instructs a secretary to write that he will not be able "for some time" to give "any further information " about the subject. He therefore sends back the MS. This is five months after receiving it. Is there any other business in the world where the common courtesies of civilized life are so little regarded as in literary matters? Here is an author—not un- known or obscure—kept cooling his heels on the kerbstone for five months while the editor makes up his mind. Four months after promising to use the MS. he sends it back. A writer in Life is responsible for the following story. It would not be printed here but for the fact that similar cases have been brought before the Society by victims. And it is a pity that the exact accounts in this case are not given, because it would seem as if the case might be really worse than the editor thinks. He says that in receiving the arcounts for a certain work, written either by himself or by some friend, he made the discovery that 25 per cent, had been fraudulently charged on all the accounts, which showed a profit of ^7 ioj. Also he says that the book had run through three editions. Now, I do not know what kind of book that is of which three editions—3,000 copies—could be sold to produce a profit of only £1 10s., even making allowance for the fraudulent 25 per cent., or by what kind of agreement the result was arrived at. The author, on discovering the fraud, called upon that publisher and demanded a cheque for the whole amount, with interest. And he got it. This strong-armed person has now taken up the case of two ladies, who have given him a power of attorney to act for them, Let us await the result.  ## p. 138 (#174) ############################################ 138 THE AUTHOR. We have to deplore the death of one who has been a steady friend of the Society from its founda- tion, the Rev. Henry White. He published little, but his sympathies with literature and with those who make the literature of the day were deep. His loss will be widely deplored. The Church has few clergymen who can quite fill the place he occupied in public esteem and affection. Walter Besant. * "THE METHODS OF PUBLISHING."* THIS book may be regarded as a sequel to the "Cost of Production." In that work, which was issued for the use of members only, men of letters learned for the first time what is the actual cost of composing, printing, paper, and bind- ing, for the production of books of various kinds. The little book was the result of a great deal of trouble, investigation, comparison of estimates and consultation with printers. Even when finished it has been found incomplete in parts, and a new edition is under preparation. Meantime, there has been accumulating in the offices of the Society since its foundation a great quantity of "cases," generally of complaint arid grievance. Nearly every one of these cases contains among its papers and letters an agreement signed by the publisher and the author. In this way the Society has been enabled to peruse agreements from nearly every publishing house in the country. In the same way it has also been enabled to learn the tricks and frauds which these agreements may be designed to cover in the hands of unscru- pulous men. Now a signed agreement can only, as a rule, even when it can be clearly proved to be one-sided, unjust, and procured by misrepresenta- tion, be broken and set aside by a costly and doubtful action in the High Court of Justice. Con- sequently, in many of the cases brought to the Society in which highly unjust agreements had been carried out to the letter, no redress could be obtained. When a man signs a document which he does not understand, he has only himself to blame if the agreement places him, bound hand and foot, in the hands of a robber. It is therefore ap- parent that prevention is better than attempt to cure. This conclusion is the raison d'etre of the book. Mr. Sprigge designs, by classifying agreements, quoting examples, explaining the meaning of ciauses, * " The Mclhoils of Publishing," by S. Squire .Sprigge. (Jlaiiher, Strand. Trice 4s. t>d. and exposing the frauds and tricks that are carried on under cover of agreements, to educate his readers into a becoming jealousy of their property, whether it lies in fields or in written pages. We have long lifted up a warning voice and cautioned authors against signing any agreement whatever, underany pretence or after any representa- tions, without advice—and that, not from their own solicitors, or from any lawyer lhat offers, but from the Society whose business it is to protect them. We are now in a position to explain and justify this admonition. Authors may now read for themselves and learn in detail what is actually and daily practised, and what is the meaning of the various clauses by which they sign away, and part with, valuable property. In other words—Let no writer sign any agree- ment until he has teamed what the publisher reserves for himself, and what he proposes to give the author. In no other transaction affecting property would one party dare to present an agreement designedly drawn up so that the other party should understand nothing of what it means. The book is very earnestly recommended to the attention of every person engaged in literature. It is designed as the most serious contribution to the defence of the author ever yet offered—most serious because it is the only paper which rests, not on argument, but on facts and figures. These facts cannot be denied, nor can these figures be dis- proved. They are all in the archives of the Society, and can, if necessary, be published at length with the names of the publishers con- cerned. Probably, however, they will not be anxious for this kind of publicity. The position of the Society in respect to this kind of information is absolutely unique. No publishers have it; no single individual possesses this knowledge; no other body possesses it; and the whole of it has been placed in Mr. Sprigge's hands. The book is divided into eleven chapters. The first two of these are devoted to the general consideration of literary property. The next four to the four methods under which all kinds of pub- lishing may be classed, viz., the Half Profit System, the Royalty System, Sale Outright or Limited, and Publishing on Commission. Agreements of all kinds will be found set forth at length and analyzed in these chapters. The remaining five deal chiefly with certain common ways of trickery, with the statement of such safeguards as may protect the author. One quotation only shall be made here. It is a short summing up as to the laxity with which literary property is generally treated :— "At present it would seem that too often the author does not, and the publisher cannot, rea''~e  ## p. 139 (#175) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 139 that literary property has an existence and a value. "If a man believed his book was an actual property he would not deal with it by methods so vague, unsatisfactory, and unbusinesslike, under agreements teeming with clauses he does not understand. "He would not dispose of his right over it without the formality of a written agreement. He certainly would not airily hand over to the publisher his rights in other property of a similar kind whose value he does not yet know, and for an indefinite number of years, simply on request. "He would insist upon alleged expenditure being proved to him, before his account was debited with it. "He would insist upon having accounts rendered at the right times, and his executors at his death would similarly insist. "lastly, if a man thought his MS. was a property in the sense that his watch is a property, what would he do if he found that, in spite of his letters, he could not get it returned to him by the tradesman who had it for inspection?" * "THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF THE CHURCH." I. Memorandum on the S.P.C.K.'s relations to Authors, drawn up by the ^ijb-Committee appointed to consider the Charges made in Mr Besant's Pamphlet. I.—The principles on which the Society's publishing business is conducted. THE Society for Promoting Christian Know- ledge is not a General Publishing Agency. The sole purpose of its publishing enterprise is to produce and circulate as widely as possible a wholesome literature, both religious and secular. This purpose is realised by putting on its publications as low a price as is consistent with giving a fair re- muneration to Authors, and securing such a margin of profit as will protect the Society against a finan- cial loss. The average yearly profit of its entire business has for many years been about ^6,000, and is not a larger percentage on the capital employed than the vicissitudes of a very large publishing business require for its stability. More- over, this profit is not really profit accruing to the Society through purchases by the public, inasmuch as the Society annually gives away in Grants of Books several thousand pounds more than the profit, and in the ledgers of the Publishing Depart ment credit is taken for all these grants, averaging some ^12,000 a year. It will be thus seen that the sales and grants of books, taken together, so far from bringing in a revenue applicable to other purposes, take several thousand pounds annually out of the Society's income. II. —Dealings with Authors. 1. Royalties (varying from one-tenth to one-sixth of the published price) are in ordinary circumstances paid to writers who are recognized as specialists in any particular subject, or whose names, inserted on the title-page of a book, would give it a distinctly greater commercial value than the book would have if published by the Society without fuch name. Some writers who would naturally fall into this class prefer a sum down in place of a royalty. 2. Commissions for most of the chief works of fiction, published every autumn, are given before- hand to writers of whose competence the Com- mittee is satisfied, on the following conditions :— "If the work be accepted by the Society, the sum of £ will I>e paid you for the copyright, which will then be the property of the Society. The Society will reserve to itself the right to use the author's name. If the Committee for any reason do not accept the work on behalf of the Society, one-half of the sum offered for the copyright will be paid to you; and you will have in addition the offer of the use of the standing type with a view to your making other arrangements for the publication of your work." The payments made in this manner are certainly as high as, and probably higher than, those offered by other publishers for the same class of litera- ture. 3. Besides these commissioned works, the Society receives unsought, every year, thousands of MSS. of small stories, which are offered without condition for the Society's approval and for publi- cation. Such of these MSS. as the Committee may approve are paid for according to the Committee's view of their merit, but generally somewhat lower than the scale adopted in the case of commissioned works. The Society has had no reason to suppose that these payments have been disappointing to the writers who have contributed works to the Society. III. —Royalties v. Copyright. It has sometimes been suggested, and the suggestion is endorsed by Mr. Besant, that it would be better that all writers for the Society should be paid by royalty, but it is not difficult to show that the indiscriminate giving of royalties by  ## p. 140 (#176) ############################################ 140 THE AUTHOR. the Society would be inequitable, and even im- practicable. With respect to the stories and small works of fiction published with the advantage of the Society's imprimatur, it has to be remembered —whether the fact be satisfactory or not—that in most cases the circulation of such books depends at least as much upon the manner in which they are printed, bound, and illustrated—arrangements with which the writer has little or nothing to do— as upon the merit of the writer himself. The fact that this is so throws upon the Society's Com- mittees a very grave responsibility for the character of what is thus circulated by their agency, and at the same time it materially affects the question of the equitable mode of remunerating the authors of these little works. Vast quantities of such books are annually given away by the Society, or sold at a reduced rate, thus swelling the apparent sales far beyond the real purchases by the public. In fact, if royalties were given on the small works of fiction, which, by means of its peculiar organization and connections, the Society is enabled to circulate by thousands, not only would the price of the books be materially raised, and the sales proportionately diminished, but the anomaly would arise that a writer of little training and capability would, from a book costing a few days' labour, receive a far larger sum than could be obtained either by royalties or otherwise by the most distinguished writers on the Society's list. Thus, a narrative Tract of four pages, which is circulated by grants to the extent of hundreds of thousands, would bring to the writer, by any appreciable royalty, a sum out of all proportion to the literary work involved, and a similar principle applies in its degree to many of the Society's larger publications. IV.—Mr. Besanfs Specific Charges. Much of Mr. Besant's pamphlet forms part of a controversy in which the author has been long engaged respecting the general system of pub- lishing adopted both in England and abroad, and into the merits of that controversy it is not necessary here to enter. With respect to his charges against the Society, the author asked, through the Guardian of January 23rd, 1889, for information from writers for the Society as to their treatment. Three of the answers he received seemed to him to call for notice, and on these his specific charges rest. 1. The first and principal case is that of a writer from whom only one book has been accepted by the Society. This book was published—not, as alleged, "two or three years ago "—but thirteen years ago. The author received a small sum for the copyright of the work (,£12 12.C), because the Committee of the time did not see their way to estimate it at a higher figure. Probably the Committee were unwise in yielding to the writer's urgency to accept it at all. As the Committee truly foresaw, it has not proved a commercial suc- cess. During the long lapse of thirteen years the apparent circulation has gradually mounted up to 5,520 copies, but a very large proportion of these have not been purchased by the public, but have been issued by the Society in grants for lending libraries, &c, at home and in the Colonies. Even crediting the bookselling account with the value of all the copies both sold and given away, the total apparent profit up to date is ,£57 8s. \od.—a very small percentage on the money sunk on it for thirteen years. No promise of future payments was made to the author; but, in reply to his inquiries, he was informed that the Society did then (what it continues to do now) give, in the shape of a gratuity, and not in any way as a con- dition of purchase of copyright, occasional pay- ments in cases where books turned out exceptionally successful. It appears evident that whatever strength may seem to be afforded by this case to the charges levelled against the Society is derived from a mis- conception of the facts. 2. The second case is that of a writer who has been contributing to the Society's list since 1861, and who has, within the last three months, been paid for a book which will appear next October. During this time she has supplied some twenty works to the Society, ranging from little tales at 2d. and 3d. each, to books of three or four hundred pages. The writer has received in all for these twenty books ^716 2s. That she has voluntarily continued to write during all these years for the Society would seem to indicate that she has had no serious cause of complaint, especially as she has, it is understood, been also publishing books through ether agencies, and has thus been able to weigh the relative terms offered to her. As to the allegation, which is made in general terms, that she received more in times past for her books than at present, the evidence, speaking in the same general way, seems to point to an opposite conclusion. In 1871 she received ^25 for a book of 50,000 words, in 1876 ^40 for a volume of 75,000 words, and in 1886 £50 for a book of 57,000 words. The varying quality of her books must also be taken into consideration, as well as the fact that some of them had been previously published elsewhere. 3. The remaining case is that of a writer who also continues to write for the Society. He has written in all for the Society since 1873 twelve small books, for which he has received .£060. He says that for his first work for the Society he received ,£30, and seven months afterwards for  ## p. 141 (#177) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. the same book an unsolicited cheque for £20. The memory of this gentleman seems to have misled him, as the Society's ledgers show no trace of such a cheque, and the inference drawn from its supposed payment must therefore be allowed to fall to the ground. The additional .£30 paid in 1882 was not a gratuity; it was payment for bringing a new edition up to date. The charge that " half the sums expended in founding Bishop- rics belong in all equity to needy authors " is of the same baseless character, as will be seen from the statement given above. Further comment on this writer's letter seems needless. Such are the grounds on which the author of the pamphlet bases his somewhat sensational indictment, and they appear signally insufficient. So far as can be ascertained, the Society holds a prominent position among publishers for its fair dealing with authors, and enjoys their esteem and even gratitude. That works of all kinds are pressed on its acceptance by thousands of writers, and that out of the many hundreds of whose services use has been made, only three seem to have responded to the invitation to state a grievance, are facts which afford strong evidence of the injustice of Mr. Besant's accusations. Nathanaei. Powell, H. C. Daubeney, H. Wace, Principal of King's College, Treasurers of S. P. C%K. Randall T. Davidson, Dean of Windsor. William Sinclair, Archdeacon of London. Brownlow Maitland. W. II. Clay. C. J. Bun yon. July 25, 1890. _ II. The Reply to the Memorandum. I.—The Principles of the S.P.C.K. This is the document which is tendered as a reply to my pamphlet. It contains a false state- ment on its very title. I made no charges in that pamphlet. I called the attention of the Publica- tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. to certain well- known and recognized principles in the acquisition and the administration of literary property. I enu- merated certain classes of publishers. I then detailed certain cases selected from a great many in my hands; and I asked the Committee to which class they themselves belong. It is to this question that we seek an answer in the Memorandum. But we seek in vain. The "Memorandum" contains four sections. Let us take each in order. The first is called "The Principles on which the Society's publishing is conducted." Principles? But there are none. The S.P.C.K. is "not a General Publishing Agency." Well, they publish, for as much profit as they can get, every kind of book. If that is not a "General Publishing Agency," what is it? "Its sole purpose is to produce wholesome literature." And make no profit? That can I not believe. If so, why was not that ^7,660 profit, made last year, divided among the sweated authors? "This purpose is realised by putting on its pub- lications as low a price .as is consistent with a fair remuneration to authors." What is "fair"? On what principles is this justice to authors? This is the gist of the whole question: what do they mean by "fair"? There is no reply. There is no attempt to reply. The signatories are so careless as to their words, so blind to the real point, or so determined to evade the real issue, that they refuse so much as to state the principles by which they are guided in deciding what is fair. Now we might very well lay the paper down at this point and refuse to read any more. But there is much more to be noted, if only to show the condition of mind to which a body of apparently intelligent men may be reduced when they are bidden to sign such a paper as this. "The average profits (we are told) amount to about ^6,000." Well, but last year they were put at £7,660. This seems, at first sight, a straightforward state- ment. But there is no such thing as a straight- forward statement in the whole paper. "An average profit of ^6,000." What is " profit"? The tradesman buys a thing for a shilling and sells it for eighteen pence. The sixpence over is his profit. The sixpence is his pay for storing and distributing, buying and selling. This a law universal in every kind of trade. In the publishing trade, if a book costs twopence to pro- duce and twopence for the author, and sells for sixpence, the twopence is the publisher's profit. Out of this he has to keep up his establishment and make his own income.* * Since they may attempt to deny this, I subjoin two publishers' accounts. They are the accounts of honourable men. One is that of the sale of one volume of Gibbon's "Decline and Kail"; the other is an account of this year, also rendered by an honourable publisher. The practice of reckoning profit on this difference is, it will be remarked, the same to-day as a hundred years ago. "State of the Account of Mr. Gibbon's ' Roman Empire."' Third Edition. Eirst Vol. Number printed, 1,000. April 30, 1777. £ s. J. Printing 90 sheets, at .£1 6s., with notes at the lx>ttom of the page ... ... ... ... 117 o o 180 reams of paper, at lgs. ... ... ... 171 o o Paid the Corrector, extra 5 5 0 Advertisements and incidental expenses ... 16 15 o ° °  ## p. 142 (#178) ############################################ 142 THE A U Til OR. The ingenious gentlemen of the S.P.C.K. have invented a new kind of profit. What they call profit is the remainder after tlu zvliole expenses of their establishment are met. Thus a partner in a house of business would say, "I have kept a whole army of clerks. I have kept up my country house and my carriages. I have paid for the boys at Cambridge and Rugby. There remain £6,000. These are the profits of my business for the year." In this case the Secretaries represent the partners. What remained over is not the profit, but the saving, of the year. Thus they made last year by selling books, .£85,013. (Report for 1889, pp. 92, 93.) They had to spend ,£22,812 in buying books to sell again, chiefly Bibles and Prayer Books. They spent on producing books, £38,375. They paid editors and authors—poor authors !— ,£2,988 altogether for the whole year. Let us deduct the money spent in buying books. ^85,013 22,812 There remains ,£62,201 They spent on producing books... •••.£38,375 There remains ,£23,826 l,00O books, at i6j. Deduct as above ... £ s. 800 0 • 3>° 0 d. 0 0 Profit on the Edition £49° 0 0 Mr. Gibbon's two-thirds is £ s. ... 326 13 d. 4 S Messrs. Strahan and Cadcll's third is ... ... 163 6 The next, an account of the present day, is ns follows. The figures are not necessary, and for obvious reasons are £400 0 0 suppressed :— £ s. </. Composing — sheets, at £— Machining ... ... ... ... ... ... Paper Corrections Binding Advertising '.. Total cost ... ■ ■£ By sale of— copies, producing £ '■ d. Less cost of production Profit ■■■£ Of which Author's two-thirds £ s. d. Publisher's one-third / as the real profit for the year on the sale of the books. On the half-profit system the authors would have had £11,913. What did they get? Less than £3,000 1 But, they say, large quantities of books are given away, "amounting to an average of £12,000 a year," so that there is a loss on the publishing business of many thousands. Observe that if they lost a hundred thousand a year by giving books away it would not affect tha question in the least. The grant of books belongs to another department. Whatever expenditure is made under this head is made out of the general funds of the Society, and from the income derived from all sources. However, let us look into the allegation. What do they give away? Chiefly Bibles and Prayer Books, as appears from the Report. They issued during the year 561,869 Bibles and Prayer Books. The greater part of the annual grant consists of Bibles and Prayer Books. Now if they had not been given away they would not have been bought. Therefore the amount expended in giving Bibles and Prayer Books must be deductedfrom both sides. Did the Committee of Inquiry inquire into the meaning of their own assertion before they set it down? If they did and discovered what it means, what are we to think of them? If they did not, but signed the Memorandum without examination, what, again, can we think of them? Suppose, for instance, ,£5,000 worth of Bibles and Prayer Books and other books bought by the Society were included in the ,£8,562 set down for grants in 1889, that amount would have to be taken from the £22,812 spent in buying books. Where then is the loss of " many thousands "? ♦ II.—On Dealings with Authors. We are told that "royalties varying from one- tenth to one-sixth of the published price are {Jven to writers who are recognized as specialists, or whose names on the title-page of a book give it a greater commercial value, &c." Did the Committee examine this statement before they made it? Do they know how to examine into the truth of such a statement? I will tell them. They shouid first learn what is meant by a royalty of one-tenth, one-sixth, &c, that is to say, what it gives the author and what it leaves the publisher. They must, of course, bear in mind at the same time the legitimate gains of the publisher,  ## p. 143 (#179) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 143 else they have no standard of right and wrong. Next, they should inquire into the reasons of the difference—why a tenth here and a sixth there? They should then demand an exact list of the books published on royalties, and ascertain what considerations the royalty fixed in each case, what the publisher made by the transaction, counting the publisher's profit legitimately in excess of receipt over expenditure, not after "establishment charges " are made. I should like very much to see this list. The variation of the royalty, without cau se assigned, is accepted by the Committee of Inquiry without the least question. Why should there be variation in a royalty? The system of royalties means an admission that the work of an author is to be remunerated in proportion to the saleable nature of the book. The money value of a property—which is a separate thing from its artistic value—means plainly what it will fetch. Further, the price of a book is always regulated by the cost of production. Thus we have (1) price; (2) cost of production; (3) difference between these two. The royalty means that propottion of the difference which should be justly divided between author and publisher: why, then, should there be any variation? As an abstract proposition there should be none. But one can quite understand a house declining to publish certain books whose sale will be small unless so small a royalty is granted to the author as will leave the masters a remunerative profit. But "recognised specialists." Take the excellent short histories issued' by the Society, for instance— Roman-Britain, Saxon-Britain, Norman-Britain— all by specialists. Did they get a royalty? Not so. They got ^50 each for the copyright. So that this statement must be received with reservations. We then come to works of fiction. They con- fess that in these books their method is to pay "a sum " down for the copyright. They do not dare to allege that in their decision as to the amount offered there is any regard whatever paid to the profits which they mean to make on the book. The most they venture to plead is an allegation that their payments are "as high as, and probably higher than," those offered by other publishers. Can anything be weaker or more unworthy of a great religious Society than such a plea? Weak, because it is evidently signed without the least investigation. Into what publishers' books did the Committee look before they put their names to this assertion? What publishers have given them information as to their treatment of novelists? I can assure them, from my own know- ledge, and most earnestly and truthfully—that the only publishers whose prices can compare with their own are the lowest class sweating publishers. I declare deliberately, and with a full knowledge of what is done in every house in London, that none but the sweating publishers can be ranked or compared with the Literary Handmaid of the Church. I have given the prices paid to one writer. I have before me those paid to a great many others. It is the same dreary tale—from £20 to ^50 for the whole copyright—sweater's prices. In my pamphlet I mentioned three authors only. They were meant to be represen- tative, and the Memorandum impudently pretends that they were all I could get! They do represent, in fact, the great bulk of the unfortunate writers who have fallen into the clutches of this religious Society. What do they prove? This. That the Society habitually and deliberately pay the lowest price that will be taken, without any reference to the profit that they know will certainly be made. Once more—He who buys a piece of work for the lowest sum which the necessities of the producer will allow him to take—knowing that he will make twice, three times, fifty times that sum for his own profit— is a Sweater. Will the Committee of Inquiry deny this propo- sition? Now, in the case even of untried and unknown writers, the Publication Committee know by ex- perience that there is a certain minimum sale on which they can confidently reckon, provided that reasonable care has been exercised in the refusal of absolute rubbish. In the case of a popular writer they can reckon on a sale of many thousands. Will the Committee enquire into the case of those few popular authors whose works have been published by the Society, and ascertain what royalties have been paid to those authors, if any. The section winds up with the allegation that the Society's authors are satisfied with their pay. That is not my experience. That is not what I learn from the dozens of letters I have received. The writers of these letters hate the Society. They loathe the Society. They say that they only write for the Society because they must. They tell me so in confidence, but they implore me not to let the Committee guess that they have done so—lest they feel the vengeance of that Committee—the Com- mittee of the Literary Handmaid of the Church! But even if all the authors in the world are con- tented with their pay, that would not make an in- justice become just. III.—On Royalties. Here follows a very muddled passage. I gather from it, if it means anything, the following remark- able statements and opinions :—  ## p. 144 (#180) ############################################ 144 THE AUTHOR. 1. The sale of books depends partly on their get-up and appearance. This is perfectly true. The fact belongs to all books, not especially those published by the S.P.C.K. It is the part of the publisher's business to put out his books handsomely. He is paid for looking after this part of the work. Therefore, says the Memorandum, an author must not have a royalty. The connection of thought is difficult to follow. 2. "Vast quantities of books are given away." I have already considered the giants. They belong to another department, and cannot be considered in connection with the Publishing Department. "Vast quantities," however, is a vague -statement. Last year books to the amount of ^8,562 were given away. If ^5,000 represents Bibles given, and ,£17,000 represents Bibles sold, we have it that about 6 per cent, of the books sold are bought by the General Department to be used in accordance with the objects of the Society. Tlurefore, says the Memorandum, the author must not expect a royalty. 3. If royalties were given, the price of the books would be raised. Indeed! Then how is it that in other houses where royalties are given the price of the books is not raised? In fact, the royalty system depends upon a proportion, not a price. It applies equally to a shilling book and to a six-shilling book. 4. If royalties are allowed, an author, by a few days' labour, would present the "anomaly" of obtaining—what ?—the produce of his own labour! Here is, indeed, an anomaly. Here is a muddle of thought. If with a few days' labour an author can produce a work which commands a large and continued sale—why not? It is his production—his book— his property. The "anomaly " is that the Society ■—a religious Society—should want to take away his property. That a body of Christian men should say, "You shall have none of this income. It is true that it is of your own making. We will take it. All shall be ours." Is it possible that the Committee of Inquiry should not understand the immorality of such a contention? 5. There seems to underlie this section a feeling that because the S.P.C.K. has exceptional powers of selling books—which I recognize fully—the books should belong to them. In other words, because the administration of property can be carried on advantageously, the property belongs to them. Or, again, because it can be sold for very- large sums, it should be bought for very small sums. I do not suppose that this view would be seriously advanced. But let us clear away the fogs, and show it in its nakedness. He who acquires property must pay for it in proportion to its value. Otherwise he is a sweater, or a thief, or both. He who administrates property must be paid in pro- portion to the extent and value of that property. Thus, an honest publisher who administers a successful book is rewarded according to the extent of his sales. The book does not belong to him because he sells a great many; but he reaps the advantage by the proportion equitably allotted to him. As a matter of fact, the larger and more important is the house, the better, we commonly find, are the terms which a successful author receives. 6. There is another very odd confusion of thought lying on the mind of the writer of this Memorandum. It is one of contempt for authors. He cannot bear to think that a little story—a simple little thing—the delicacy, artistic finish, and simplicity of which he cannot for the life of him understand—should be able to bring in for the author an income for years. That it does bring in to the Society an income for years he knows very well—has he not bought it for a ten-pound note, out and out, of the trembling gentlewoman who wrote it? But that she should have the proceeds of her own labour—that she, whom he has sweated with impunity—should get rich, is beyond him. He cannot understand it. The thing cannot be right. Why, he has bought a whole six-months' work of her for thirty pounds over and over again! IV.—Specific Charges. We come next to what are called "Specific Charges." Again, I repeat, there have been no specific charges. A few facts, out of many, were advanced, and the S.P.C.K. were invited to give their own opinion on them. 1. As to the first case—not the most important, as they pretend, but the most obvious and glaring case—they acknowledge the sale of 5,200 copies. It does not matter to us whether the other depart- ment bought them or the general public. The book is now priced at 2s. I think, but am not sure, that it was formerly 2s. 6d. This means a trade price of is. 2d. very nearly. But the ready- money sales (about one-fifth of the whole, see Report, p. 93) are at i*. 6d. each. The cost of production is about 5^. a copy. By sales— £ s. d. 4,400 at is. 2d. a copy ... 256 13 4 i, 100 at is. 6d. a copy ... 82 10 o ^339 3 4  ## p. 145 (#181) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. M5 Hence:— 5,520 at sd. Paid to Author Advertising, say Profit of the Society £ s. d. . 115 0 o 12 12 O 5 0O 206 II 4 £2,2,9 3 4 And this profit, £206—that is, seventeen times that of the author !—they call "not a commercial success "1 If these figures are wrong let us have the right ones, only let us refuse to have dust thrown into our eyes by taking savings for profit. 2. "No promise of future payments was made to the author." My client says there was. On whose authority does this Committee of Inquiry rest their asser- tion? My client insists that there was. By what right, or after what investigation, does the Com- mittee dare to deny the truth of this positive assertion? Is it on the word of one man? Why is he to be believed more than the author? Now there is one simple way of testing this fact. Have the Committee tried this way? 3. "The total profit"—we have seen the real profit above—"is ^57 8*. iod., a very small per- centage on (he money sunk in it for 13 years." The italics are my own. This sentence actually belongs to the Memorandum. Can it be possible that intelligent men should have been deluded into a statement so ridiculous? Consider. The book began with 3,000 copies, say, and subsequently another 3,000 have been printed. Thirteen years ago the sum of £70, or so, was expended in producing the book and paying the author that noble—that princely—honorarium of twelve guineas. The sale of 1,200 copies, which was certainly reached within a year, paid back this £70. Observe, therefore, that £70 was sunk in the book for the period of one year only. The interest, at 3^ per cent., on that sum for that period was Jj2 gs. exactly. That would take a few more copies. Then the ^70 was back again in the Committee's hands to be invested in some other book. It has been used over and over again in the thirteen years. It has been sunk over and over again, invested, recovered, and re-invested in twenty books. Yet the Committee of Inquiry actually advance the claim that this £70, paid off—returned to the investors—twelve years ago, should be still paying interest! In other words. A lends B ,£70. At the end VOL. I. of a year B repays the amount with interest. According to these gentlemen, B ought to be pay- ing interest to this day. 4. The second case, one of a great number, is met by the statement that the lady has received in all ^716. 5. The third case is met in the same way. The author has received in all £660. What has that to do with the question? The sweated needlewoman's pay of n^d. a-day, spread over twenty years, mounts up to the prodigious sum of ^300, and yet she is discontented. Let us make a little estimate, taking a book by the third writer, who is a capital writer for boys—and very popular. I take a 35. book by him. It is a very rough estimate, but the figures, I know by experience, are not far wrong. Sale of 5,000— £ s. d. 4,000 at if. gd. ... ... 350 o o 1,000 at 2s. 3d. ... ... 112 10 o ^462 10 o Cost of an edition of 5,000— At 8d. a copy, say Author, say... Advertising, say Profit to S.P.C.K £ s. 170 o 45 0 *5 ° 232 10 d. o o o o ^462 10 o If these figures are wrong let us have the right figures. The Committee of Inquiry affect to believe that I have three cases, and three cases only, of injustice and cruelty to allege against the S.P.C.K. In the first place, before I wrote a line, I had satisfied myself that the practice of buying their books at a miserable sweater's price, without the least regard to the profits which would accrue, is only departed from when the Committee find that they must—that they cannot get a book without some show of fair treatment. The lady, whose case I brought forward, is typical of I know not how many others. Grasping in all their dealings, the Publishing Committee make even success an excuse for lowering their terms. I will show how. A lady wrote a book and submitted the MS. They accepted it, offered her ^30, and published it. Probably they sold five or six thousand copies and cleared seven hundred. It was so successful that they in- vited her to do some work for them. She completed a second work. She took the MS. to the office and left it with the Editor, or his  ## p. 146 (#182) ############################################ 146 THE AUTHOR. representative, explaining clearly that if they wanted it they must make an offer. What did they do? They seized the MS. Having appropriated this lady's property, without her consent, they set up the copy in type, and they sent her the proof with £,■20. Her success had actually lowered her price! And they seized on her property without her con- sent. Perhaps they measured her manuscript with a tape and found it a few pages shorter than the last. One would like to know, in both cases, viz., the first and the second book, what the Society made by the transaction. Meantime, it is quite certain that no private publisher would dare so to treat the property of other people. There is another lady who has done a good deal for the Society. Her work is very fine, delicate, dainty, and of high tone. She is deservedly popular. What have her prices been? I have a list before me. She averages ^25 to £do. Let us consider. I take one of her books, pub- lished at 2S. 6d. Let us suppose an edition of 5,000, all sold. Sold— £ s. d. 4,000, at is. 6d.... ... ... 300 o o 1,000, at is. gd.... ... ... 87 10 o £387 1° o £ s. d. Cost of production, say 8d. a copy ... 166 13 4 Author, say ... ... ... ... 40 o o Profit of the Society 180 16 8 £387 10 0 Now, from an honourable house, that lady would have received at least a royalty of one-sixth, or 5*/. on every copy. She would have made over a hundred pounds, and the publisher would have made rather more. Are these enormous profits denied? Then here is a case which cannot be denied. It is a very pretty story, and, I daresay, has been placed in the hands of the President and the Vice-President by this time. A. B. wrote for the Society four books. For the first book he received a royalty, which gave the Society only double what he himself obtained; for the second he received a royalty which gave the Society three times what they gave him. Let me explain that these amounts were, on their own showing, after deducting establishment charges—the true publishers' profit was very much greater. Then there came the next two books. The author was persuaded to leave the royalty to the Society, on the ground that a fixed sum ham- pered them. Presently he became very much dissatisfied with the result. As he could get no satisfaction from them, he very properly brought an action, at the same time offering to submit the thing to arbitration. They doubtless believed that he would not dare to go into court against so powerful a corporation. But he did dare. The case was set down for hearing before Lord Coleridge. At the last moment they backed out. They consented to an arbitration. The arbitrator ordered the production of the accounts. You shall now understand how far greed can be carried by a body of Christian gentlemen. The first of the two books showed, after the precaution of knocking off establishment expenses, a profit of ^633 to the Society, and £62 to the author, a proportion of 10 : 1. The other book showed the same proportion, a profit of £1,246 to the Society, against .£130 to the author.* The arbitrator awarded a lump sum to be paid by the Society, together with all the costs of the action. This is a very pretty case. It shows that the Publication Committee simply grasp at the highest profit they can screw out of the poor unfortunate author. If this case is denied or questioned the author is willing to publish his name. Again, one of the ladies who has been writing largely for the S.P.C.K. has recently taken her work to another religious society. She receives from them the same amount which the S.P.C.K. gave, but, coupled with a royalty from the beginning. Will the Church of England be too proud to learn from the Dissenters? A writer for a Noncon- formist Society recently addressed the Secretary on the subject of the pay awarded her for the copy- right of a certain book. Remember that she had no claim; she had sold her rights. The Society, however, reconsidered her case; they said that her work had proved a far greater success than when they bought it; they sent her a large cheque, and, in addition, placed the book upon a royalty system. Again, in illustration of the unscrupulous manner in which they appropriate other people's property, here is a case :— A.B. offered to prepare a book of a special charac- ter for S.P.C.K. In reply, the Secretary wrote that he did not think that it would be a commercial suc- cess, but he would consider anything submitted. As this alone would not justify the preparation of such a * Taking the figures of the balance sheet, the establishment expenses amount to 27 per cent, of the whole profit. There- fore the whole profit on this last book would be about £2,000 against £130 to the author. Are these figures wrong? Then let them be set right.  ## p. 147 (#183) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 147 work, A. B. sent two articles which he had written, merely as specimens of the manner in which he would treat the subject. This he was careful to explain. He received a printed acknowledgment, which was all that he did receive for three months. Then to his amazement his MSS. were sent to him with proofs, but not a word of explanation, beyond a note on the MSS. probably for the printer, "Set up for Dawn of Day." Dawn of Day is a halfpenny monthly of S.P.C.K., against which A. B. has not a word to say, but that he had not the most remote intention that his articles should appear in it. As the matter had gone so far, he did not like to seem ungracious and withdraw. The articles came out in driblets, with the connection of the subject broken, and without illustrations. When the first instalment appearedheventured to askforacheque— he had parted with his MSS. for more than six months—adding a gentle hint which he thought that S.P.C.A'. would esteem, viz., that anything that he could earn with his- pen was devoted to a religious purpose. He had to wait, however, four months more, and then received the magnificent sum of three guineas for the two articles, and not a word of apology for their misappropriation. For the shilling books which the Society issues it appears that they pay £10 or jQ\2 down, and the authors have no means whatever of ascertaining their own success. There are no dates and no numbered editions. Some of them are selling for many years. Now to one who knows the large sums made by shilling books, this dealing seems to require the strongest and the plainest language. A shilling book is generally produced at 2d. or 2\d. Consider the figures— Sale of 10,000 at 6|</. ... j£21° 'fa- &d. £ s. d. 10,000 at 2\d., cost 104 3 4 Author ... ... 10 o o Advertising ... 15 o o Society's profit ... 141 13 4 ^270 16 8 The Committee of Inquiry state that the prices f aid compare with those paid by other publishers. Well, I have myself written two or three shilling books which have had a good sale. Now, had they sold only io,oco copies each I should have received royalties for each over ^, 80, and my publisher would have made nearly as much. There are, perhaps, sweating publishers who give even less than the S.P.C.K. I know of one firm where the rule is to give^5 for a shilling book,,£8 for an eigliteenpenny book, and so on. But even this is equalled by the vol.. 1. S.P.C.K. when they gave £\2 \2S. for a two shil- ling book of which they sold nearly 6,000 copies. Enough of cases. We have seen enough also of the Committee of Inquiry. In illustration of the concluding paragraph, I add one or two extracts from letters from authors who have written for this noble Society. One lady writes to say that she prays the Lord to awaken their conscience—words used not flippantly, but in deep, sad seriousness. Another—nay, a dozen others—sends her case and implores me not to let the Society know that she has done so. Clergymen have written to me begging me to persevere in throwing light—and yet more light—into this dark place! Author after author has written, all to tell the same tale of wretched pay and immense sales. Nay, in some cases, the greater the success the less is the pay. Witness the case already quoted. In token of the esteem in which the Society is held by its writers, let me add a few words taken from a letter written by one of the most charming authors of the age. She says, advising a young writer about the S.P.C.K. :— "The Society, as a rule, makes books from copyrights bought outright. It pays them best "If the work is not very good, their clientele is so large that, with a smart binding, they can command sufficient sale to save them from loss. If they are fortunate enough to have caught a young genius, their profits are very large. The profit of their book trade is enormous "—we have seen what it is. "Their publications have not, however, stood high as literature, which has led them to make great efforts to secure writers of reputation, and as these will not part with copyright, they, have to pay a royalty. Your friend's fate depends entirely on what she can command. They are notoriously close-fisted, and will not give her one farthing more than they can help"—no question of justice and honesty, then? "And if they cannot afford to part with her, they will give her anything she wants. If she thinks her book likely to continue to sell for years, 1 advise her to try for the royalty system, but if not, they have so many dodges for squeezing you at all corners, and it is so difficult to get behind the scenes, that I should think it better to struggle for a good sum down." This is very pleasant reading. This is an ap- preciation of the S.P.C.K.—to the "Literary Handmaid of the Church "—by a woman of the very highest character. I will not, in this place, give her name. Well, is there more to be said? I pointed out in my pamphlet—and I repeat here—that the sweater is one who, knov\ing before- hand that he will make a great profit, pays only what he must. The S.P.C.K., which nteci never l 2  ## p. 148 (#184) ############################################ 148 THE AUTHOR. lose by a book—and knows beforehand, within a few copies, the minimum of its sales—is proved by the cases I have alleged and by the admissions of the so-called Committee of Inquiry, to do exactly for authors what the other sweater does for needlewomen. I pointed out in the pamphlet certain plain broad principles of honest publishing. They are not my invention. They are acted upon by every honourable house; they are reduced to a system in France. The Committee refuse so much as to consider them. They say that "part of the pam- phlet" is part of a controversy in which I have long been engaged. It is not part of a contro- versy. These principles have never formed part of any controversy, because no honourable pub- lisher has ever disputed them. I pointed out that the S.P.C.K. frequently followed the plan adopted by all sweating pub- lishers, of carefully concealing the date of the book and the number of the edition, so that the author shall not learn his own popularity. No notice is taken of this point. I pointed out very carefully that the eighth Com- mandment must be read with reference to literary property. It must, by all honest men. The Committee of Inquiry pass over this point. Why? Can that also be part of a controversy with English clergymen and gentlemen of honour? I pointed out that their list of authors does not include half-a-dozen authors of repute. I asked why the best authors never go near the S.P.C.K. The Committee of Inquiry give no answer. There is no answer to give, except the answer that I sub- mit, viz., that none who can escape the sweater's yoke submit to it of their own accord. Had the Committee of Inquiry inquired at all, they wouldhave foundoutthesecases for themselves. But they have not. To inquire means taking trouble; it also looks suspicious; and it needs a clear head because of the dust that would be thrown in their eyes. Such an inquiry would reveal very startling things to those who understand what is meant by honourable publishing. So to all the real questions at issue, no answer. What is an equitable division of profit between author and publisher? No answer. On what principles are their authors paid? No answer. How much his the Society made—profit, not savings—out of the lady whose case was advanced? No answer. Why do the foremost living authors refuse to enter their walls? No answer. Why do the clergy themselves—those who are leaders in literature—never go to the S.P.C.K.? No answer. Why do not the Bishops themselves—let me add —go to the Society of which they are Vice-Presi- dents? To this question also there will be no answer. Now, if the Publication Committee dare to brave a real inquiry, which (hey will not do unless it is forced upon t/iem, I will tell the inquirers how to set to work. They must send in outside accountants—pro- fessional accountants—who must be instructed to proceed after a uniform method. This will be quite simple. They must construct a table as follows, and fill it in. first itions bpies T3 6 1 aid to the er. ook. s 1 v e m 0 "o . O N & J unt p thor. ox V 0 a Title Date 9 dl JM s |J 0 ! Profi Pu iss d Q. > 6< < * < The profit will be the difference between the cost of production (including the author) and the sales. That is publisher's profit. When this table is constructed, and not till then will the true nature of the transactions of the S.P.C.K. stand out revealed to the world. We shall then understand to its full extent what can be accomplished behind the shield of religion and under the secrecy of books undated, editions un- numbered, and accounts concealed. W. B. * AMERICAN LITERATURE IN AMERICA. IF we were to take any four consecutive numbers of the Athenceum or Academy, and classify the books reviewed, noticed, or announced in those numbers, we should arrive at a pretty accurate idea of the books published during these four or five weeks. In the same way, if we take four consecutive numbers of the Critic of New York, we shall arrive at the books published in the States during the same period. There are now before us the numbers of that paper from August 16th to September 13th, but that for September 6th has somehow been mislaid. Let us see what books are reviewed in these four numbers. The  ## p. 149 (#185) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 149 titles are written in the order of the reviews and notices as they come, and without any attempt at classification. Kipling's Plain Tales of the Hills. Macmillan. M. Conway Hawthorne. Great Writer Series. Walter Scott. Lovell and Co. Canadian and Australian Verse. Lovell and Co. Cassell. FitzGerald's Omar Khayyam. Macmillan. Mrs. McGahan's Xenia Repnina. Routledge. George Ohnet's Pytre's Soul. Cassell. The Blind Men and the Devil. Lee and Shepard. 50 cents. Smitten and Slain. Nelson and Co. Blind Musician. Stepniak and Westall. Lovell and Co. Aline. Greville. Appleton. 50 cents. A Smuggler's Secret. Frank Barrett. Lovell and Co. Ida. Mabel Collins. Lovell and Co. Boston Unitarianism. Nottingham. G. P. Putnam and Sons. Defoe's Complcat Gentleman, David Nutt. Northern Studies. Edmund Gosse. Walter Scott. Lovell and Co. Hanley's Views and Reviews. Scribner. fava, the Pearl of the East. Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Drury's Journal in Madagascar. Macmillan. Sister Saint Sulpia. Valdes. Lovell and Co. Guy de Maupassant. New Stories. Minerva Pub- lishing Co. Guy de Maupassant. Pierre et Jean. Routledge. Stanley. In Darkest Africa. Sampson Low. Scribner. Underwood's Corean Dictionary. Randolph and Co. Molee's Pure Saxon English. Rand, McNalty and Co. Hearne's Youma. Harper and Bros. Italian Characters. Martenengo Cesaresco. Scribner and Welford. Hall's Society in the Elizabethan Age. Macmillan. Harland's Two Women or One. Cassell. Bjomson's In God's Way. Gosse. Lovell and Co. An Artist's Heaven. Octave Feuillet. Cassell. Written in Red. Cassell. Were they Sinners? Authors' Publishing Co. Vivien. Cassell. Annie Edwardes' Pearl Poivder. Lippincott. Mad. de Mauriscamp. O. Feuillet. Lippincott. 7ss Americains chez Eux. Paris Librairie de la Nouvelle Reveu. Fascimiles of MSS. relating to America. London. Stevens. Poetry. Three English and Three American Poets, Foster's Studies in Theology. Hunt and Eaton. Kipling's Phantom Rickshaw. Lovell. Payn's Burnt Million. Harper and Bros. Throctmcnton. Seawell. Appleton. Stead's Passion Play. Merrill and Co. Three novels from the French. Here are forty-five books reviewed and noticed; of these nine are French or translated from the French, nine are American, the rest are all English. Now it may be that at this time of year there are fewer books of native production than earlier or later. But what should we think were we to find in an English review twenty-six books written by Americans to nine written by Britons—a proportion of one hundred to thirty-six, or nearly three to one? This, then, is one result of the present system, and a result which everybody can understand. The American author is ousted and starved to make room for the Englishman, who, poor wretch, is starved although he is received. * AN OLD MAN'S REJOINDER. IN the domain of literature loftily considered (an accomplished and veteran critic in his just out work* now says), "the kingdom of the Father has passed; the kingdom of the Son is passing; the kingdom of the Spirit begins." Leaving the reader to chew on and extract the juice and meaning ot this, I will proceed to say in melanged form what I have had brought out by the English author's essay (he discusses the poetic art mostly) on my own, real, or by him supposed, views and purports. If I give any answers to him, or explanations of what my books intend, they will be not direct but indirect and derivative. Of course this brief jotting is personal. Something very like querulous egotism and growling may break through the narrative (for I have been and am rejected by all the great magazines, carry now my 72nd annual burden, and have been a paralytic for 18 years). No great poem or other literary or artistic work of any scope, old or new, can be essentially con- sidered without weighing first the age, politics (or want of politics) and aim, visible forms, unseen soul, and current times, out of the midst of which it rises and is formulated: as the Bible canticles and their days and spirit—as the Homeric, or Dante's utterance, or Shakespeare's, or the old Scotch or Irish ballads, or Ossian, or Omar Khayyam. So I have conceived and launched, and worked for years at, my "Leaves of Grass" —personal emanations only at best, but with specialty of emergence and background — the ripening of the nineteenth century, the thought and fact and radiation individuality, of America, the Secession war, and showing the democratic condi- tions supplanting everything that insults them or impedes their aggregate way. Doubtless my poems illustrate (one of novel thousands to come for a * Two new volumes, "Essays Speculative and Suggestive," by John Addington Symonds. One of the Essays is on "Democratic Art," in which I and my books are largely alluded to and cited ai d dissected. It is this part ot the vols, that has caused the off-hand lines above—(first thank- ing Mr. S. for his invariable courtesy of personal treatment). The Essays are remarkably tine specimens of type, paper, and press work—Chapman & Hall their English publishers —and jobbed here by Scribners, New York.  ## p. 150 (#186) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. long period) those conditions; but "democratic art " will have to wait long before it is satisfactorily formulated and defined—if it ever is. I will now for one indicative moment lock horns with what many think the greatest thing, the ques- tion of art, so-called. I have not seen without learning something therefrom, how, with hardly an exception, the poets of this age devote themselves, always mainly, sometimes altogether, to fine rhyme, spicy verbalism, the fabric and cut of the garment, jewelry, concetti, style, art. To-day these adjuncts are certainly the effort, beyond all else. Yet the lesson of Nature undoubtedly is, to proceed with single purpose toward the result necessitated and for which the time has arrived, utterly regardless of the outputs of shape, appearance or criticism, which are always left to settle themselves. T have not only not bothered much about style, form, art, etc., but confess to more or less apathy (I believe I have sometimes caught myself in decided aver- sion) toward them throughout, asking nothing of them but negative advantages—that they should never impede me, and never under any circum- stances, or for their own purposes only, assume any mastery over me. From the beginning I have watched the sharp and sometimes heavy and deep-penetrating objec- tions and reviews against my work, and I hope entertained and audited them (for I have probably had an advantage in constructing from a central and unitary principle since the first, but at long intervals and stages—sometimes lapses of five or six years, or peace or war). Ruskin, the English- man, charges as a fearful and serious lack that my poems have no humour. A profound German critic complains that, compared with the luxuriant and well-accepted songs of the world, there is about my verse a certain coldness, severity, absence of spice, polish, or of consecutive meaning and plot. (The book is autobiographic at bottom, and maybe I do not exhibit and make ado about stock pas- sions: I am partly of Quaker stock.) Then E. C. Steadman finds (or found) marked fault with me because while celebrating the common people en masse, I do not allow enough heroism and moral merit and good intentions to the choicer classes, the college-bred, the etat-major. It is quite probable that S. is right in the matter. In the main I myself look, and'have from the first looked, to the bulky democratic torso of the United States even for esthetic and moral attributes of serious account—and refused to aim at or accept anything less. If America is only for the rule and fashion and small typicality of other lands (the rule of the etat-major), it is not the land I take it for, and should to-day feel that my literary aim and theory had been blanks and misdirections. Strictly judged, most modern poems are but larger or smaller lumps of sugar, or slices of toothsome sweetcake—even the banqueters dwelling on those glucose flavours as a main part of the dish. Which perhaps leads to something: to have great heroic poetry we need great readers—a heroic appetite and audience. Have we at present any such? Then the thought at the centre, never too often repeated. Boundless material wealth, free politi- cal organization, immense geographic area, and unprecedented "business" and products—even the most active intellect and "culture "—-will not place this Commonwealth of ours on the topmost range of history and humanity—or any eminence of " democratic art "—to say nothing of its pinnacle. Only the production (and on the most copious scale) of loftiest moral, spiritual and heroic personal illustrations—a great native Literature headed with a Poetry stronger and sweeter than any yet. If there can be any such thing as a kosmic modern and original song, America needs it and is worthy of it. In my opinion to-day what is meant through civilized nations everywhere by the great words Literature, Art, Religion, &c, with their conven- tional administerers, stand squarely in the way of what the vitalities of those great words signify, more than they really prepare the soil for them, or plant the seeds, or cultivate or garner the crop. My own opinion has long been, that for New World service our ideas of beauty (inherited from the Greeks, and so on to Shakespeare—query—■ perverted from them?) need to be radically changed, and made anew for to-day's purposes and finer standards. But if so, it will all come in due time—the real change will be an autochthonic, interior, constitutional, even local one, from which our notions of beauty (lines and colours are won- drous lovely, but character is lovelier) will branch or offshoot. So much have I now rattled off (old age's garrulity), that there is not space for explaining the most important and pregnant principle of all, viz.: that Art is one, is not partial, but includes all times and forms and sorts—is not exclusively aristocratic or democratic, or oriental or occi- dental. My favourite symbol would be a good font of type, where the impeccable long-primer rejects nothing. Or the old Dutch flour-miller who said, "I never bother myself what road the folks come—I only want good wheat and rye." The font is about the same forever. Democratic art results of the democratic development from tinge, true nationality, belief, in the one setting up from it. Walt Whitman. {In the New York Critic.)  ## p. 151 (#187) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. LEAFLET No. IV. The Quarrels of Authors. IT has been the melancholy privilege of authors, for two hundred years at least, that everything which fortune brings to them, whether good or bad, shall sooner or later become known to all the world This exclusive privilege will, there is reason to believe, shortly be withdrawn from them, partly because they have become too numerous for its general exercise, and partly because other people are beginning to think that their own lives are quite as interesting as those of authors. Hitherto people who are not authors have been contented to sit down and endure in silence. Think of what we know concerning judges compared with what we know concerning poets. Compare the personal interest attached to the names of Erskine, Mansfield, VVedderburn, with that which belongs to Pope, Dryden, Gold- smith. Who wants to know how a Q.C. lives, what letters he writes, what friendships and enimities he makes? Who, again, cares for a life of the ordinary physician? Yet quite small authors find their biographers, and even when one cannot reach the level which demands a special biography, there are countless volumes of re- miniscences, autobiographies, and memoirs which serve to rescue the small fry from oblivion, and set them once more talking and acting, writing, feasting, and drinking for the admiration of pos- terity. The world, I believe, first began to like memoirs of authors because they were the only articulate creatures, and they naturally liked to talk about themselves. Therefore the only memoirs were those written by literary men. Then they have always been such unlucky creatures—born with a most splendid birthright, a noble inheritance, which has always been snatched away from them. Their very misfortunes have lent interest to their lives. For another reason, their lives used to contain quan- tities of letters, and there is no reading in the world more delightful than the reading of letters. Consider the tons of books written about authors, the masses of recollections and memoirs of persons connected with literature. The world reads all; it makes little distinction; it receives the auto- biography of Leigh Hunt with as much joy as if it had been that of Shelley, and it devours the Recollections of a Jerdan with as much avidity as the Confessions of Rousseau. The literary calling, chiefly owing to this readi- ness of authors to talk and of the world to listen, has been so fully illustrated that there seems nothing new to be said about it. Within the memory of man, however, a great change has come over the profession. The Bohemian has well-nigh disappeared; the author has become re- spectable. He no longer thinks it due to the profession that he should behave, even while he is in the twenties, after the manner depicted by Henri Miirger, or, when he is past the twenties, like certain gentlemen of the pen in Thackeray He is even, gradually and slowly, becoming a man of business; He actually demands the audit of his accounts, and he has begun to refuse signing agreements unless he knows what they mean. There are also signs that he is beginning to give up his old bad habit of quarrelling with his brother author. The last is a great step in advance. When an author is no longer ready to fall upon a rival writer; to overwhelm him with contempt: to sting him with epigram, and be- labour him with abuse, there will be the greater hope of his rising to the level of acting with his brother as one member of a profession acts with another—for mutual protection and advantage. Hitherto, it may fairly be said that in no other profession has there ever been witnessed or allowed such unbridled license, such unrestrained insolence of speech, as has been claimed and practised by literary men towards each other. No one can even think of a barrister speaking of another barrister in such terms as are still sometimes used by one author speaking of another. Can we understand the Law Times opening its columns to a young barrister who desires to call his seniors quacks in law and humbugs in oratory? Does one physician charge another in the Lancet with ignorance? Does one architect, in the organs of that calling, accuse another of theft? No. He is  ## p. 152 (#188) ############################################ 152 THE AUTHOR. restrained, first by the unwritten law of the pro- fession, which enjoins the outward signs of respect; and next by the simple laws of good breeding, which do not allow men always to tell each other what they think. Why, some of the very best things recorded of the "wits" are things which in any other class would not be tolerated for a moment. There is, one acknowledges with grati- tude, a marked improvement of late years; yet even now, every editor is quite ready to admit from one literary man an attack upon another. It is not many months ago that there appeared, in a monthly magazine of high standing, an attack upon a living author by another, so scurrilous, so virulent, so full of rage and malice, that it ought to have been brought into a High Court of Justice. But I suppose it never occurred, either to the editor who admitted this article, or to the man who wrote it, that in no other profession would such an article by one follower of the craft concerning another have been admitted, and that a barrister would be disbarred if he dared to write such a paper on the professional character of another barrister. In the old days literary men rejoiced and gloried in giving pain; they killed each other if they could, with abuse and contempt. They loved to dance and jump upon another man simply because he belonged to their own trade. The first reception of Keats, Byron, and Tennyson is well known. The savage ferocity of Macaulay remains gibbeted in that volume of essays which every schoolboy still gets for a prize. Nay, the old spirit is not yet dead; it is only growing gradually disreputable. Within the last twenty years we have seen actions brought for libel by Charles Reade, George Augustus Sala, Hepworth Dixon, Gilbert, Robert Buchanan, Keith Johnston, William Black, and Whistler— there have probably been others. Mostly, the libels which formed the cause of action were written by literary men, and in some cases by well-known literary men. Why? It is difficult to understand the pleasure or the profit of inventing deliberately, and then publishing, a malignant falsehood, con- cerning a man who is not an enemy. Is it envy, or is it sheer stupidity, or is it recklessness? Does the writer desire to pose as a champion of virtue? Possibly this desire has been generally the ruling motive. Vanity is also probably a factor. It is always grand to attack somebody ever so much bigger than yourself. Thus, this Society is accus- tomed to misrepresentation whenever the knavish publisher or the sweater can find an agent. But it was an author who wrote an article in the Contem- porary, indignantly charging the Society with ad- vocating the breaking of agreements—actually, the breaking of agreements! What did he do it for? Probably because it made him feel grand. Are we to have no criticism, then? There is plenty of room for real criticism: it exists already, though, to be sure, not in large quantities. The true critic—he also exists, but in small quantities— does not call names; he does not suggest motives; he does not recklessly accuse of plagiarism; he does not account for success by any but the real reasons—especially that the author deserves success; he neither down-cries, nor depreciates, nor mis- represents. These arts he leaves for the baser sort. One does not find the larger men playing the part of defendants in libel suits brought by authors. Can we imagine a case of Dickens v. Thackeray? This is how it might be reported. "The defendant, a well known man of letters, has recently written an anonymous critique, the author- ship of which is not denied, on a certain work by the plaintiff called Martin Chuzzlewit. In this review he spoke of the writer as a creature of low humour—rather of no humour at all; he said that the characters are dragged out of the gutter; that their language, their action, and their manners are entirely in accordance with their station in life, to which the author himself probably belongs; that some of the scenes, especially those in which a monthly nurse figures, are of a revolting indecency; that the book is throughout destitute of principle or honour; that the hero is nothing but a penniless adventurer: that the author laughs with wickedness and at morality; that he goes so far as to deride, in the person of a respectable undertaker, the solemnity and the awful- ness of Death. . . . Counsel for the plaintiff, after reading tiie reviewand dwelling on certain extractson which his client based his case, pointed out that the defendant was a rival of the plaintiff and jealous of his superior fame. For the defence it was argued  ## p. 153 (#189) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. >53 that authors are notoriously a highly sensitive set of people; that they naturally hate and suspect each other; and that the review was in every particular justified in the interests of religion, morals, and literature. The Judge summed up. . . . The Jury, without leaving the box, accorded damages of ,£10,000. The defendant, a tall man with a broken nose, appeared astonished at the verdict, and left the court promising to make mincemeat of his rival in spite of all the Courts in Christendom." The case reads prettily—but one feels that Thackeray could not have been the defendant. It is not every author, however, who tries to conduct himself according to the laws of good breeding. Nor is it every barrister—yet the barrister must, or else the Benchers will speak seriously to him. Cannot authors create a Bar of Opinion equally potent, though it has no power to expel from a profession which any may enter at any time or leave at any time without asking permission? Can we not beg them, while they are in it, to respect themselves in respecting their fellow-workers? * EXAMINATION IN VANITY FAIR. 1. What do you know of Mary Box, of Mr. Chopper (state his Christian name), of the Rev. Silas Hornblower? Have you any later informa- tion about this gentleman and his wife? 2. Where did Mr. James Crawley reside on the first night of his arrival at Brighton? What favourite accompanied him thither? 3. Who laid the odds, and what odds, against Kangaroo? What charge of unsportsmanlike con- duct was brought against Captain Rawdon Crawley? 4. State the second title in Lord Southdown's family. 5. Give the circumstances of Mrs. MajorO'Dowd's education. What was her favourite consolatory reading? 6. Discuss the relations of Sir Pitt Crawley and his tenantry, and state the results of Dr. Squills' conversation with Mr. Clump. 7. What did Miss Sharp call her maternal stock before they were Montmorencys? Andrew Lang {The Sign of the Ship). Overheard outside the Senate House. "Scan- dalous! Disgraceful! Couldn't answer a single question. We shall all be plucked. Like to set the examiner to answer his own paper." A MODEL AGREEMENT. WE have received from a member of the Society one of the most delightful agree- ments ever submitted to an author. We hasten to submit it to our readers with a few words of explanation. Here it is in brief:— Book. A demy 8vo. volume of 300 pages. Price, 1 of. 6d. Edition of 500 copies. Author to give. (1) Whole copyright; i.e., to part absolutely with his property. (2) Also to con- tribute £60 towards publishing. Certainly more than enough to cover the whole necessary cost of production. Publisher to give. Royalty of 2/. 6d. a copy up to 250, and 3-f. a copy afterwards. What under the most favourable terms can the author get? Here is his account, supposing that all the copies are sold :— jQ s d. 250 copies at 2s. 6d. ... 3150 194 » >, 3* 29 2 o Press, 5° "I _ Author, 6 J £60 7 o So that for all his labour the author may, on the most favourable circumstances, get a profit of 7*.! What does the publisher get also under the most favourable circumstances? Here is the account:— £ s- d. Paid by author ... ... 60 o o 444 copies at 6s. a copy ... 133 4 o £i93 4 o Whole cost of production, £ s. d. including advertising, say 60 o o Royalties to author... ... 60 7 o Profit to publisher ... ... 7217 o £i93 4 o So that if the book sells 500 copies, the publisher will make a profit of j£j2s. to 7*., or a proportion of more than 200 : 1!!!! But, it will be urged, he is taking a great risk; he does not know how many he will sell. Why, it is all profit to him, whether he sells few or many. Let us suppose that he only sells 250. How does the account stand then? It will be found that the publisher has made a profit of £41 odd to the author's loss of £28 15^. Corrections are here neglected, because there is a clause by which the author is to be liable for all corrections above a certain amount.  ## p. 154 (#190) ############################################ 154 THE AUTHOR. A HARD CASE. V. Through a Literary Agent. IN this hard case an author agreed to publish a novel upon the following "advantageous" terms :— a. The publisher was to take "all " the risk. (3. The author was to pay him the trifling sum of £50 to help him support the same. 7. The author was to pay .£21 as a reader's honorarium! Happy reader! 8. The clear profits were to be divided into three equal shares, one of which was to accrue to the author and the other two to the publisher. c. The publisher was to take the copyright. A literary agent, who also had to be paid by somebody, introduced the author to the publisher. Then the bill came in. Every item was ex- cessive. The total cost of production as rendered was .£181 us. nd., inclusive of the enormous reader's fee, and an independent estimate shows that 3,000 copies of the book could have been produced and advertised for under £100. The work was stereotyped. About 800 copies seem to have been sold, and these are set down as having realized £44 14^. 1 id., or 125a'. a copy. The sum is arrived at in this way. The book was published at 2s., but copies are accdunted for at trade price (in accordance with the agreement), but 15 per cent, of all receipts has been deducted by the publisher, to justify which there is not a word in the agree- ment. The probability is that at this period matters stood thus. The publisher had spent dn the pro- duction of the book; if he produced 3,000 copies, from £90 to j£loo. If he printed a smaller edition, it would have cost rriuch less He had received from the author £50 towards the cost of production, and from the public ^52 odd by sales. He certainly was already not out of pocket. The author was ,£50 to the bad, and his chance of obtaining his share of the clear profits is made smaller by the fact that although the sales have realized £52, the publisher has pocketed 15 per cent, of this unlawfully. The account, as rendered, shows a loss on the transaction of £86 17*., and probably there has been really a gain of £10. It must be noted that if the whole edition of 3,000 copies were sold at the ordinary trade terms of 13 as 12 less 10 per cent, and the pub- lisher then deducted 15 per cent, from the result, there would only be about ^142 to place to the credit of the book. Allowing that the book really cost ,£100 to produce, there would then only be £42 to divide between author and publisher. This profit, according to the astounding terms of the agreement, would be divided in the proportion of three to one, the author taking the smaller share. The most then that the author could possibly gain is one-third of £42—or £14, if the whole edition sold. Yet he is asked to pay £50, any or all of which he may lose. This seems to us a particularly hard case, because the author, so far from being careless, seems to have made a very proper attempt to get good advice. Feeling himself unable to understand the business side of the transaction he employed an agent. But what are we to say of the agent? Imagine a man, whose business it is to know what a publishing transaction really means, sanction- ing for his client such downright enormities. First, he allows the author to get one-third only of the profits—that is disgraceful. Secondly, he makes him risk jQ^o on the chance of winning £14, which is surely odds that no one expects a comparatively unknown novelist to lay on himself. Thirdly, he has so little idea of the proper way to word an agreement that he allows the pub- lisher to appropriate percentages to which he has no shadow of right. Fourthly, he sanctions the swelling of the cost of production by a monstrous fee of twenty guineas, as a reader's honorarium. Fifthly, he is so satisfied with his handiwork that he assigns the copyright to the publisher, so that in case the book should be a success the wretched position of the author throughout the first edition might be maintained during the whole period of sale. This is not the first occasion on which it has been forcibly brought home to us that a literary agent is not always the author's best friend. Some- times we think the agent has simply been an ass, which is bad: but sometimes we think that he has deliberately handed over the author for slaughter, which is very bad indeed, seeing that he is occupy- ing in the author's mind the position of guide and counsellor. Let authors understand that just as there are doctors and doctors, lawyers and lawyers, honest men and knaves, wise men and fools, com- petent men and incompetent, so there may be literary agents and literary agents—some competent and some incompetent, some honest men and some knaves. In the search for a Literary Agent it may save some trouble to ask counsel of the Society.  ## p. 155 (#191) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 155 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. WHATEVER may be the fate of the Copyright Bill in Congress, it is plain that the copyright cause has gained greatly by the discussion of the last year. The essential question was never so generally and so well understood as now, and in its recent dis- cussion there has been a refreshing persistence. The old argument—the most ancient, if not the most honourable veteran in a bad cause—that there can be no property in an idea, has been effectually disposed of. He appeared in Congress with his familiar air of conclusiveness and the what- do-you-say-to-that aspect with which he has bullied his way through the debate for many a year. But he has been neatly tripped and floored by Judge Shipman, and will be henceforth only a crippled pensioner upon good nature. Nobody can say whether there can be property in an idea; but whether there can be or not, an idea can be made available only in a way in which there can be property. The good cause has never alleged any other kind of property, and that is the form which the law concedes. Whether the law concedes it as fairly and fully as it should is a question, but there is rio question that it concedes it. The American law having granted to Americans that kind of right, the right is not weakened or lost by mixing it with different things. My diamond does not cease to be mine and valuable to me because you throw it among a heap of pebbles that may be common property. The law says that the form which I give an idea is my property, and it does not cease to be so because the law does not say that something else is property. It may in- evitably follow that by acknowledging my right, the law logically concedes that right in general. But whether this follows or not, the law protects my property in the form of my idea, and lays its hand upon you if you do not respect my right. You cannot take my diamond and make it yours by placing it between two pebbles which the law ought to say, but does not say, belongs to Others. Even if the law gives you a pound of flesh, it gives you no more and no less. Above all, not a single drop of blood. Judge Shipman came evidently from the School of Bellario. My diamond is mine, says the law; and whoever takes it without my permission is a-—conveyor, says the law, and the judgment of the law is ratified in the higher court of conscience and common sense. The great present gain of the cause is that it has been transferred to that higher court whose juris- diction takes cognizance of moral convictions. A moral right exists independent of law. Such, also, is the quality of what is called natural rights. Alexander Hamilton was the chief of pur practical statesmen. But it was Hamilton who said that the rights of human nature are written as with a sun- beam on human consciousness. Among all lovers of justice those rights exist, whether with law or without it, and those lovers do not justify an evi- dent wrong by the plea that no law forbids it. But in truth the highest law forbids it. The absence of good laws from the statute-book is as sig- nificant as the presence of bad laws. Good sir, do you justify the King of the Cannibal Islands for dining upon your lamented grandfather because there was no law of the islands that forbade it? G. W. Curtis {Harpers) * "SING A SONG FOR SIXPENCE." THE jackal sat up in a garret bare And wrote in the midnight cold; Undaunted though hunger and sickness were Sapping his spirit bold. He penn'd for libeity, knowledge, and right A song that will live for aye, To be to the world a beacon of light Until the perfect day. The lion reclined in his easy chair, And drain'd a bumper of wine, As he read with cautious critical air Each bright and burning line. He read and shouted " A triumph I see! I can easily make it go; The fellow's starving; he'll sell it to me For an odd pound or so." The poem came forth and the people read, By thousands editions ran, Till the hearts of all were stirr'd, and they said, "Tell us who is this man; Where dwelleth the poet that we may crown With a world's honour his head, The people's idol from monarch to clown?" Leo replied, " He is dead." W. R. Colles.  ## p. 156 (#192) ############################################ 156 THE AUTHOR CORRESPONDENCE. I The following is from a well-known American woman of letters. Her name is not appended because she has not given permission to use it. For the same reason the title of her work is sup- pressed :— "I have just finished reading a sketch of your Society of Authors, and I feel such a deep and per- sonal interest in it that I must write to you at once. "I have tried in vain to arouse our women to action in the very line which you have so success- fully adopted. Three years since, we proposed an Authors' Club of Women, similar to the one my life-long friend, Dr. Holmes, has presided over, but the women did not respond with enthusiasm. I have worked for years quietly and almost alone, hoping some day to have leisure to do what you have done. I have been defrauded and insulted by publishers, and calmly told that they had made thousands of dollars out of my work, and it is in constant demand. Last Christmas a Boston firm published a book with my name on the ewer with- out my knowledge or consent. It was sold far and wide to my own friends, and liberally advertised with my name. When I called upon them for redress they denied having injured me, and I had no money with which to bring a suit. "Other publishers said it was shameful, 'but the firm was rich, and would fight me cruelly if I at- tempted to obtain justice.' You can never under- stand the burning indignation with which I listened to the robber who said, 'Oh! yes, I used your name because it was the strongest to carry the book, you know.' Had I belonged to a Society, then, which would stand behind me, he would not have dared so to insult and to rob me." No—he certainly would not. In this country things pretty bad are attempted, and very often carried out, but to advertise a book as by a certain well-known author, and to sell it anywhere with that pretence, would be very soon set right. But why does not the Authors' Club of New York take up a thing of this kind? Is there no sense of justice in the States at all? Will honourable men sit down and suffer such a thing to be done? This rascally firm of liars and robbers would fight the poor lady " cruelly " if she dared to bring an action. Are there no good men and true who will band together and fight the firm "cruelly"? We are accustomed to be robbed in the States; we are aliens there; we have no rights; but here is an American lady —she is foully injured by having a Thing labelled with her name and sold as her work, and she can get no redress! II An Authors' Club. Sir,— In your September number the question is asked whether it would be possible for us or better for us to meet in any other way than at an annual dinner. As one of your original members, who has attended all its functions, may I be permitted to remark that they are not satisfying—at least to the soul? Like Oliver Twist, one feels a desperate desire to get up and "ask for more." And, sir, I doubt whether a conversazione would satisfy this craving for professional companionship. These occasions would, no doubt, be useful, from a disciplinary point of view, but so far as my experience of gatherings of the kind extends, one always finds those one wanted to meet, "unavoidably absent." A proposal was made in your pages some time ago of founding an "Authors' Club," and I hope that it will not be allowed to drop, for it seems to me that it would meet the want which is admitted to exist. VVill it be believed, that in days when we hear so much of "Literary London," there is not a single institution which encourages social inter- course between men and women of letters? There are more or less literary clubs enough and to spare, but I am not aware that ladies are admitted to any of these. Considerable financial difficulties are generally encountered in starting a club on tra- ditional lines, but if we began modestly with only a few rooms, it would be better than nothing, and would give people who only meet at " crushes " and "functions " an opportunity of seeing one another informally and of exchanging ideas. If such an attempt met with a reasonable amount of support it would be a comparatively simple matter to develop it to any extent. A Member. * QUERIES. "I find among certain books which have come into my possession one entitled 'The Life and Entertaining Adventures of Mr. Cleveland, Natural Son of Oliver Cromwell, written by himself.' My copy is the second edition in three volumes, printed for T. Astley at the Rose in St. I'aul's Churchyard, 1741. The first edition, as stajgd on the title-page, was in five volumes. Can anyone tell me whether there is any foundation in fact for this work? Was there a natural son of Oliver Cromwell?" "The Author is not a mathematical paper, but I venture to send it a kind of mathematical  ## p. 157 (#193) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 157 question. It was suggested by a remark in the Saturday Review. How did they carry on the processes of multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction with Roman numerals? For instance, how did they multiply mdcccxc by lvh? And how did they divide mcxlviii by vm?" "Can you tell me who wrote [the following lines, and where the rest of the poem may be found? My husband has had the lines in his possession for nearly fifty years. He believes them to be modern Latin— "Siderum claros imitata vultus Quid lates dudum, Rosa? Delicatum Effer e terris caput, O tepentis Filia cceli!" The same lady suggests that in cases where a lady is a Professor, a Doctor, or any other profes- sion, the German termination—inn—might save a good deal of awkwardness. For instance, instead of saying Mrs. Doctor Garratt Anderson, we should say Doctorinn Garratt Anderson. Perhaps the suggestion is worth taking up. "Was Browning's Poem, 'How they brought the good news to Ghent,' inspired by Turpin's Ride? "Browning once told me in conversation that he frequently received letters asking him on what incident or event in Flemish History the Ride was founded, and declared that it was not based on any." "A monk made a bargain with the Devil. The latter was to pay all the former's debts, in return for which he was to have the monk's soul. The Devil duly fulfilled his part of the bargain, paid off every liability to the last far- thing, and came to claim the other part. 'Not so fast,' said the monk. 'You were first to pay off all my debts. You now say that I owe you my soul. I cannot allow your claim, because, if I am indebted to you for my soul, I am not yet clear from debt, and you have no claim.'" Where does this story occur? DREAMS AND THE IMAGINATION. THE following questions have been drawn up by Mr. James Sully (author of "Pes- simism," "Outlines of Psychology," "Illusions," &c, &c.) and sent by him to writers, especially those who deal with imaginative and creative work. The collection of trustworthy infor- mation on this subject is of the greatest import- ance, and therefore all our members are invited to reply to the circular, even though they have not received one from Mr. Sully direct. His address is East Heath Road, Hampstead. All the replies will be received and treated as confidential; they will, however, be used as materials by him in the scientific work in which he is engaged. 1. Do you frequently dream? 2. How would you describe your dreams? Are they distinct and elaborate, or shadowy and incohate? Do visual imagery and language (whether heard merely or spoken) play an equally prominent part in your dreams? Are they in general characterized by some particular emotional effect, as terrifying, romantically lovely, humorous, &c? 3. Are you able to exert any volitional control over your dreams? More particularly can you prolong a dream when you wish to do so, and can you afterwards pick up the thread of a dream and continue it? 4. Besides dreams proper during sleep (com- plete or partial) are you in the habit of developing visions in your waking hours by gazing into the fire, closing your eyes, or otherwise? 5. Have you for longer or for shorter periods been subject to illusions of sight or of hearing? If so, can you point out the circumstances which appear to favour their appearance? 6. When intently occupied with imaginative work, are you aware of a muffling of the senses as during the visionary state? Do the pictures that come before you at such a time resemble in their distinctness, vividness, and suddenness of presenta- tion, dreams and visions? 7. Can you trace in your case any connection between the process of dreaming and that of artistic creation? For example—(a) Do you find that you dream more (or less) when busily occupied in some imaginative work? (fi) Has the habit of dreaming increased since you took to fiction? (c) Did the faculty of weaving stories grow out of the childish habit of conjuring up faces in the fire or other form of day-dreaming? (d) Have you made any use of dreams or visions in inventing your stories?  ## p. 158 (#194) ############################################ 153 THE AUTHOR. "THE AUTHORS' MANUAL."* THIS book is noticed here in order to em- phasize the fact that the Society has had nothing to do with it. Let our readers make a note of this fact. Let them next make a note of the fact that, although there is in this small volume information—various and mostly use- less—concerning musical criticism, Volupuk (sic), the comic papers, Appuleins (sic), deipnosophy, and the works of Mr. John Dawson, there is nothing in it discoverable that seems likely to be of any real service to authors. Indeed, it seems that the book might as well have been called a manual for wire- drawers, or arch-dukes, so little practical good cap it be to the real author. To Mr. Percy Russell, who, it must be added, is the author of "King Alfred," "After this Life," "A Journey to Lake Taupo," "Australian Tales and Sketches," and of "A Manual of Litera- ture," published by the defunct London Literary Society, "it has always seemed that the whole art of right reviewing lies in this little formula— find out what the book says and how it says it." Now his book, like the walrus, talks of many things. In it the reporter is encouraged to attempt to master "a reportorial style," which "cannot be acquired in a few months"; the paragraphist is exhorted to his own self to be true; and an example of style and truth is given in a paragraph from the pen of Mr. Percy Russell, which appeared in, and was paid for by The North Times, and was derived from Whittaker's Almanac and an Ency- clopedia. The aspirant to leader-writing obtains more practical aid, for he is presented, presumably from the author's Commonplace Book, with some pithy sayings with which to begin his leader. And here they are, "As Lucian says in one of his famous dialogues—The beginning is indeed half of the whole." "Voltaire in one of his most satirical moods asserts," and "Sydney Smith has a story." An aspirant thus armed with apt reference to the classics, to French, and to Sydney Smith ought, certainly, to go far. The Editor and the Sub-Editor, who receive counsel, as well as the journalist and the author, arc urged to make their copy fit their columns, a thing which it is obvious was not likely to have occurred to them, until they saw its convenience recommended in a Manual. Mr. Percy Russell calls attention to "the complete parallelism that * "The Authors' Manual," a complete and practical guide to all branches of literary work, by Percy Russell. London, Digby and Long, Publishers, l8, Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C. exists between the advice given," in his Manuali "and the things to be done." This appears to mean that when he has presented the reader with a precept, he will follow it with an example. Here is the example, given by him for the use of editors, to illustrate the right way to make copy fit. The original sentence runs thus :—" There are poems which the world will not willingly let die, and which will endure long after the dismal caterwaulings of the 'life-not-worth-living' school are buried in oblivion." This, we are told, should, if necessary, and exasperating V .' be edited into "long after the dismal ^ caterwaul- palpably insincere and childish 1 ,' ings of the X 'life-not-worth-living' school of contemporary pessimist well-merited > , 1 1 ^ 1 X are buried in oblivion." When Mr. Russell says this is not a very good example, no one is likely to contradict him. The second part of "The Authors' Manual " is concerned with book-literature, and tells us of ballads ("not to be confounded with ballades") of blank verse, as distinguished from poetry and the " Iliad," of punctuation, and of making a name in Literature. This last heading seems to make it clear that for "The Authors' Manual "we should read "The Aspirants' Manual," and in a chapter on "Proof-reading" we find a really sensible piece of advice to the aspirant. It is " If you want to be paid, say so." It only remains for Mr. Russell to inform the aspirant what he is to do when he has said it, and when he cannot get the money. Of course authors who are no longer aspirants con- tinue on the rare occasions where they take money for their works, to warn these publishers before- hand. Many people used to say it to the "London Literary Society" constantly, with the result that they don't get it, and they keep on saying it with the same result to those upon whom the mantle of Mr. Playster Steeds has fallen. S. S. Sprigge. AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, who are invited to ktvp the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. MISS ESME STUART'S novel, "Kestell of Grey- stone," 3 vols., which has been running through All the YearHound, will be published immediately by Hurst and Blackett. Professor Max Miiller is preparing a new and completely revised edition of his "Lectures on the Science of Language.' This new edition, the fifteenth in England, will have a new title, " Science of Language, founded on Lectures delivered  ## p. 159 (#195) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 159 at the Royal Institution in 1861 and 1863." The stereotype plates from which the later editions were printed have been broken up. Large portions have been omitted, new chapters have been added, and much has been rewritten. The new work will contain 400 pages more than the last edition of the Lectures. A German translation of it will be published by Engelmann, at Leipzig. The editor of Ruskin's poems is Mr. W. G. Collinwood. It is expected that the poems, which include a great many hitherto unpublished, will take three volumes. "Thoth," Prof. Nicholson's romance, the predecessor of "Toxar," has been translated into German. The authorised life of Ibsen, by Henrik Jager, will ap])ear shortly in an English version. The poetical quotations have been translated from the Norwegian by Mr. Edmund Gosse. Mr. Douglas Sladen, having spent six months in Japan, is contributing a series of illustrated articles on that country to the San Francisco Chronicle. One of our members, who modestly hides himself under the initials of X. L.—perhaps a certain story called Aiit Diabolus aul nullus may be renienbered in Blackivood with these letters appended—has written a one act comedy drama, which he calls " It was a Dream." It was originally written in French, and under the name of " La Fin du Bonheur" was actually accepted by the Comtdie Francaisc. It has been produced with great success by Mr. Kendal at Birmingham, and is intended for his strongest piece in his American tour. Dr. W. H. Besant has in the press a new edition—the fifth— of "Hydromechanics," Part I, and also solutions of the examples in his "Elementary Hydrostatics." These books will be ready about the end of the year. Mr. Hume Nisbet will publish shortly, " The Black Drop" (Trischler and Co.), "A Colonial Tramp" (Ward and Downey), and "Bail up; a Romance of Bushrangers and Blacks " (Chatto and Windus). The second of these works is illustrated by the author. Mr. P. H. Emerson, author of " Pictures of East Anglian Life," "English Idyls," " Idyls of the Norfolk Broads," &c, &c, announces "Wild Life on a Tidal Water" (Messrs. Sampson Low and Co.), with 30 Photo-Etchings by the author and T. F. Goodall, joint authors of "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads." The price to Sub scribers of the Edition de Luxe will be £2 12s. 6d., and after publication the price will be raised to £i y. The ordinary edition is limited to 1,000 num!>ered opies for Great Britain, and 250 for America. The price to sub- scribers will be ,£ I is., and after publication the price will be raised to £1 $s. Mrs. Lovett Cameron's new novel, entitled "Jack's Secret," which has been running as a serial in Belgrama, will l>e pub- lished early in November. The same author announces to appear soon, one of the short-long stories which form the principal feature of Lifpincott's Magazine. A new volume by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., entitled "Astronomical Lessons, or Chapters on the Elementary Principles and Facts of Astronomy," is in the Press, and will shortly be published by Messrs. Roper and Drowley, of II, Ludgate Hill. Mrs. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition of the "Autobiography of Kolokotrenes," with an historical introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven- ture Series." A biography of Rhigas, the Protomartyr of Greece (Longman), has already shown the author's know- ledge of kindred subjects. [We regret that when this book was first announced the title should have been misprinted.] I. H. Leney has just issued "Shadowland in Elian Vannin; or, Folk Tales of the Isle of Man." Professor Skeat has completed his shilling edition of Chaucer's "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" for the Clarendon Press. The second volume of Professor Skeat's "Principles of English Etymology " is far advanced, and will shortly appear. It deals with the "foreign element" of English, especially with words of Anglo-French origin, and such as are borrow ed from various modern languages. * NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Allen, Grant. This Mortal Coil: A Novel. New Edi- tion. 2S. Besant, Walter. The Demoniac. Arrowsmith. is. Immediately. Birrell, Augustine, M. P. Obiter Dicta. Third Edition. 1 vol. $s. Cresswell, Henry. Sliding Sands. 3 vols. 31.1. 6d. Green, Anna Katharine. A Matter of Millions. 2s. Haggard, H. Rider. Dawn. 1 vol. y. 6d. Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean; or, the Castle of the De Stancys: A Story. New Edition. I vol. 2s. 6d. Hoey, Mrs. Cashel. Falsely True: A Novel. 1 vol. fir. Hume, Fergus. The Gentleman who Vanished, is. and is. 6d. Karsland, Veva and Collis. The Witness-box ; or, The Murder of Mr. A. B. C. I vol. Is. Kipling, Rudyard. Departmental Ditties. Fifth Edition. I vol. i6mo. 5*. In Black and White. IS. Linton, E. Lynn. The True History of Joshua Davidson, Christian and Communist. Tenth Edition, is. Momerie, Rev. A. W., D.D. Preaching and Hearing. Third Edition. I vol. y. Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian: A Novel. 1 vol. y. 6d. Murray, David Christie and Henry Herman. One Traveller Returns: A Novel. New Edition. 2s. Pollock, Sir Frederick. An Introduction to the History of the Science of Politics. 2s. td. "Rita." Edelweiss: A Romance. I vol. is. Rohin'Son, F. W. A Very Strange Family: A Novel. Second Edition, y 6d. SlME, William. The Rajah and the Rosebud: A Novel. is. and is. 6d. Sims, G. R. The Case of George Candlemas: A Novel. is. and is. 6d. Stevenson, R. L. Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde, of Honolulu, from. u. Tytler, Sarah. A Voung Oxford Maid in the Days of the King and the Parliament. Illustrated, y. 6d. Warden, Florence. City and Surburban: A Novel. is. and is. 6d. Nurse Revel s Mistake: A Novel. Fifth Edition, is. Westall, William. Two Pinches of Snuff: A Novel New Edition. 2s. and 2s. td.  ## p. 160 (#196) ############################################ ]6o AD VERTISEMENTS. "THE LITERARY HAJYDJHAID OF THE CHURCH-" HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION. BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. NOW READY. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 161 (#197) ############################################ The Society of Authors (Jncorporated). PRESIDENT The Right Ilon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I. ALFRED AUSTIN, ROBERT BATEMAN. SIR HENRY BERGNE. WALTER BESANT. R. D. BLACKMORE. Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S. LORD BRABOURNE. JAMES BRYCE. P. W. CLAYDEN. J. Comexs Carr. EDWARD CLODD. W. MARTIN CONWAY. MARION CRAWFORD. Oswald CRAWFURD. THE EARL OF DESART. A. W. DUBOURG. ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S. Prof. MICHAEL Foster, F.R.S. HERBERT Gardner, M.P. Richard GARNETT, LL.D. COUNCIL. EDMUND GOSSE. H. RIDER HAGGARD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A. GEORGE MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. 1. C. PARKINSON. The EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D. WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. George AUGUSTUS Sala. W. BAPTISTE SCOONES. G. R. Sims. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. SULLY. William MoY THOMAS. H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L. EDMUND YATES. Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-Wake, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Robert BATEMAN. W. MARTIN CONWAY. I EL MUND GO Chairman-WALTER BESANT. EDMUND Gosse. H. RIDER HAGGARD. A. G. Ross. J. M. Lely. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary--S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, Portugal Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C. VOL. I. M  ## p. 162 (#198) ############################################ 162 ADVERTISEMENTS. TYPE-WRITING. MISS ETHEL DICKENS, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, AUTHORS' MSS. CAREFULLY TRANSCRIBED. 26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND Writings by Post receive prompt attention. (Over the Ofhce of " All the Year Round"). SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL PAPERS A SPECIALITY. MSS. copied. Price List on application. MRS. GILL, MISSES ERWIN, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 13, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, W. ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. Authors' MSS. carefully copied from MISS GILL, I/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. References kindly permitted to many TYPE-WRITING OFFICES well-known Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on application. 6, ADAM STREET, TYPE - WRITING & SHORTHAND. STRAND, W.C. | JO, DARKE, M.T.S., LION * CHAMBERS, * BROAD – STREET, “The best of all Journals.” BRISTOL. Published every FRIDAY, price 2d. The advantages of Type-written Manuscript are LEGIBILITY, NEATNESS, RAPIDITY, and Ease of Manifolding. DR. ANDREW WILSON, F.R.S.E. Now is the time to subscribe. | AUTHORS MANUSCRIPTS, &c., prepared for the A New Vol. commenced Publisher. 4th April, 1890. Companies* Reports and patent @gentot Send Specifications Dritten up and Post-card for Specimen Copy. Manifolded. LITHOGRAPHY froin TYPING done in the best To be had at all Railway Bookstalls and Style. Newsagents, or direct from the Publisher- MEMORY LESSONS IN TYPING GIVEN BY 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. POST. WRITE FOR TERMS. ESTABLISHED 1851. BIRKB E C K B A N K , SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE. THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand. TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100. STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold. SAVINGS DEPARTMENT. For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE per CENT. per Annum, on each completed ki. The Interest is added to the principal on the 31st March annually. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager. EDITED BY HE ALT H. A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SANITARY AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE. HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate possession. Apply at Office of the BirKBECK FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY. THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.  ## p. 162 (#199) ############################################ ADVERTISEMENTS. THIS VIEW IS REPRODUCED FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OFAN OPERATOR & THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on. The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-Lock. TYPEWRITER WRITING AT 4 TIMES THE SPEED OF A PEN Supplied for Caslı, or on Our Easy Payment System by Twelve Monthly Payments of £1 19s., or on Hire at £2 2s. per Month. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. . THE TYPE WRITER CO., Ltd., 12, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON. 40. North John St., Liverpool; Guardian Bldgs., Manchealer: 22. Renfeld St., Glasgow; Ex- change Bldg., Cardiff ; 885, Little Collins St.. Melbourne THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited, • 12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, É.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Type-Writing Taught by Experts. Author's MSS. Copied at is. 3d. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 25. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. MORRIS COLLES, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 45. 6d. 5. The History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. SQUIRE Sprigge, Secretary to the Society. 15. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 25. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 162 (#200) ############################################ iv. ADVERTISEMENTS. NEW MODEL REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER. MA III For Fifteen Years the Standard, and to-day the most perfect development of the writing machine, embodying the latest and highest achievements of inventive and mechanical skill. We add to the Remington every improve- ment that study and capital can secure. I WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, Principal Office- LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C. (CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET). Branch Offices-- LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET. BIRMINGHAM: 88, COLMORE ROW. MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westeninster, 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. 01 Issue 06 (October 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 06 (October 1890) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-10-15-The-Author-1-6 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/243/1890-09-15-The-Author-1-5.pdf 17c0e6a63e564402f224b58e40092701 PDF Text Text ������������������������������ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-09-15 Volume 1 Issue 5 Pages Page range in volume 105–128 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900915 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.-- No. 5.]. SEPTEMBER 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society Be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. 102 (#134) ############################################ ADVERTISEMENTS. Why is “Vinolia" Soap FREE FROM THE EVILS OF OTHER TOILET SOAPS? wwwwwwwwwwwww After careful investigation, the highest authority on Soaps, Dr. ALDER WRIGHT, F.R.S., reports as follows:-- FIRST. INGREDIENTS PUREST. "The ingredients are of excellent quality for the manufacture of a first-class soap. SECOND. PATENT PROCESSES. “The process is carried out in such a way as to render the products wholly free from all surplus uncombined alkaline matter, and therefore incapable of acting on tender skins, in the injurious and objection- able fashion exhibited by most kinds of ordinary soap." THIRD. Extra CREAM. “A further amelioration is also effected by the incorporation with the soap of extra fatty matter, well calculated to soften the skin, and diminish the tendency to irritation sometimes caused in very tender subjects by even the Purest of Ordinary Soaps." FOURTH. DELICATE SCENT. " Vinolia' Soap is Delicately Scented, and wholly free from poisonous Metallic Colouring Matters.” An overwhelming Proof that it is without any rival whatever is this:-- o IT IS THE SOAP OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. OF ALL CHEMISTS. SAMPLES FORWARDED POST FREE ON RECEIPT OF THREE PENNY STAMPS. PRICES:-VINOLIA SOAP, Floral, 6d. ; Medical (Balsamic), 8d.; and Toilet (Otto of Rose), rod. per Tablet. VINOLIA SHAVING SOAP, Is., IS. 6d., and zs. 6d. per Stick, and Flat Cakes in Porcelain-lined metal boxes, 2s. VINOLIA CREAM (a Plastic Emollient Cream for the Skin in Health and Disease ; for Itching, Eczema, Sunburn, Roughness, &c.), is, ed., 35. 6d., and 6s. per Box. VINOLIA POWDER (a Soothing, Soluble, Rose Dusting Powder, for the Toilet, Nursery, Skin Irritation, &c.), in Pink, White, and Cream, IS. 9d., 35. 6d. and 6s. per box. BLONDEAU ET CIE., RYLAND ROAD, LONDON, N.W.  ## p. 103 (#135) ############################################ The Society of Authors (Incorporated). PRESIDENT. THE Right Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I. ALFRED AUSTIN. Robert BATEMAN. SIR HENRY BERGNE. WALTER BESANT. R. D. BLACKMORE. Rev, PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S. LORD BRABOURNE. JAMES BRYCE. P. W. CLAYDEN. J. COMYNS CARR. EDWARD CLODD. W. MARTIN CONWAY. MARION CRAWFORD. OSWALD CRAWFURD. THE EARL OF DESART. A. W. DUBOURG. ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S. ProF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D. COUNCIL. EDMUND Gosse. H. RIDER HAGGARD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. Rev. W. J. Lortie, F.S.A. GEORGE MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. J. C. PARKINSON. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D. WALTER Herries Pollock. A. G. Ross. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. W. BAPTISTE SCOONES. G. R. Sims. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. SULLY. WILLIAM Moy THOMAS. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. EDMUND YATES. Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S. ROBERT BATEMAN. W. MARTIN CONWAY. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman-Walter BESANT. EDMUND Gosse. H. Rider HAGGARD. A. G. Ross. J. M. LELY. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK. Solicitors. Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary–S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C. VOL. I.  ## p. 104 (#136) ############################################ 104 ADVERTISEMENTS, 1. Bertan, Sept nyt 1878 Men. Marie, Todd & lo. Gentleman, - Thave seur me of your Reus, to have a paina mended through Men. Hochen, Leurs Ito. of Mencity. For may like to know that Shune had tri fen Cmitute formue han twenty years, rune the days of a book of men called" The Autorahas the Breckfact tere 1857-8 mute last Friday without retain and alway with herfect Dalesjacken I have written with is halfa dozen arimare volumes, a Tance neember of Enneps to auce reusands of letters. Tere bir as of an ole rence and I hohe yeu ance do the beat you can for it Though I have in the meci Hier bought austan of qui mate' corrugała? mashed C. - The net know whether que crue fire this testimonial, hor's feel as if the free which han Casies out to much of may throught and brought back To much in various forms in return was enlithed to this Carlisicut of hionnaha seccica Sau, Centhum Yorus terly Mica Wendell Hemed ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, Todd & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.  ## p. 105 (#137) ############################################ (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 5.] SEPTEMBER 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. C O N T PAGE News and Notes ~ 105 The Poet's Seat: An Idyll of the Suburbs. By Austin Dobson ... 111 English Authors and the Colonial Book Market in A Hard Case, No. IV 114 A Society of Authors for America 115 An Author's Home "8 The Word " Slang." By Charles G. Leland 119 Go Slow. By H. G. Keene 110 NEWS AND NOTES. IHOPE that readers of The Author'will regard with favour the arrangement of last month's number, which contained nothing but the Report of the Dinner and the speeches pronounced on that occasion. For my own part I would gladly have a close season for magazines, journals, and new books of every kind. It would do the world every kind of good to rest from ephemerals during the months of August and September. There is plenty of old literature to read: no one can read anything like the number of good things that come out. If we would only rest! In a sense we do. The summer is the season for publishing in the magazines the papers which nobody cares to read. How if there were no publications at all ?• The Authors' Dinner I regard as chiefly valuable because it is the only function in which authors, as a body, have ever come together. It is difficult to manage; it causes little frictions of the moment; there is always the usual excuse from the man you want most to get. He who is best qualified to speak on this or that point is sure to be ill or absent. Yet with all these difficulties we have met for the third time, and we have met very successfully in increas- ing numbers. Would it be possible, or would it be better for us—in our own interests—to meet in any other way? A conference has been suggested, or a E N T S. PAGE Correspondence— I. A Club of Critics "i II. American Cookery "I III. The Society's Readers i« IV. Black Beauty m The Library of Toronto University "4 International Copyright - "4 At Work - "5 New Books and New Editions "5 Advertisements "7 conversazione, as a change from the dinner. As regards the former we should require certain very definite points of discussion, and there would have to be a very rigid chairman, and I think that reporters should be excluded. A conference of two days followed by a conversazione might be a change for the better in our annual programme. I shall be very glad to receive any communications on this subject. ♦ For reasons not wholly unconnected with laziness and a long holiday I have to defer the few observa- tions I wish to make on a certain Memorandum recently issued by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge until next month. However, two letters on the subject which appeared in the Daily News and in the Guardian early in August, have perhaps explained my views as to the value of that document and have prevented my silence being misconstrued. Meantime, let us note one thing very carefully. There is not in the minds either of the Publication Committee of that Society or in the minds of those who were persuaded to sign this precious Memorandum, the slightest perception; not the least glimmering of perception; that literary property now exists. Yet they make thousands every year by literary property. And they obsti- nately refuse to inquire, as to their methods of ac- quisition, whether they are honest and honourable, or the reverse. This prevailing ignorance of the existence of vol. 1. h 2  ## p. 106 (#138) ############################################ io6 THE AUTHOR. literary property and its rights has been also illus- trated in other ways. Thus, a man who has long been connected with literature writes to a journal that he has been more "generously " treated by the S.P.C.K. than byother publishers. More generously! But the question is not one of generosity, but of justice. When will the world understand this? Are authors to stand, hat in hand, the tears of grati- tude running down their hungry cheeks, when these high-minded Christiangentlemen bestow theirdoles? • The awakening, however, even of the religious mind is illustrated by a recent fact. A lady writes that another religious publishing society—noncon- formists, these—have sent her word, that although they bought certain books of hers outright, and she has no claim, in spite of their success, they recognise the equity of her case. They have therefore sent her a substantial cheque for past years and promise her a royalty in future. This, you see, concedes the first principle to be observed by all honest men in the acquisition of literary property, viz., that the price paid for it, or the rental for the use of it, must depend on the actual sale of the book and not upon the amount fixed by the avarice of a sweater or the necessities of an author. But this is a Society managed by humble nonconformists, not by high - minded Churchmen. And a second lady, herself one of the unfortunate victims of the S.P.C.K., writes that shehas just negotiated with another religious publish- ing house for the production of a book. She has received the same sum which she has been accus- tomed to get from the former liberal and honourable house, but accompanied by a very reasonable royalty in addition. We are waking up, after all. Why is it that religious societies are always doing things of which private firms would be ashamed? I have, still further, received the par- ticulars of a case which I set down as it was told to me. If I had time to investigate the case fully I would publish the name of the Society. The accountant of a certain society discovered that another officer, by an elaborate system of secret book-keeping, had turned the society into a firm trading for his own advantage! He proceeded to expose the whole business after an immense deal of trouble in unearthing the intricacies of the method. The result was that the committee, on the offender saying that he had now repented, with prayer and tears, and had turned over a new leaf, passed a vote of confirmed confidence—and dismissed the ac- countant! It seems incredible, and there may be another side to the story, but the documents, which I have received and read, appear to leave no doubt on the matter. Here, again, is another case which speaks for itself. It is an advertisement cut out of a paper. In this case the name of the truly conscientious Society is given at full, for the admiration of the world:— "Competition for Twenty Pounds. "The Junior Division Church of England Temperance Society offers the following prizes :-- "Ten Pounds for the best set of eight dialogues suitable for Church Bands of Hope, illus- trating respectively the eight lectures of the syllabus (health, wealth, and temperance) for the next year's examination. "Ten pounds for the best set of eight stories for tracts for children (not exceeding 1,000 words), illustrating, respectively, the eight lectures above mentioned. "The Society reserves the right to publish any competition, whether it gain the prize or not. "For further particulars apply to the Secretary, (Junior Division C.E.T.S.), 9, Bridge Street, Westminster, S.W." This Church of England Society calmly proposes, in fact, to keep for nothing all the things that are sent in to them. It " reserves the right to publish any competition, whether it gains the prize or not." Now if an enterprising butcher was to offer a prize of twenty pounds for the best pig, "reserving the right" of keeping and selling for himself all the competing pigs, whether they gained a prize or not, what would be said of that butcher's impudence? How would his brother butchers speak of the offer? In what light would it be regarded by the pro- prietors of pigs? Yet, because it is only literary property that is concerned, the respectable Com- mittee of the Junior Division of the Church of England Temperance Society does not scruple to imitate that enterprising butcher. The committees of religious societies always, I believe, begin with prayer. Would it be possible for the Archbishop to draw up a form of prayer suitable for those committees which have to do with publishing? Some kind person has sent me the prospectus of a Society which really does seem to meet that "long- felt want" which calls for every new association. One need not mention it by name, because an association with such benevolent aims cannot fail to make rapid way. It is, in fact, the much-desired Ghost Society. There has never been a time when people have more ardently desired dramatic success. There has also never been a time when so few people have possessed the first elements of dramatic success. They may now, however, by joining this Association, whose terms of membership ought to be very high, be able to gratify their laudable ambition.  ## p. 107 (#139) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. They can have their manuscript plays corrected, re- vised, and put into practical dramatic form for them —no doubt by Messrs. Sims, Pinero, Henry Jones, Petlitt, and other leading dramatists. The Society is also about to issue a monthly paper, "supported by tales of the Association," which is a very odd form of support. They are also going to find engagements for ladies and gentlemen who wish to go on the stage, and they will teach people to play the violin or the harp, to sing, to become eloquent, and to compose music; in short, a most excellent Ghost Society. One department is, no doubt only for the moment, omitted. They do not yet propose to correct literary work and make it fit for publication. But here is a very great field lying open for the first comer. If only those who are now so foolish as to spend their money in paying for their own productions, receiving in return nothing but a nasty, spiteful notice in the papers, would only lay out that money in buying MSS. worth printing and put their own names to them, how much better it would be for all parties! For the author would get properly paid, the person with the money would get the glory, and the public would be spared the trash that is now offered them. We look for the develop- ment of this new Society in the direction of litera- ture. Perhaps we might do a good turn to our own members by creating a new Branch—the Ghostly Branch—of the Society of Authors ; or it might seem better adapted—a more natural growth—to the S.P.C.K. —♦ An American paper, the Critic, has lately been preparing a list of the Forty living Immortals—the Academy—of the United States. Here they are, divided into the States or countries of their resi- dence :— Massachusetts. Aldrich, Brooks, Cable, Child, Fiske, Frothingham, Hall, Higginson, Holmes, Howells, Lowell, Norton, Parkman, Whittier. New York. Burroughs, Curtis, Dana, Gilder, Hawthorne, Stedman, Stoddard, Tylor, White. Connecticut. Clemens, Fisher, Lathrop, Mitchell, Porter, Warner, Whitney. New Jersey. Stockton, Whitman. Pennsylvania. Furness. England. Bret Harte, James. Columbia District. Bancroft. Michigan. Winchell. Georgia. Harris. Italy. Story. The same paper is about to prepare a new li*>t, containing the twenty who shall be considered the truest representatives of what is best in cultivated American womanhood. In a lecture entitled "Literature as a Profession," Col. T. W. Higginson has made some remarks which are quoted in the Critic of New York. Among them are the following :— "Here, as nowhere else, the author stands free and dignified in his profession, with no class above him. How does a literary man stand to-day in England? So long as he is not raised to the peerage, he takes rank below the meanest man who has been: and if, like Tennyson, he consents to join it, he has the extreme felicity of being followed in that body by a prosperous London brewer. The separation of set from set makes its mark in all the literature of England. Why is it that the American magazines have marched in solid column into England and displaced the English magazines? It is because the American magazine is a magazine. It is a place of compre- hension. It brings people together." Here are two interesting points. The first is the wonderful inability of the American mind to under- standj^'hat rank means. As regards precedence the best English poet, if he had no title, would have to walk behind the lowest birthday or jubilee knight. But what Englishman in his senses would rank the birthday knight above the poet? What does it matter to the author and his position whether a brewer or a brewer's clerk receive a title? His own position remains the same. It is that acquired by his reputation alone. The next point is more serious. The lecturer says that the American magazines have displaced the English magazines in their own land. Is this so? Does the statement approach the truth? If it is true, or nearly true, it is a very great reproach on English writers and a great blow and discouragement. Well, we have the Contemporary, the Nineteenth Century, the Fornightly, the National, the Universal, the New Review, Blaekwood's, Macmillan's, the Cornhill, Longman's, Temple Bar, and a dozen others, all of which are well known to be flourishing, more or less—some, exceedingly—all supposed to be good properties, and all taken in and read in every part of our great Empire. The American magazines have come over here. One or two have succeeded, and deservedly. But to the detriment of the English magazines? I be- lieve, not at all. If this had been the case, it would have been proved by a falling-off in prices paid to contributors, when the Society would have heard of it. But no such thing has happened. Some magazines there are which are in a bad way, and have been in a bad way for years, because, when a magazine -takes a turn for the worse, it seems unable to recover itself, but goes continually down till it reaches the point of extinction. O" the other hand, the success of one magazine  ## p. 108 (#140) ############################################ io8 THE AUTHOR. may create such a demand as will make room for half a dozen more, and this, I take it, is the reason of the English success of the American magazines. —♦ I wonder if it is too late to speak with admiration of a paper in an August magazine. The " Perilous Amour" of Mr. Weyman, in Temple Bar for that month, stood out, as regards interest, workmanship, and freshness, above and beyond everything else of that month—I mean, of course, everything else that I saw. In August we received a letter from Lord Monks- well, who has charge of our Copyright Bill, informing us that the great length of the Bill made it for various reasons inadvisable that it should - be in- troduced at so late a period in the Session. Both his lordship and others whom he kindly consulted on the matter, recommended that it should be held over until November. This little delay is quite unimportant; the more so when we remember the many long years through which authors have waited for some attempt at the remedial legislation, which is now only some three months away. Of course it is the attempt only, and not the legislation, which is so near. The ingenious hidalgo, Don Quixote de la Mancha, seems to have thought that there were cer- tain plights from which the extremest knight-errantry- could not extricate a man. At any rate he tilts no lance on the author's behalf, but commends him simply to God. The passage runs as follows:— "Tell me, your worship, print you this book upon your own charges, or have you sold the copyright to some publisher?" "I print it on my own account," said the author, "and think to gain a thousand crowns by the first impression, which will be of two thousand copies, which they will sell at six reales a piece in a brace of straws." "Your worship is mighty well up in the account. It is well seen that you know nothing of the ins and outs of publishers. I promise you that when you shall find you laden with the bodies of two thousand books, your own body shall be so wearied that it will affiright you, especially if the book be a little dull and is nothing piquant." "So then, your worship," said the author," would have me give my copyright for three maravedis to a publisher, who will think he does me a kindness in giving me so much? I do not print my books to achieve fame in the world, for I am already known by my works; I want profit, for without it fine fame is not worth a farthing." "God give your worship good fortune," said Pon Quixote, and passed on. "I cannot," says an eminent author and drama- tist (who surely wants a holiday badly), "use my own judgment in a literary contract without being pounced upon and bullied by a trades union of authors." Now this is meant for us, and is not fair. We have pounced upon nobody, we have bullied nobody, nor have we ever attempted to pounce or to bully. We have never set ourselves up as a tribunal to which authors, eminent or otherwise, should apply before acceding to a publisher's terms, unless they wish to do so. We may have excellent reasons for thinking that they would be very wise if they did come to us, but we leave it to them: and more and more come daily. As for this particular author, he has never applied to us for advice and has therefore never received any. But a trades' union, I believe, dictates to its members [hat they should accept certain terms only, upon cer- tain conditions only, and members cannot continue to belong to the union unless they do as they are told. We have never attempted or wished to take up this position. We simply say to all authors and to this our eminent member among them :—" Com- plaints have been made and are still being made by men of letters that they have not obtained fair terms for their work, that they have been led to sign contracts to which they never would have assented had the meaning of those con- tracts been apparent to them, and the ultimate division of profits foreshadowed; that in short in the business side of the literary profession they have been at a disadvantage. Therefore the Society offers to make clear to its members the meaning of any proposal submitted to them, so that they may be, perhaps for the first time, in a position to understand whether they should take an offer or leave it." That is not the same thing as preventing an author from using his own judgment about a literary contract. Let those who have judgment exercise it, but what is to become of those whose judicial faculties are small, or who from absence of technical knowledge, or data from which to make deduction, cannot tell a good bargain from a bad one, when its terms are submitted to them? Must such an one always go to the wall? ——♦ Mrs. Craik and Mr. Richard Jefferies are both to be honoured in the same way. There has lately been placed in Tewkesbury Abbey a medallion portrait of the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." Tewkesbury was the home of John Halifax, and the last place visited by the author before her death. Salisbury Cathedral very fitly has been selected as the right place to do similar honour to the memory of Richard Jefferies, a Wiltshire man and  ## p. 109 (#141) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 109 the poet of the Wiltshire Downs. As regards the latter, subscriptions may be sent to myself, and I shall be very grateful to any who will help to erect this monument to the great naturalist and writer. The following seems to me a remarkable story of perseverance. A young author writes :— "My story,' ,' has only been rejected twice, as yet. My first story, published just three years ago, was rejected thirty-six times before it was finally accepted. Another story of mine was only taken after forty-two publishers had refused it. So, you see, I cannot despair about' .' Besides, she is the only child of my brain that I have left to see settled in the world, all my other MSS. having been accepted, with the exception of a four-act drama." One can only wish every success to the four-act drama. This author has worked his way to suc- cess against discouragement that would almost have dashed the ardour of the Bruce's spider. Probably he could have spared himself a good proportion of these refusals, if he had been advised earlier of the most suitable direction in which to seek for a publisher. At the Society, we are often asked to "recommend a publisher," and it is possible that a mere glance at these books would have enabled us to save this author at least two dozen refusals by pointing out the publishers to whom it would be useless or unwise to apply. We are glad to learn from their organ, The Journalist, that the Institute of Journalists thinks, like ourselves, on the matter of International Copy- right, and that the Committee of Management propose to take such steps towards its establish- ment as may seem expedient. The question was brought to their notice through a resolution, passed on the motion of Mr. James Baker, by the Bristol Branch of the Institute. The motion was to the effect that "this meeting pledges itself to do all in its power to hasten the passing of a just and equit- able copyright convention between this country and America, especially urging that in such a conven- tion no injustice be done to the printers and paper- makers of this country; and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Institute of Journalists and the Society of Authors." M. Chatrian is dead. Chatrian, of the Erckmann- Chatrian series-—Chatrian whom we have all loved since first we read him. As for me, I think I made the acquaintance of this godlike pair early in the sixties—the remote sixties. What popularity has been the lot of these twins! Who can say how much they have done towards the extinction of the idiotic thirst for glory that formerly filled every ardent Gaul? Not that it has disappeared, but it burns now with a dimmer force. The young men go out to war because they must, but they know that it is not d la gloire but aux abattoirs. They will fight no worse for the knowledge, but they will not fight unless they must. Chatrian is dead! And before he died he had quarrels with his partner! The latter is as bad to think of as the former. One thing is quite certain—when two men form a literary partnership, they construct by talk and confidence, by weaving and interweaving, by selection and by arrangement, between them a work of art. Treason to Art if one begins to count how many pages he has written more than his partner! Charles Gibbon, who died last month at Yar- mouth, while still a middle-aged man, was a most prolific novelist. He wrote over thirty novels, some of which, "For Lack of Gold," and "The Queen of the Meadow," for example, enjoyed considerable popularity. I find the following in the Athenaum;— "In the course of nearly thirty years' continuous literary work, I have had frequent occasion for protest against the dishonesty of American pub- lishers, but I think my latest experience supplies one of the most striking examples of unscrupulous- ness in piracy. "I am credited in a glowing advertisement with the authorship of a sensational romance called 'Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the Avalanche,' now being published in the New York Sunday Mercury. Now I never wrote a story called 'Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the Avalanche,' nor any story which could, by any possibility, be described by such a title, and 1 beg to protest most earnestly against this misuse of my name. In the words of the great Burke I may say, 'My errors, if any, are my own. I bear no man's proxy.' "Mary E. Maxwell, nee Braddon." At present in America, as everyone who enjoys any circulation in England knows, there is nothing to prevent the unauthorized publication of English books on the other side of the Atlantic. But it seems to me that Miss Braddon has, in this case, some chance of an indirect remedy, or has, at any rate, an opportunity of some sort for some sort of reprisal, though blood would hardly wash out the  ## p. 110 (#142) ############################################ I IO THE AUTHOR. insult of being publicly accused of having invented the title of "Tiger-Head; or, the Ghost of the Avalanche." Miss Braddon's enormous and well- deserved popularity with all classes makes her name very valuable to the go-ahead Editor of the Sunday Mercury, and it is her name and not the story that is selling the periodical. Would it not be possible to send out to America an earnestly-worded repudiation of the literary honours thrust upon her? If this were sent to The New York Tribune, and The New York Herald, and the Sunday papers, most of the other journals might be trusted to copy it, without being requested to do so. This might damage the boom of the Sunday Mercury. Charles Reade was victimized in the same way, and, if I mistake not, Wilkie Collins was also. Here is a very interesting communication, based entirely upon the question of "What is trade- custom?" Without expressing any opinion on the case, we cordially echo our correspondent's wish that the customs of the trade could be made comprehensible to the intelligence of the author. "A publisher makes the following agreement:— "Messrs. X. and Y. agree to pay a royalty of so much per copy on all copies sold after the sale of the first copies of the said work, the publishing price of which shall be so much. The royalty on copies sold in America shall be one-half." The figures are omitted in charity to the pub- lisher and pity for the author. "In a few years about 1,000 copies are sold in America, and the royalty is duly paid; but these copies are not allowed to be reckoned among 'the first '; so that the author has to wait till that number, plus the copies taken in America, are sold before he gets his royalty of ;i.e., the publisher, bypaying in advancethe stipulated royalty on the 1,000 copies sold in America, avoids the payment of the full royalty. Is this the 'custom of the trade'? It certainly seems an infraction of the agreement." "I found, too, by sad experience," continues the letter, "that it was the custom of the trade to distribute a large number of presentation copies, without consultation, and to advertise in such a way that in one year the cost of advertisements alone exceeded the receipts from the sale of the book. Having stopped this, I still had to submit to items like the following:—(The published price being, say, 3*. 6d.) 101 sold as 97, at 2s. 6d., less 5 per cent., trade allowance (besides, of course, publisher's commission); or 52 (America) sold as 48, at is. 4d. All this may be quite fair and necessary in a business way; but I think publishers should let authors know of these customs of the trade before the latter put a price on their book. Few new authors realize that in this way they can only expect (not counting adver- tisements), at most, one-half of the published price, and that six months after the whole year's account is made up." Our correspondent raises many questions in his letter, with all of which we hope at one time or another to deal. For the present I note only that this author has been made to sign an agree- ment, the nature of which he has not understood. For example, he is to receive nothing till the publisher has sold so many copies. How much will the publisher have made when the author's time begins? The author does not know. Yet he signed the agreement in the dark. When his time arrives, how much will the publisher make for his share? He knows very well, but the author does not. In this case the agreement was such, that the publisher would make, on a rough estimate, at least ^150 profit before the author got anything. He would afterwards make about twice as much as the author. There is given, later on, a resumi of an enquiry commenced last spring, into the position of the English author with reference to the Colonial book market. That this market is an ever-in- creasing one is plain. In the Colonies there are not only more people to read than formerly, but, in proportion, many more now who do read, and in both directions this increase will go on. The Society will do its best to deal with this problem. We shall probably first memorialize Government to enforce the existing protection, and shall then consider whether there is any direc- tion in which more protection could be obtained, and whether we have any chance of obtaining it. Local Copyright Acts might perhaps be procured in the interests of the English owners of the copy- rights, if the representations were made in the proper direction. At the present it may seem that great importance is being attached to a small matter, but our Colonial readers are no small matter, and it would be a thousand pities if, through supineness now, we lost' a splendid market in the future. In the meantime, let everybody see that his book is duly and promptly entered at Stationers' Hall. I beg to invite suggestions as to a future plan. Walter Besant.  ## p. 111 (#143) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 111 THE POET'S SEAT: AN IDYLL OF THE SUBURBS. "Ille terrarum mihi prater omnes Angulus RIDET."—Hor. ii, 6. IT was a towering tree of yore, A lordly elm, before they lopped it, And weighty, said those five who bore Its bulk across the lawn, and dropped it Not once or twice, before it lay, With two young pear trees to protect it, Safe where the Poet hoped some day The curious pilgrim would inspect it. He saw him with his Poet's eye, The tall Maori, turned from etching The ruin of St. Paul's, to try Some object better worth the sketching ;— He saw him, and it nerved his strength What time he hacked and hewed and scraped it, Until the monster grew at length The Master-piece to which he shaped it. To wit—a goodly garden-seat, And fit alike for Shah or Sophy, With shelf for cigarettes complete, And one, but lower down, for coffee; He planted pansies round its foot,— "Pansies for thoughts," and rose and arum; The Motto (that he meant to put) Was Ille angulus terrarum. But "Oh ! the change (as Milton sings)— The heavy change!" When May departed, When June with its "delightful things" Had come and gone, the rough bark started,— Began to lose its sylvan brown, Grew parched, and powdery, and spotted, And, though the Poet nailed it down, It still flapped up, and dropped, and rotted. Nor was this all. 'Twas next the scene Of vague (and viscous) vegetations; Queer fissures gaped, with oozings green, And moist, unsavoury exhalations,— Faint wafts of wood decayed and sick, Till, where he meant to carve his Motto, Strange leathery fungi sprouted thick, And made it like an oyster grotto. In short it grew a Seat of Scorn, Bare,—shameless,—till, for fresh disaster, From end to end, one April morn, 'Twas riddled like a pepper caster,— Drilled like a vellum of old time, And musing on this final mystery, The Poet left off scribbling rhyme And took to studying Natural History. This was the turning of the tide: His five-act-play is still unwritten; The dreams that now his soul divide Are more of Lubbock than of Lytton; "Ballades " are "verses vain " to him Whose first ambition is to lecture (So much is man the sport of whim !) On "Insects and their Architecture." Austin Dobson. * ENGLISH AUTHORS AND THE COLONIAL BOOK MARKET. IT may be remembered that at the end of last year we published a communication received by us from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, informing us that steps should be taken in accordance with our representations, to prevent the introduction of foreign reprints into the Straits Settlements. Shortly after this Mr. Rider Haggard sent to us a copy of his novel "Jess," which was circulating largely in an unauthorized edition in Africa, and pointed out the advisability of making an enquiry into the matter, with a view of finding out how far such practices were generally pre- valent in the Crown Colonies.* It is evident that our novelists have a large and ever-increasing market in the Colonies, and that some steps ought to be taken to prevent such robbery and secure the profits to them. At the same time it did not appear so very clear what those steps should be. We therefore addressed the following questions to prominent book-sellers in our various Colonies, in the hope that we should thus learn how much the author is at present injured by these reprints, which are mostly American, and how far anything could be done to prevent the injury :— "(i.) Are pirated editions imported freely into the colony? "(2.) Is there any legislation to prevent this importation? "(3.) Are such books openly exposed for sale? "(4.) To what extent in your opinion do pirated books and American reprints damage the books of the English trade? "(5.) What in your opinion would be the best steps to take for the protection of English and Colonial authors?" * The cost of this production was twenty cents, and it was the meanest Americanism we ever saw.  ## p. 112 (#144) ############################################ i 12 THE AUTHOR. The result of the answers we have received, as yet, is as follows :— Pirated editions are imported freely into Africa generally, into some parts of India, and into British Guiana, but not to any extent into Australia or New Zealand. In some colonies, what legal protection the law affords, is enforced, and in some it is not. For there is imperial legislation to meet the ppint. If the books are registered at Stationers' Hall, an import duty of 20 per cent, on the published price is collected by the Custom House for the good of the owner of the copyright. This, of course, is legislation for the regulation of the abuse, not for its prevention. It is very significant, however, that in Australia and New Zealand, where the Custom House officials levy the duty carefully, pirated editions are by no means rife. We are indebted to the courtesy of the Registrar of Canterbury College, Christchurch, N.Z., for the following information— "Lists of English copyright books are sent by the British Customs House to Wellington, and thence distributed to the collectors of customs at the different ports. I have this morning inspected the latest; it is dated May, 1889. The collector of Customs informs me that quite recently a quantity of music from America was destroyed under his directions, because of infringement of English copyright." From Auckland, New Zealand, we have received almost the same information, our correspondents believing that the existing law is sufficient if strictly carried out. Instances are given of the efficient working of the law. A correspondent writes from Dunedin to the same effect, adding that no bookseller worthy of the name would import reprints to the prejudice of the publishers of the old country. In Adelaide the law is enforced. The Principal Librarian of the Free Public Library at Sydney considers that the protection extended to authors and publishers by the Custom House is adequate. He has not received in seven years of office fifty such unauthorized books. In Melbourne we are informed that pirated editions are but seldom seen, and our correspondent is of opinion that the Eng- lish owners of the copyright have sustained no damage from them. In Brisbane the Act seems to be a sufficient protection, for but few American reprints have been seen there, and the fact that they are prohibited seems to be distinctly under- stood. In India, we hear from Calcutta that pirated editions are sometimes extensively imported. Our correspondent also casually throws out a horrible suggestion. He thinks that copyright books are sometimes printed in secrecy in India. This, of course, is quite beside the question, but it is a matter for grave apprehension. The Honorary Secretary of the Library at Simla Station informs us that pirated editions are freely imported into India, and that such legislation as exists to prevent this is not put in force. We learn from Bombay that the Custom House is very strict in preventing the import of pirated books, and that hardly any such editions find their way into British possessions. In Madras pirated editions are imported, but only rarely. They are always cheap American reprints. But in Madras the law is recognised, for one of our correspondents points out that the importation into British India of pirated editions, which infringe any law in force in the territory, can be punished by forfeiture and fine. Neither in Australia, New Zealand, or India, are these books openly exposed for sale, and the damage done to authors in the first two colonies by their sale is, of course, very slight. In Africa the tale is different; we print the following letter from the biggest book-seller at Cape Town, as it so clearly sets out the points at issue :—■ "As the question of the prevention of Ameri- can reprints is an important one and damaging to a honest book-selling establishment, we beg- to reply to your queries, at the same time assuring you that you will have our heartiest co- operation. We may, however, tell you that we tried some two years ago this very same question, and we, as the largest publishers and importers of books into the Cape Colony, would have petitioned Government, but wanted the assistance of the London publishers. We were already in corres- pondence with the firms of Macmillan & Co., Hurst & Blackett & Co., but we are sorry to say the matter has been allowed to drop. We have no doubt that, with the assistance of your Society, this evil will now be remedied, and those authors, whose works are stolen, will be protected from the American's avarice, which is allowed free play simply and only through the absence of an Inter- national Copyright Act. We, in the Cape Colony, are somewhat similarly placed to the injured authors with respect to the neighbouring States; for in- stance, books we publish are being sold in the Orange Free State and the South African Republic with impunity, without our being able to stop it, also for the want of an International Copyright Act  ## p. 113 (#145) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. "(i.) Pirated editions are imported into the Colony in places like Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, as long as they pay the 20 per cent. Customs duty. These reprints, we learn, are imported direct from America. "(2.) There is no legislation to prevent this importation as long as they pay the duty. "(3.) Such books openly exposed for sale: it was not so very long ago there was a book-seller in Cape Town who had his windows simply swamped with these pirated American books, exhibiting books of authors like Rider Haggard s, Edna Lyall's, Mrs. Wood's, George Macdonald's, Ruskin's works, and others, selling them at is. 6d. per vol., whereas we had, of course, only the honest English edition at 6s., as the cheapest to sell. "(4.) The extent to which the pirated books and American reprints damage the books of the English trade is made evident by reading the fore- going paragraph. Moreover, this illicit trade is specially damaging in the Cape, where the majority of the population are not' reading people,' and may be induced to buy a book for cheapness sake, when they would not purchase it otherwise." At Cape Town, therefore,-in which town, by-the- bye, it was that the pirated copy of "Jess" was bought, the English author's property is greatly damaged by these illicit editions, and the law, even when enforced, is found powerless to check the evil. From Natal we have much the same story. From British Guiana we learn that the Custom House exacts on American editions, which are freely imported, the duty of 20 per cent, on the pub- lished price of all registered books. Here the penalty does not, in any way, stop the abuse. The impost is cheerfully paid, and the sale goes on to the detriment of the owners of the copyright. From the Straits Settlements we leam that the American reprint has been rife there. The Chap- lain of Penang, who is also honorary librarian of the Public Library, informs us that there were few books, except the pirated editions, to be bought on the Island, and that the question of purchasing these volumes for the use of the Library had been frequently before him. But from Singapore we have the following significant letter:— "We beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of the 29th ult., and in reply beg to inform you that pirated editions are not sold in Singapore at all. All the firms here have agreed, in response to an appeal from the Colonial Government, not to keep them in stock." We say significant, for our attention was first called to this matter in reference to the Straits Settlements, so that before making this inquiry into the prevalence of the abuse in the Colonies generally, we were able to direct the attention of the Colonial Office to Singapore in particular: and the fact that action in Singapore has been so suc- cessful is encouraging to future effort. We invited, in our letter, suggestions for the remedy of the evil where it existed, and, with great unanimity, the Colonial book-sellers point out that the most certain remedy imaginable would be to issue cheap authorised editions for the Colonial market A Colonial edition of more expensive books is already issued by several publishers, and the plan has proved successful. One book-seller tells us that he could have sold perhaps 100 copies of Stanley's "Darkest Africa " at the English price of 42s., whereas he is confident that he will dispose of over 2,000 copies of the i6.r. edition, which has been prepared for Colonial use. It is suggested by most of our correspondents that this plan should be tried for cheaper books, that, in fact, the 3J. 6d., 5s. and 6s. novel, as each appears in England, should be accompanied by a is., is. 6d., 2s., paper-covered edition for the Colonies. It is too much to expect that people will give the large sums asked for the English edition, when they can buy the American copies for 25 cents. In New Zealand and Australia present legislation seems sufficient, and the English author does not appear to have been really damaged in India, but in Africa something must be done. Either the law is not enforced, or else the demand for these books is so large that, after the 20 per cent, has been paid to the Custom House officers, a hand- some profit can be made by their sale of them. The present law is not too neat in its working. The lists supplied to the Custom House are often a year old and more, which means that the pirate has a year's clear run before an official notice reaches the colony that the book is a registered property, and that a duty of 20 per cent, is due to the owner of its copyright. Now the edge is taken off the sale of a novel in a year. Again, the lists are made up from the registrations at Stationers' Hall, but very few authors trouble themselves to find out if their books are duly registered. They generally do get registered, but often not at the moment of publication, so that, during the first rush for the work, the book will often be unprotected in the Colonies, even though the Custom House officials should happen to be furnished with the latest lists. Lastly, if all goes well, the pecuniary return is a pitiful one. It was from this source that Charles  ## p. 114 (#146) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. Reade received i6.f. 4J. as the result of two years' sale of " Never too late to Mend." There is no doubt that English authors ought to secure a better hold on this enormous market. The result of this inquiry will be laid before our Committee at once, and a sub-Committee formed to decide upon the best course. We know from experience that we can depend upon the courteous co-operation of the Colonial Office. * A HARD CASE. No. IV. AN author, already favourably known to a good if small public, wrote a story and took it to a literary gentleman, who had offered him friendly assistance in his search for a publisher. This gentleman approved of the story, and, on his recommendation, a publisher offered to bring the book out on the half-profit system. The agreement was a perfectly informal document, drawn by the intermediary on a sheet of writing paper. Under it the author gave up all his rights in the book in return for a half share in future profits. Let us stop here and consider what that means. The author gives up his work entirely to another person, a joint-adventurer, on the understanding that all profits shall be shared between them, and from the moment that he does so he ceases to have any voice in the management of the transaction, and any control over the expenditure. He is con- sidered to have done his share of the task. His has been the simple and easy part, the writing of the book. Why it is a thing, some people say, that any educated gentleman can do, if he can get credit for pens and paper; and a thing, moreover, which is constantly done by people of no education what- ever. The author is at no expense. It is true that the work may occupy all his leisure time for a year. It is true that if he had devoted that time, to (say) digging, he would have earned perhaps fifty pounds, and that there are still more people who can dig than spell. Indeed we do not ourselves think that writing even a very bad book is so simple a matter, but let it be conceded that the author's lot's a very happy one, and let us suppose that he has just written a book. He expects to be repaid in money and in increased reputation. If he does get money so much the better, but if he only gets fame from any one venture, that will mean money from his next venture. Now comes in the daring publisher and proceeds to take the risk. He can take it how he likes, either fighting—like Colonel Quaggs—or with sugar—as Orpheus C. Kerr took the oath—but how he takes it is a matter for his own private consideration. And this is the fact with which we find fault. The publisher can pro- duce so small an edition that if the whole sold, there would still be a loss on the book. Then, one may say, where are his own profits to come from? There won't be any for him, but that is a most unchristian, as well as an empty sort of satisfaction for his partner. He can produce so large an edition that it never can sell, so that the results of all the sales that do take place do not cover the printer's bill. He can advertise once a month in a circular privately sent out to a few customers, or daily in The Times, and take a column of it. He can bind the book in any- thing. There is or was a book in a well-known local library, bound in the skin of the Red Barn murderer; between anything so expensive and unique as this and a paper wrapper, there is a large choice for the publisher to whom the total manage- ment of details is left, and the chance of there being a profit depends greatly on the publisher's choice. It was in this way that the entire management of the book in question fell into the publisher's hands; he could produce it entirely as he pleased, all the details of publishing were left to his discretion. But alas! he appears to have had no discretion. He employed good artists and first-class printers, and he ordered an enormous first edition of this costly book, an edition he would hardly have been justified in ordering, if the book had been written by one of the most popular writers of fiction. Doubtless he relied on the splendid work put into the production to largely assist in the sale, for, in spite of the expense incurred over illustration, the book was announced at a popular price. The fact that the name of his firm was and is one honoured in book-land, would also be a great help to the author. Then came a series of delays in the publication, quite incomprehensible to the author, for neither the publisher nor the common friend gave him a hint that there was any definite reason for these delays. The book was announced for this month and for that month; now it was to stimulate the wear)' palate of August, now to satisfy the hungry cravings of Christmas, but still it never appeared. But at last an explanation of some sort or another leaked out. The publisher was at variance with his partners, who repudiated, as a firm, this and other contracts, into which he had entered in their name. Certainly this one partner had signed the agreement, given all the orders and effected all communications with the author, but the idea that, when doing so, he wasnot in a position to speak for his firm never occurred to the author. The  ## p. 115 (#147) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. legal side of this question was never discussed. It is possible and even probable, that the firm would have been obliged to carry out the undertaking, but the author was advised to try and get away from his original arrangements and find a fresh publisher. The position now was this. An enormous and splendidly illustrated stock lay in sheets at the printers, and an enormous bill had to be paid for it, before the printer would let it out of his hands, and the copyright of the work had been assigned—at any rate, for this enormous number of copies—to a man who could not meet the bill himself, and whose firm repudiated their liability. This was awkward, but further complica- tions were yet to follow. The publisher's creditors proceeded against him, and chose to consider this luckless novel one of his most valuable assets. So much money had already been spent upon it in the way of illustra- tion, and the chance that it would achieve a large sale seemed so good, that they were probably right in so appreciating it. But that meant that the aulhor could not get his book from the printer without much trouble and legal formality. For if the copyright was undoubtedly partly the author's, it was un- doubtedly partly the publisher's, and if the author redeemed his stock and sold it for his own benefit, he might be held to have injured the publisher's estate. On the other hand, the author had many grounds upon which to base a large pecuniary claim against the publisher, and some to substan- tiate a breach of contract. Their joint property had been damaged by the continual delay; large orders which had been given for the book were not, of course, executed, and perhaps would not be repeated later, while many advertisements, some representing a tolerable sum of money, were lost for good. This was a side of the question which, we are happy to allow, the publisher's re- presentatives saw most clearly. Their behaviour throughout to the author was very considerate, and a definite understanding was at last arrived at, that no obstacle would be put in the way of the author if he chose to treat directly with the printer for the stock. Now things began to look smoother, when there appeared on the scene another claimant to rights over the unfortunate book. It appeared that i/ie publisher had assigned the copyright of the work for this enormous first edition to another publisher at the actual cost price of the work! Of course he had no power whatever thus to assign a copyright, which was not unconditionally his, to a third person, who was unknown to the author, and to do so without the author's sanction: but, setting this point aside, consider his interpretation of his agreement. He was to give the author half-profits. Avowedly to effect this, he took the book, gave nothing for it, but promised "as remuneration," to give the author one-half of any receipts over and above his disburse- ments. Then he sells the book for the exact sum he had disbursed, or, at any rate, for the exact sum he is stated to have disbursed. This assignment was set aside by the author, who was advised that he need not be bound by such an arrangement, and the hard case had a happy termination. With the co-operation of the first publisher's solicitors, the author recovered his stock from the printers, and came to an arrangement with the second publisher (who had already advertised the book and taken orders for it), to publish it for him. The book has been so far a success. * A SOCIETY OF AUTHORS FOR AMERICA. I. [Reprinted from the Xciv York Tribune.] London, July igth. WHY is there no Society of Authors in the United States? I shall, perhaps, be told there is one, but is there one answer- ing to the Society of Men of Letters in France, or to that which exists in England? The work this Society has done here is most useful, and it would be hard to praise it too highly, if you consider that it has been done by authors who are themselves both busy and successful. They give many hours a week to the cause of Literature, and to the interests of their fellow-authors. They have made the Society what it is; a body with purely practical aims, using practical methods to attain them. It takes a long time for the English—and, perhaps, sometimes for others than English—to grasp a new fact, or comprehend the real object of a new enter- prise. There are people, as 7'he Author tells us, who look on the Society as one which exists for the purpose of patching up, or even of creating quarrels and grievances with publishers. It is nothing of the kind. The Society has no quarrel with pub- lishers as such, and never had any: that it exists mainly for the purpose of maintaining the rights, the sacredness, and the reality of Literary Property. With the honest publisher the Society has no quarrel; with the dishonest publisher it has, and it makes no secret of its desire and intention to keep the author out of the clutches of the dis- honest publisher. As success in that laudable  ## p. 116 (#148) ############################################ u6 THE AUTHOR. effort will increase the business of the honest pub- lisher, they and the Society ought to be on good terms. The honest publisher, like the author, owes, or will owe, a debt of gratitude to all who are concerned with it. It has some 600 members, with Lord Tennyson as President. On its Council are—besides Mr. Besant —Sir Edwin Arnold, Mr. Bryce, Sir Frederick Pollock, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mr. Marion Craw- ford, Mr. George Meredith, Prof. Michael Foster, and many more men of leading and light in the world of letters. It has offices in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. It has legal counsel, solici- tors, a committee of management, and a monthly organ. And it has principles. These have just been restated in a brief and convenient form, and I cannot do better than quote them:— 1. Literary property is created by the author, and belongs, at the outset, to him. 2. Literary property must be held as sacred as any other kind of property. 3. Literary property is ruled by the demand for a book, just as colliery property means the sale of the output. And as the value of a colliery depends first on the output in tons and their price, so the value of a book can only be estimated with reference to the number of copies sold. 4. The author must not part with his property without due consideration, nor without understanding exactly what possibilities, as well as what certainties, he gives and what he receives. 5. What the author is entitled to is, after pay- ment of the cost of production and the pub- lisher's agency and labour, all the remaining proceeds. This proportion of the returns is the property which he has to sell for a lump sum down, or to receive year by year. 6. The publisher has to be remunerated for his agency and labour out of the returns of the book in a certain proportion which should be a fixed proportion recognized by both contracting parties and understood by both. To some of these the publisher may demur, but they are principles which the French Society of Men of Letters have established in France. There is, I apprehend, no country in the world where the rights of Literature are better understood or settled on a more practical basis than in France. The English Society of Authors is, in fact, an imitator of the French, and will perhaps end by doing for the English author what has been done for the French, Both in England and America a public opinion on this subject has yet to be created. Recent events have shown that in America there is a great body of opinion which is hostile to the whole idea of literary property. Mr. Payson of Illinois and Mr. Mills of Texas seem to deny its existence. That they repre- sent the majority of the American people I do not believe. It is enough for them to have carried with with them a majority of the House of Represen- tatives. They and their majority have brought such discredit and disgrace upon the American name as many years of honesty and honourable dealing will not altogether efface. Judge Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court, has done something to efface it—all honour to him, strange as it still seems to be proclaiming honour to a Judge because he will not admit it to be legal to steal. The question of copyright, domestic or inter- national, may seem aside from the main subject, but all questions of literary property are inextricably in- terwoven and cannot be separated. They all have the Eighth Commandment for their basis. Until the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" case, it had been supposed that the American Pirate put forth no pretension to rob any other than the foreign author. It was then seen that he claimed the right to rob the native author also; the American man of letters was to be his spoil just as much as the British. There can be—outside of the courts, and the courts are always a last resort—no complete remedy for such a state of things, and no redress of grievances, otherwise than by the creation of a sound public opinion, and that is one of the aims of the Society of Authors. Very different, I may re- mark, is the handling of the copyright business in the Society's Journal from that of Mr. Wemyss Reid, whose heavy-handed invective attracted some notice at the time. Mr. Wemyss Reid would fain hold all America responsible for Mr. Payson and Mr. Mills. The Society urges, on the other hand, a recognition of the noble efforts in behalf of copy- right made by the leading men, the men of culture, in the Eastern States. These men, it tells its British readers, include all the authors of America, all the honourable publishers and a great number of editors. The opponents of the Bill were Western farmers, who knew nothing about literature, literary property, authors' rights or anything else except their own local interests. And The Author boldly says that the views of the British world, with respect to literary property, are not much more enlightened than those of the ignorant Western farmer. Education, however, and most of all the educa tion of public opinion, is a slow process, and the Society of Authors meanwhile busies itself with the most practical and pressing necessities of its clients. Any respectable author may join it on payment of a yearly subscription of 85. Once a member, he becomes a client, and may have his business transacted for him without further charge.  ## p. 117 (#149) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 117 It is the cheapest advice anywhere to be had, and it is also the best. The relations between author and publisher undergo a change at once. It is no longer the case of a business man dealing with one who, as a rule, is not a man of business, and knows nothing of the mysteries of manufacturing and publishing printed books. The Society does know, and knows how to make its knowledge useful to the author. He has only to send to the Committee the form of contract prepared for him by the publisher. He will be told whether it is a fair one or not, and, if not, in what particulars it is unfair. He will be told what it costs to manufacture his book if he is himself to bear, or to share, the cost of publication. If he is to be paid by a royalty, he will be advised what percentage upon the selling price of the book he ought to receive. He will be warned, if need be, against the dis- honest publisher. If the publisher he has selected be honest, his negotiation with him is still a matter of business, and he needs all the help he can get toward looking after his own end of the bargain. Legal advice is of little or no use. Few lawyers have taken the trouble to master the intricacies of publishing, or are aware of the pitfalls and traps in which some of these pub- lishers' forms of contract abound. The author who goes to this Society may or may not be able to command good terms. But at least he will know whether they are good or bad, and know exactly what the contract is which he is asked to sign. A case came to my knowledge the other day. An author submitted two contracts to his solicitor: one of the few who are supposed really to under- stand the subject. He approved of both, and advised his client to sign both, with, in one case, a trivial technical alteration. Not quite satisfied, the author sent them to the Society; with this sur- prising result, that he was advised to object to many of the clauses, and did object. The pub- lishers in both cases were among the best, and assented readily enough to the modifications pro- posed. The effect of them was that in both cases the agreement ultimately signed was far more beneficial to the author than those first submitted to him and sanctioned by his solicitor. The organ of the Society gives singular instances of the adventures which have befallen the authors in quest of publicity. The latest case is the most extreme,—that of a lady who handed her manu- script to a publisher, and was told that the cost of printing a specified number of copies would be $600. A friend sent it direct to a printer, who offered to print and bind that number of copies for $80! Perhaps this publisher was one of that firm, elsewhere described in The Author, as one "of which all the worst things ever alleged against the publishing trade may be alleged with the greatest truth." The paper adds: "We have for a long time kept work out of their hands, and we intend to go on doing so until they mend their ways." An earlier statement shows that the dishonest publisher is not such a rarity that the author need not beware of him. There are, according to this estimate, not more than a dozen publishers in all London with whom publishing is anything but a system of robbery. If the condition of things in America be in any degree analogous to this, the foundation of a Society of American Authors is a pressing need. And even if the American be, as we are bound to suppose, vastly more virtuous than his British brother, there are other reasons which make the need for such a Society hardly less imperative. I have touched on but few of them, and it is for the American at home to consider the whole subject for himself. But I may repeat what I have said before, that, perhaps evenmorethan the author, the honourable publisher has an interest in suppressing his dishonourable rival. G. W. S. II. {Reprintedfrom the Brooklyn Times.) Mrs. Katherine Hodges, the authoress, of this city, has a grievance against her publishers of long standing and grave nature. To ventilate that grievance a meeting of authors took place yester- day afternoon in the green room of Historical Hall. Dr. Ingersoll, who was voted to the chair, said that the gathering had been called to assist those who seemed to have been wronged and to prevent others from falling into the same trouble. He then called on Mrs. Hodges to recite the story of the wrong that she had suffered at the hands of her publishers. The authoress said: "In the urgent need for an Authors' Protective Union or for some means by which this class of bread-winners may be protected in their rights, as are all other wage-workers save the author, perhaps the best argument I could offer would be some experiences of my own in dealing with publications. The book, 'Fifty Years a Queen,' was published on my account by Belford, Clarke & Co., New York and Chicago, in the last days of April, 1887. A few days after it appeared, Mr. Robert Belford, manager of the New York branch, told me in his office, 386, Broadway, that he had on that morning received an order for 100 of the books from one house and  ## p. 118 (#150) ############################################ n8 THE AUTHOR. had the morning before had an order from another house for 200. When the publisher's first state- ment was rendered in September, 1887 (four months after this conversation), I was astonished to see that the total receipts up to that date were given as §101.88! I remembered the sale of 300 books mentioned by Mr. Belford in the first days of May, the price of which alone would aggregate more than the whole sum of money stated, and that four months had passed since that time, from May to September, these months including the Jubilee celebration, when the book had a good sale. My surprise was followed by doubts. This statement of September, 1887, also gave the issue of the book as one edition of 1,000, which seemed to me to be as doubtful as was the statement of money said to have been received by the pub- lishers. "In this dilemma, and in order to explain, if possible, the seeming discrepancy between facts and figures, I made an appeal for information and learned from an undoubted authority that instead of 1,000 copies of the book being made Belford, Clarke & Co. had issued no less than 3,000. "On February 1, 1888, a further statement was furnished by the publishers, in which the receipts were stated as $101.88, and the number of books as 1,000, as in the first account. In February, 1888, however, as I have since learned and can conclu- sively prove, these publishers (without my know- ledge), surreptitiously issued the book in paper covers under the title of 'Great Britain under Queen Victoria,' and altered my name as author." Mrs. Hodges here produced the two issues of the book to illustrate her remarks. (The alteration was thus: In the genuine edition the proper name of the authoress is given—Mrs. Katherine Hodges; in the paper covered and spurious edition the book is stated to be by " Mrs. K. Hodge.") "Of this paper covered edition," resumed the speaker, " they put out an edition of at least 4,000 copies at 50 cents a book at retail, and in May, 1888, they issued (as Mr. Belford now acknowledges) 4,000 more in paper covers, cheaper form, &c, which were sold to Butler Brothers, also under the altered title, obviously with fraudulent intent. In all I have traced nearly 20,000 copies of my book issued by the firm in question, and I believe that they have issued a great many more. They have not paid me one dollar. They have appropriated the whole work, and in the present defenceless condition of authors, who are without any protection whatever, the chance of gaining redress which people who labour in other channels may resort to for remedy in cases of spoliation does not exist. This case, it seems to me—and I know of other cases similar to mine—proves the necessity for immediate action for the protection of authors, and adequate action at that. That there are honourable publishers, honest men who would scorn to rob persons so entirely at their mercy as the authors, no one can doubt. To such men the protection to authors would be welcome and gratifying, while in cases of the unscrupulous classes of publishers who make it a practice to pilfer when they can, the author would have his safeguard as others have, and even those men in whom morality must be at low ebb would be made better, higher and more human by the utilization of this portion of the Lord's Prayer: 'Lead us not into temptation.'" * AN AUTHOR'S HOME. AREFUGE for brain workers in need has been started within the last year by Miss Fisher, of Brooklyn, New York. This lady owns a large house, and having only an invalid father occupying it with her, she con- ceived the idea of sharing it with some authors who are in need. Miss Fisher wisely thinks it more humane to help the author before he quite breaks down, rather than subscribe to a monument to him after he has been starved to death. About half a century ago, Mr. N. P. Willis tried to establish such a home. The terrible sufferings of Edgar Poe and his wife made such an impression on him, that he appealed to several of his contemporaries to help him in found- ing a refuge where literary workers and others of refinement, whose pursuits had been of an intellec- tual character, might find a temporary home and rest, to help them to "tide " over a season of diffi- culty or illness, without any publicity. He did not succeed. Now, in its infancy, Miss Fisher's Home Hotel, it is hoped, will fulfil this mission. The object is to afford the guests of the Home a retreat until able to resume their labours, or to find a permanent home (for those who are unable to work) for the rest of their lives. This home is free to those who cannot pay; to others a merely nominal charge is made. It has been asked in busy America, " How can gifted people come to such terrible want?" And yet it is said that Edgar Poe worked hard as a newspaper slave from morning until midnight, while his devoted wife lay dying on a bed of straw with his only coat covering her shivering body. The poem which has made his fame, "The Raven," brought him only ten dollars—about two guineas. A case was lately cited of dire poverty of an author in a wealthy city like New York, which seems almost too horrible to tell. An aged pro-  ## p. 119 (#151) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 119 fessor and his wife, dreading the poor-house, com- mitted suicide together, bequeathing to Columbia College (N.Y.) his valuable writings, notes, and researches, the study of a lifetime. A writer in the Woman's Cycle (from whom I collate these facts) tells me that an aged and well-known author whose books are read by every youth in America, has said that the future was appalling to him. "After a lifetime devoted to authorship, I see nothing for my old age but want and privation." These cannot all be divided into Mr. Gosse's helpable and unhelpable folks. As we know, in the terrible contradictions of society, there are scoundrels who pay their tradespeople, so also do those, whose experience outruns popular " saws," understand that there are practically honourable people who are breaking their hearts because they cannot do so. Miss Fisher's home is supported by many patrons, but those who have helped it most generously with money are, Mrs. Chauncey M. Depew, Mrs. Russell Sage, and Mrs. Whittlow Reid, wife of the American Minister to Paris. In Paris, an author's home has been founded by the publisher, Galignani. He left a sum sufficient to build a home for those who bad been less fortunate than himself, without depriving them of their independence or self-respect. This home shelters one hundred people of both sexes, who have each a sleeping room and a dining room. Fifty of this number are to pay one hundred dollars a year for lodging and board, the remaining fifty pay nothing, but they must belong to the literary or artistic profession. Ten must have been publishers, twenty savants, and twenty literary men or artists. Once inmates of the house they are as free as if at an hotel; they come and go as they like. Ralph Waldo Emerson calls the scholar and thinker one beloved of God; with a few Miss Fishers and Galignanis we may come to think him not ignored of men. * THE WORD "SLANG." IT would seem as if by some strange law of de- velopment, or non-development, all men, but especially philologists, are incapable of understanding that a word may be derived from several sources. The fewer words a man possesses, the more meanings he makes them carry—as it is said in Egypt that the poorer the peasant the more water jars must his wife bear. In jargons and slangs with limited vocabularies such as Chinook, pidgin English and English Gypsy, a single word has vol. 1. very frequently from ten to twelve or more meanings, which is natural enough, when the whole language or dialect contains less than five hundred words all told. Thus in English Gypsy a dozen Hindi terms with entirely different meanings, become one word, e.g., shukdr, which means dry, sweet, gently, forcibly, loud, &c.; that is to say, it is derived from words which separately mean dry, gentle, and so forth. So it would be difficult to decide whether bully, boss, the master of a house of vile character, comes entirely from bully and boss (Dutch bas, master), or whether it does not owe something by association, to the Yiddisch baal-habos, which means precisely the same thing (bal, master, bas, house) and which is very widely disseminated in foreign slangs. This is all curiously enough illustrated by the word slang itself. According to Skeat, in his Etymological Dictionary, slang is of Norse or Northern origin, and meant originally to revile or abuse. And so far as abuse goes, I see no reason to differ from him. In popular parlance, when one man "slangs" another, he "gives him a bit of his mind," in the gypsy sense in which to give means to hit a hard blow. And it therefore "follows perforce as a matter of course," that this is the sole source and origin of the word! So in my boyhood, having learned that the Mississippi came from a small rivulet which ran out of Turtle Pond, I speculated on the dire consequences which would ensue—such as the desolate dessica- tion of the entire valley of the Mississippi— should any small Indian boy take it into his head to dam the rivulet. For to return to slang, it has other meanings besides abuse. One of these, and the one most familiar to Alltheworld, as well as Mrs. Alltheworld, his wife, is that of vulgar, or at least unlicensed, synonyme. Some of these plebians in quarantine rise eventually to the pratique of aristocracy (excuse mixed metaphors) but I speak of those which are— like the good knight in the old German tale, ascensionem expectans—waiting to be hanged and to rise to heaven. Now, to abuse a man is one thing, but to call him by a fond nick-name which may be highly complimentary—as, for instance, a gom—is quite another, both being however "slanguage" of the most decided description. Now, it is worth noting that slang, in the sense of vulgar synonyme, has long been popularly regarded as a gypsy word, and that the gypsies themselves claim it. And though they be no philologists, the accuracy with which these people distinguish between words which belong to their own tongue, and those which do not, is very remarkable. Having taken down as they came, by chance here and there, about four thousand 1  ## p. 120 (#152) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. English gypsy words, chiefly from old people, I have been astonished to find what a vast proportion of these, especially those now obsolete, are Hindi- Persian, especially the former, and how very few really English slang words have crept into Romany. One especially gypsy use of the word slang is its application to all matters connected with the stage, or with "shows," requiringtheatrical language, which they in common with the vulgar regard as "a way of talk" quite different from that of common life. Hence, being "on the slangs" in common parlance means connected with exhibitions, and also licensed to hold forth in any way whatever. In this sense, Mr. Henry Irving, Miss Ellen Terry, or the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon (I am not so sure as to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury), are all "on the slangs" —and long may they wave there as credits to them- selves and their country 1 Now, be it noted that the word "swdngi" means in India just what slangi (the old form) does in gypsy—all which is of the shows, showy, and of theatres, theatrical. As for the conversion of W to L, it took place innumerable times in India, just as it takes place now, ever and anon, in England, when it comes easier. The better philologer a man is, and the more familiar with strictly correct language, the more foreign and forced does the change from swangi to slangi seem, but to a gypsy it is the most natural thing in the world. It is within the memory of man that at one time there were few side or small shows, or even large theatres in which gypsies were not to be found, and the terms current among actors, such as cully, gorger, and mash, indicate their influence. By the way I have been reproved in print, for extravagance in declaiming that mask is gypsy, but I earnestly reply with the exquisite logic of the American darkey, "I wish I had as many dollars as I can prove dat to be true." It maybe remarked—"to top of faith"—that slang of yore meant abuse, and that its connection with things theatrical, and as a canting jargon, is subse- quent to the incoming of Gypsyness to England. And for a supernaculum to the topping-off, that the fact that slang is in these senses possibly not known to Continental gypsies, goes for little, considering that English Gypsy has retained a vast number of Indian words—such as Kushte and Koshko (good), which are rarely, if ever, heard out of England. Charles G. Leland. GO SLOW. ALL here, give ear, to whom I sing, Whatever your degree; Don't go to fast in anything, However fast you be. If people try to give you tips Because "they love you so," Don't let your heart approach your lips— Go slow, my friends, go slow. If girls with curls above their brow, And roses on their cheek, Smile innocently when you bow, Or listen when you speak; If one of them, in times of grief, Desires to share your woe, Avoid the dangerous relief— Go slow, my friends, go slow. If folks that hoax should call on you To stand for Parliament, And ask you for an I.O.U. For cash they say they've spent; Or talk to you of "bulls and bears," Like people "in the know," And undertake to get you shares— Go slow, my friends, go slow. If men, again, pronounce your verse Too precious to be lost, And try to dip into your purse "To meet production's cost "j However pleasant they appear In Paternoster Row, That whistle will be bought too dear— Then, most of all, go slow. H. G. Keene. * INSCRIPTION FOR A MEMORIAL BUST OF FIELDING. [From The Atlantic Monthly, August, 1890.] He looked on naked Nature unashamed, And saw the Sphinx, now bestial, now divine, In change and rechange; he nor praised nor blamed, But drew her as he saw with fearless line. Did he good service? God must judge, not we; Manly he was, and generous and sincere; English in all, of genius blithely free: Who loves a Man may see his image here. James Russell Lowell.  ## p. 121 (#153) ############################################ THE A UTHOR. CORRESPONDENCE. I. A Club of Critics. Can it be that a 'plan for the foundation of a club of critics is really and seriously under con- sideration, or has the suggestion merely been thrown out by an enterprising daily paper on the chance of eliciting an interesting correspondence? I have now read this statement in half-a-dozen different places. The much-maligned critic, who is generally a very good fellow, and, in letters at any rate, almost always knows what he is about, has three or four good clubs open to him already; he has to share them with his victims but, if they do not mind, it is difficult to see why he should. It seems to me, also, that it would be very hard to define the qualifications for membership, for the critic of to-day is the criticised of to-morrow. Again, is the expert in Greek art or German music to compete for a vacancy with the man who can appreciate the qualities of a prize-fighter or the legs of an horse? Mr. Robert Buchanan says that his night is made hideous by journalistic birds of prey, and begs that a Trades' Union of critics may boycott the slanderer and blackmailer. If a slanderer is to be blackballed at the critics' club, and if everybody who falls foul of an author's work is to be held to have slandered that author, where are the members of the club to come from, and how is the Com- mittee, who elect, to be constituted? That the blackmailer exists is a serious sugges- tion (has Mr. Robert Buchanan made it seriously?), but I am unwilling to believe in the venal critic. I remember that Mr. Lang, in his very humorous lecture, " How to fail in Literature," pointed out that the writers who affected to believe that the critic had gone out of his way to slander them, in spite of their poor opinion of his manners and his morals, never approached him with gifts. A. B. II. American Cookery. August "jth, 1890. I think that my experience of cookery at the hands of the Americans caps that of Mr. Rider Haggard and "A. R. H. M." The recipe is as as follows, the cook being one "Smith, D.D. " :— Take the whole of Clodd's Childhood of the World, garble all the passages which tell against vol. 1. the doctrine of man's total depravity (which doc- trine the aforesaid Smith's act is designed to further establish), add thereto a few chapters from Cox's Gods and Herons; strain all the juice therefrom; pour in some pious reflections on the fall of man, and on echoes of the Hebrew revelation in Greek mythology; mix well together, so as not to know "t'other from which," and serve up cold under the title of "Myths and Herons; or, the Childhood of the World." Edited by Rev. S. F. Smith, D.D. This is how they served up Sir George W. Cox and Your obedient servant, Edward Clodd. III. The Society's Readers. I have read "Leaflet No. Ill" on the subject of "Paying for Publication," which appeared in the last issue of The Author, with interest and with some amusement. After describing the process —too familiar to all writers—of the rejection of a MS. by successive publishers, and the subsequent determination of the author to pay for its produc- tion himself, you condemn the conduct of such an author as foolish, and suggest the proper course for him to follow. You say, "If a MS. is offered to all the respectable houses in vain, it is refused because all the respectable houses are agreed that the public will have none of it." You tell the poor author to ask himself these questions, "If this public should refuse to buy this MS. if pub- lished—say, by or of what other publisher would they buy it? and for what reason?" In short you imply that a MS. is always rejected by respect- able publishers because it is worthless, and you con- sequently suggest to the author that instead, after such rejection, of rushing recklessly into print at his own expense, he should revise his MS. and submit it some third person—"say one of the readers for this Society, for an independent opinion as to the cause of these repeated failures." Now, sir, it is this last sentence which tickled my fancy in an especial degree for reasons which I shall now mention. Some little time ago I had ready for publication the materials of a book! I submitted them to various well-known publishers, with the usual result—they were declined with thanks. I then, instead of determining to pay for the production of them, adopted precisely the course you recommend. I took the MS. to the Incorporated Society of Authors, of which I have the honour to be a mem- ber, and requested to have the opinion of " one of 1 a  ## p. 122 (#154) ############################################ 122 THE AUTHOR. your readers." In due course the opinion was given to the effect that it would be unwise to pub- lish the book, as it was not likely to have a sale. Thereupon, I suppose, I ought to have concluded that, in your own words, my work "lacked at least commercial value, if not literary merit," and should have thrown it behind the fire. However, with the folly which characterises the race of scribblers, I had one more try and found in Messrs. a firm willing to produce my book at their own risk. Subsequently at my request they permitted me to alter my arrangement with them and pay for the production of the book myself, but this change, though advantageous to me, does not affect the question with which I am dealing. Now what has been the result? The first edition of 1,000 copies was exhausted in less than three weeks, and the demand for the second edition is most encouraging. In a word, the book, which your reader condemned, is a success—and your reader has proved himself just as fallible as the majority of publishers' readers; and no wonder, as the sequel will show. Calling a few days ago at the office of the Society, I could not resist the temptation to draw the attention of the courteous Secretary to the passages in " Leaflet No. Ill," on which I am commenting, and to point the moral. This gentleman said he could not understand how my book had been misjudged, for he had sub- mitted it to one of Messrs. 's most ex- perienced readers. He could only suppose that the reader in question, being a seriously minded man, had been misled by the title—" Four years in Parliament with Hard Labour "—and finding the contents not so grave as he had been led to expect therefrom, had condemned the work in conse- quence of the inconsistency between the inside and the outside. I own that I was not much impressed with this suggested explanation, but I certainly was struck with the discovery that the readers for the Society should be none other than the very same publishers' readers to whom in the ordinary course and with- out the intervention of the Society, the work would be submitted by the author. Surely when you advise an author who has had his MS. returned by publishers to submit it "to some third person—say one of the readers for this Society—for an independent opinion as to the cause of these repeated failures," no one would suppose that these independent third persons would be of the very class of men, possibly the very men themselves, by whom the MS. had already been examined and rejected! It is clear that if the Society desire to set up, what I think might be a useful tribunal, namely, a Court of Appeal from the judgment of publishers' readers, which may gain and retain the confidence of authors, such a Court will have to be composed of persons other than than those who at present seem to constitute it. Do not suppose, however, because I have given a quite recent instance of a case in which the advice of the Society, if followed, would have pre- vented the publication of a successful book, that therefore I can see no good in the existence of the Society. On the contrary I acknowledge that the Society has by its disclosures of the practices of dishonest publishers done an excellent work—a work which will benefit authors and improve and strengthen the position of respectable publishers. If it proceed on these lines and receive the support to which it will then be entitled, it will become not merely a prosperous but also a powerful body—a body able to make good terms for authors because it will be able to say how the constant output of new literary work on which publishers in a great measure subsist shall be divided among them. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, C. W. Radcliffe Cooke. House of Commons, August 6lh, 1890. Editor's Note.—We think Mr. Radcliffe Cooke expects too much of us, although we appreciate the compliment. Our readers are not infallible, nor have we made any such claim for them. We think also that the reader for a pub- lisher is in a position to give the surest prognosis that can be given as to the future of a book. This was our meaning when we invited authors, after continued rejection, to submit their MSS. for an "indepen- dent" opinion. From a good publisher, such an author receives, as a rule, only a few words regretting the inability of the firm to undertake 'the work. Sometimes the answer comes back so promptly that the author cannot believe his claims have been properly considered. From others he receives invitations to provide the expense of production. From some he receives a letter of high commendation by return of post, with an effusive offer to publish at once on the half-profit system, if the author will pay—say £<)0—in three instalments. Whom is he to believe! What is he to do? We try to tell him. But we are not infallible. In this case our reader's opinion proved completely wrong. We are, however, quite certain that this reader has kept from publica- tion, at the author's risk and expense, a mass of stuff which would never repay the author, and would only have swollen the mass of worthless literature. IV. Black Beauty. There are cases so strong that any comment weakens them. Permit me, therefore, to tell the story of "Black Beauty," and to leave you and the British public to admire it. This book, written  ## p. 123 (#155) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. by Miss Anna Sewell and published by a reputable English firm, made its way to this country early in the current year, was placed on the shelves of the public and private circulating libraries, and made a reputation for itself and accomplished a good work among young equestrians, and among the owners of costly horses. In time, its influence would doubtless have been felt among the teams- ters and the drivers of public conveyances, but, early in April, Mr. George T. Angell, the Presi- dent of the American Humane Society, published an edition of his own, and boldly announced that he should give away several hundred copies, and should sell the remainder of the 10,000 issued at twelve cents a copy. He added the words, "The 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the Horse," to the English author's title-page, and he wrote a beauti- ful preface, running over with benevolence, and stating, in substance, that this was the book he long had sought, and mourned because he found it not, and he kindly italicized certain passages which he considered were not strong enough in plain Roman type. The importers, booksellers, and librarians shrugged their shoulders, but wisely saved their breath, about the only thing which the present state of the law has left them to save. A Mortified Yankee. Boston, May 2.2nd, 1890. We were unaware that " Black Beauty" was so valuable a property, but the manner in which the possessor of the copyright has been treated is deeply remarkable. For here we have not a story of the doings of the pirate-publisher, but of the practical philanthropist, yet we doubt if the late Mr. Charles Reade, in his wonderful store-house of notes, possessed a more bare-faced example of robbery. Here is a really valuable property—of some- body's—appropriated by a man who has not the slightest claim to it, and sold at such a ridiculous price that no legitimate edition can possibly live in the market with it. "It is highly improbable," says the Boston Herald, "that 'An Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the horse will be written, or even at- tempted, in the country now, since the publication of the American edition of 'Black Beauty.' The proper price of the book should be 50 cents, and even in the present ludicrous condition of the book trade would be at least 25 cents for the im- ported edition. This would remunerate the author, the publisher and the bookseller; but the American edition being frankly stolen, pays nobody, and inspires the person who buys it for 12 cents, for the good of the horse, with a disinclination to pay more than 12 cents for any other similar book. Twelve cents from the purchaser means 12 mills for the author, or $12 a thousand, and American authors, not being donkeys, do not write books for that price, even for the good of the horse. If 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had been sold for next to nothing, does anybody suppose that the hundreds of later anti-slavery novels which powerfully affected public opinion would ever have seen the light? Would even 'Dred' have been written, had not its author expected a fair recompense?" It is impossible to attribute any but the very best and highest intentions to the publishers of the American edition, but to do evil that good may come is invariably unwise. "The ten command- ments will not budge," as Mr. Lowell says, and giving away conveyed copies of "Black Beauty" destroys the chance that an American will write a better book in behalf of the horse. True, it is possible that there is a combination of saint and clever writer somewhere in the country, and that he may be willing to work for nothing, and to bear all manner of abuse by way of compensation, but few will believe in his existence until he actually appears. Here is Mr. George T. Angell's logical reply :— "To the Editor of the Herald .—In the Herald's review of 'Black Beauty,' the book which the American Humane Society is distributing free of charge, the statement is made that the author re- ceives no remuneration. I answer: "(1) The authoress died unmarried shortly after the publication of the book. "(2) Her mother, a widow, died soon after. "(3) So far as we are aware no one but the English publisher gets a sixpence from it. "(4) He has already sold 103,000 copies in England. "(5) Its immense advertisement and circulation in the United States will give it a large sale in Upper and Lower Canada, where his copyright holds good, and will attract increased attention and sale both in Great Britain and all British colonies. "(6) The publisher can better afford to make a present to the American Humane Education Society than the American Humane Education Society can afford to make a present to him. "Boston, May -]th, 1890." Was there ever such a condition of hopeless mental confusion, for it is fair to suppose that his action has been entirely dictated by a confused idea that good would follow his evil deed. The Society of Authors, in spite of its actions and printed disclaimers, has often been accused in the press 01 cherishing savagely unjust views concerning pub- lishers, but Mr. Angell—in his own argdt—" goes us one better." Stealing does not matter a cent, says President Angell, for we are only robbing a  ## p. 124 (#156) ############################################ 124 THE AUTHOR. publisher. This is the doctrine of "'eave 'arf a brick at him " with a vengeance. Mr. Angell holds out to the publisher, as though perhaps to show that he was acting for the the best all round, the immense sale that his work will have in certain Crown colonies where the copy- right restrictions hold good. In view of the letters whose substance has been reproduced later in this number of The Author, we are doubtful if any of our colonies are very safe from American enterprise, but certainly we cannot believe that there will be much demand for this book at its proper price north of the American frontier line, while it is being given away with a pound of tea on the southern side. * information, and trust that all willing to contribute will communicate with the Executive at 13, King's Bench Walk, Temple, London, E.C. The Marquis of Lorne {Chairman of the Executive Committee), Alex. Staveley Hill, Esq., Q.C., M.P. {Hon. Treasurer), Sir George Baden-Powell, M.P. {Hon. Secretary). There has been gathered together a Committee, chiefly consisting of lords and noblemen, to collect books. Among them appears the name of James Bryce, as almost the solitary man of letters, though science is well represented. In any other country such a Committee would have contained none but men of letters and of science. THE LIBRARY OF TORONTO UNIVERSITY. E have great pleasure in giving publicity to the following communication, which has been received at the office:— The loss which the University of Toronto has sustained in the destruction by fire of its valuable Library, has aroused a widespread feeling of sym- pathy in the Mother Country. In order to give practical effect to this feeling a Committee has now been formed in order to collect and forward to Toronto gifts of books. The Committee will also gladly receive any con- tributions in money to be expended in the purchase of suitable books. Many possessors of books will be willing to con- tribute. The Committee are happy to state that the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, the British Museum, and other public bodies, as well as many private firms and individuals, have already offered to contribute books. The Com- mittee are also happy to state that the Allan and Dominion Steamship Lines and the Canadian Railways have generously offered to carry the books free of charge. It will be a convenience if those willing to con- tribute would, first of all, send to the Executive Committee a list of such books as they may be willing to give, with a view to the avoidance of the unnecessary multiplication of copies of the same book. A plate will be prepared for insertion in each volume, upon which will appear the name of the contributor of the books or of the money expended upon the purchase. The Committee will be glad to afford every * INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. ON July 29th, Samuel Gompers, President of the Federation of Labour, addressed the following letter to Speaker Reed :— Dear Sir,—By direction of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labour, it becomes my duty to inform you, and I take pleasure in so doing, that the organised working men of this country feel a deep interest in the enactment of an International Copyright Law by the Congress of the United States. In favouring such a law, however, we do so pro- vided it contains a clause which shall protect the compositors and all other wage-workers in the printer's trade, as well as the authors and manu- facturers, and believe that House Bill 10,254, introduced by Mr. Win. E. Simonds, representing the First District of Connecticut, covers all the points in interest. Seldom if ever have all the interests in an in- dustry been so thoroughly united in the advocacy of a measure as represented in the Bill referred to. No injury is contemplated, or can occur, to any of the people of our country. It can be followed with but one, and that a good, effect upon all. We earnestly ask you to give the Bill such assistance as will bring it before the House, and secure its passage, and that I may hear from you to that effect.  ## p. 125 (#157) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 125 AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. THE first volume of Mr. York Powell's new series, "Scottish History from Contemporary Writers," has appeared. It is entitled "The Days of James IV," and is edited by Mr. Gregory Smith, and published by Nutt. The object of this series is to send the reader to the best original authorities for information. Mr. Walter Besant's novel "Armorel of Lyonnesse," which ran in the Illustrated London Nenus from January to July of this year, will be published by Chatto and Windus in October. "Fantasia," by Matilda Serrao, is to be translated from the Italian by Sir. H. Harland (Sidney Luska) for the "International Library," edited by Mr. Edmund Gosse, and published by Mr. Heinemann. Professor J. S. Nicholson's romance "Thoth," which is now in a third edition, has been translated into German, and will shortly appear in the Berlin National Zeitung. A new serial story by Mr. Marion Crawford will begin in an early number of the English Illustrated Magazine. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will publish "A Cigarette Maker's Romance," by the same author, this autumn. Mr. C. F. Keary's novel in letters, "A Mariage de Cove- nance," is to appear shortly in cheap form in Mr. Fisher Unwin's novel series. Dr. W. H. Russell has finished his book on "A Visit to Chile and the Nitrate Fields of Tarapaca, &c.,"and it will be published shortly by Messrs. Virtue and Co. Mr. Melton Prior has furnished some sixty illustrations. "Mademoiselle," a 1 vol. story by Miss Peard, will shortly be published (Walter Smith and Innes). Mrs. Oliphant's story, " Kirstein," was concluded in last month's number of Macmillan's Magazine. Mr. Leland's " Memory and Thought" is now appearing in a series of six manuals in New York. The publisher is T. P. Downs. Dr. Goodchild has in the press a sequel to his clever and fanciful little book, "Chats at Sant Ampelio." The poems of Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton) form the latest volume in the Canterbury series issued by Walter Scott. The selection is preceded by an introduction by M. Bethane Edwards. "Esme Stuart's" novel is continued through The New- bery House Magazine. Messrs. Chatto and Windus have again commissioned Mr. T. W. Speight, author of " The Mysteries of Heron Dyke," &c, to write 714* Gentleman's Annual for Christmas next. This will make the sixth consecutive year that the Annual in question has been from Mr. Speight's pen. The same writer has a three-volume novel well under way, which he hopes to have finished by the beginning of the new year. A paper on " Binary Stars of Short Period," by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.K.A.S., appears in the August numl>er of Kno-Mledgc. The paper is illustrated by drawings of the apparent orbits of some remarkable binary stars. These have been drawn to scale and reduced by photography. "John Strange Winter" has three different novels running as serials at the present time in London periodicals, viz., "Other People's Children," in The Gentlewoman, "He Went for a Soldier," in Tit-Bits, and "The Other Man's Wife," in The Weekly Times and in Tinslcy Magazine, and numerous provincial and colonial newspapers. These three novels have been written during this year. The Rev. Frederick Langbridge has nearly completed a volume relating for children the lives of Samuel, Saul, and David. The Ixjok will form a number of the "Stepping Stones " Series, published by the R.T.S. The same Society will also issue immediately the Fourth Part of "What to Read," edited by Mr. Langbridge. Mr. Langbridge has just completed a story called, "I Bide My Time," which will run as a serial in the Church Monthly during the first half of 1891. In conjunction with Mrs. Lysaght, Mr. Langbridge has written a somewhat sensational story, called "The Burden of Cassandra," which, previously to its issue in volume form, will appear as a feuilleton in the Bristol Observer. * NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Allingham, William (The Late). Thought and Word, and Ashby Manor. Reeves and Turner. I vol. Archer, William. Prose Dramas of Henrik Ibsen. Authorized English Edition. Edited by. Vol. I—III. Scott. Austin, Alfred. English Lyrics. Edited by William Watson. Crown 8vo. ys. 6d. Macmillan and Co. Black, William. The New Prince Fortunatus. Cr. 8vo., cloth. Sampson Low. Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff. Translated, with Introduction by. Cassell and Co. Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Louisiana; and That Lass o' Lowrie's. I vol. Crown 8vo. y. 6d. Macmillan and Co. Campbell, Lady Colin. Darell Blake. 1 vol. Trischler and Co. Clodd, Edward. Story of Creation: A Plain Account of Evolution. I vol. Longmans and Co. Cobb, Thomas. For Value Received. 3 vols. Ward and Downey. Conway, W. M. Climber's Guide to the Central Pennine Alps. Fisher Unwin. Crommelin, May. Midge. 1 vol. Trischler and Co. Dickens (Charles) and Collins (Wilkie). The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices; No Thoroughfare; The Perils of Certain English Prisoners. Crown 8vo. I vol. Chapman and Hall. *#* These stories are now reprinted in complete form for the first time. Dobson, Austin. Selected Poems of Matthew Prior. Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trubner and Co. Esler, E. Rentoul. The Way of Transgressors. 3 vols. 31*. 6d. Sampson Low and Co. Farrar, F. W., D.D. The Passion Play at Oberammergau, 1890. 4to., cloth. I vol. William Heinemann. Frazf.r, J. G. The Golden Bough: A Study in Compara- tive Religion. Macmillan and Co. 2 vols. Harley, Ethel B. (Mrs. Alex. Tweedie). A Girl's Ride in Iceland. Crown 8vo. 1 vol. Ss- Griffith and F arran. Hethbrington, Helen, and Burton, Rfv. H. Darwin. Paul Nugent, Materialist. 2 vols. 2If. Griffith and Farran. Hume, Fergus. The Man with a Secret. F. V. White. 3 vols. The Gentleman who Vanished. F. V. White. James. Henry. The Tragic Muse. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 31 j. 6d. Macmillan and Co.  ## p. 126 (#158) ############################################ 126 THE AUTHOR. Kirh'.T,, R';dtarj>. In Black and White. Demy 8vo., c/vers. Saropvjn Low. Rain Tales from the Hills. Third edition. I voL Crown tn<i. (a. Macmillan and Co. Lyw*» Lywto*, Mrs. E. Sowing the Wind. Chattoand Wrryius. I rol. 3/. <*/. Lrrrojt, Earl op. Poem*. ivoL Walter Scott. Marty*, EkwarMSirius). Morgante the Lesser. Swan .Sonnensthein and Co. I vol. 6s. Mekciek, Dk. Chaei.es. Sanity and Insanity. 1 vol. Walter Scott. Mo*KHOL'»E, Cosmo. The Earlier English Water-colour Painter n. Illustrated. Seeley and Co. Corn and Poppies. Elkin Mathews. Murray, Christie, and Herman, Hesry. Wild Darrie: A Novel. New and cheaper edition. Crown 8vo. I vol. 21/. Longmans, Green and Co. Nicholson, J. Shield. Toxar: A Romance. Longman and Co. 8vo. 6s. "Nomad." A Railway Foundling. 3 vols. Trischler and Co. Oliphant, Mrs. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow. 1 vol. Spencer lilackett. Parry, E. A. Letters from Dorothy Oslx>rne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54. New edition. 6s. Griffith and larran. I'ATEKson, Arthur. The Better Man. 1 vol. Ward and Downey. I'ayn, Ja.mf.s. Mystery of Mirlvidge. 12 mo. 2s., bds. — Notes from the "News." Chatto and Windus. Crown 8vo. is. Pollock, Sir Frederick. An Introduction to the History of the Science of Politics. I vol. 2s. 6d. Macmillan and Co. I'ooi.e, Stanley Lane. Story of the Nations. The liarlary Corsairs. Fisher Unwin. Praed, Mrs. CamI'HELL. The Romance of a Station. 2 vols. Trischler and Co. Kohinson, Mahk.i.. The Plan of Campaign. Crown 8vo. I vol. Mclhuen and Co. Rohinson, F. W. A Very Strange Family. Crown 8vo. I vol. 3/. 6d. William Ileinemann. The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and lilackett. 3 vols. SlDGWICK, Henry. The Methods of Ethics. Fourth edition. 8vo. 14/. Macmillan and Co. Sims, GkorckK. The Case of George Candlemas. Chatto and Windus. 1 vol. is. Stevenson, Roiiert Louis. Father Damien: an Open I-etlcr to the Rev. Dr. Hyde. 1 vol. Chatto and Windus. is. Symonds, John AddINCTON. Essays, Speculative and Suggestive. Crown 8vo. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall. Toynhrk, William. Lays of Common Life. Remington and Co. Tyti.kr, Sarah. French Janet. Smith, Elder and Co. 1 vol, 2r. Wariikn, Florence. City and Surhurban. F. V. White. Westai.l, W. Two Pinches of Snuff. I vol. Crown 8vo. 2f., hoards. Whistler, J. M'Neii.l. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. 410. 1 vol. William Ileinemann. Large- Taper Edition, numbered and signed, £2 2s. Winter, John Strange." "Dinna Forget. 1 vol. Trischler and Co. OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. Trie maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property. 2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright 3. The promotion of International Copyright. The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as follows :— a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing. /3. It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are injurious to their in- terests. ! 7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands of unscrupulous traders. £. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province. e. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the pecuniary interest of their works. * WARNINGS. Authors are most earnestly warned— (1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an in- tegral part unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them. (2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society. (3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of pub- lishers. (4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society. (5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society. (6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or res- ponsibility without advice. (7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known houses, to pay small houses for the pro- duction of the work,  ## p. 127 (#159) ############################################ AD VER TISEMENTS. 127 "THE LITERARY HAflDJKAID OF THE CHURCH-" HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of * the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION, BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. READY IN OCTOBER. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 128 (#160) ############################################ 128 AD VER TISEMENTS. TYPE-WRITING! CHARM CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION, h| 447, STRAND *• (Directly opposite Charing Cross Station). Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART. Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch. Specifications. Law copying. Translations from and into all foreign languages. Shorthand Writers always in attendance. MISS GILL, TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, 6, ADAM STREET, HARRISON & SONS, $)rtntrnr in Ortfnarn to $?er fHajeltg, GIVE SPECIAL ATTENTION TO ARTISTIC AND OLD STYLE PRINTING, ALSO TO THE ACCURATE PRODUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL WORKS, AND PRINTING IN ORIENTAL TYPES. 45, 46, & 47, 8t. Martin's Lane; 14,15,16, & 20, Great May's Buildings; 59, Pall Mall; 10, Tower Street, LONDON. MISS ETHEL DICKENS, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND (Over tie Office of " Alt tie Year Round"). MSS. copied. Price List on application. TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LDDGATE HILL, E.C. Authors' MSS. carefully copied from i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. References kindly permitted to many well-known Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on application. SECOND-HAND AND SCARCE BOOKS. HARRISON & SONS have special facilities for the supply of Second-Hand and Scarce Books. All orders entrusted to them will receive immediate and careful attention. No charge is made until successful in procuring the work desired. Price, Condition of Binding, Plates, &C, will be reported before securing. Address— HARRISON & SONS, NEW & SECOND-HAND BOOKSELLERS, 59, PALL JWALL, LONDON, S.W. ESTABLISHED 1851. SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE. THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand. TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100. STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold. DEPARTMEHTT. For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE per CENT, per Annum, on each completed £l. The Interest is added to the principal on the 31st March annually. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager. HOW TO PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate possession. Apply at Office of the Eirkbeck Freehold Land .Society. THE BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application. FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.  ## p. 128 (#161) ############################################ A D VER TISEMEN TS. Hi. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on. The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-Lock. Supplied for Cash, or on Our Easy Payment System by Twelve Monthly Payments of £1 19s., or on Hire at £2 2s. per Month. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. THE TYPE-WRITER COMPANY, Limited, 12 & 14, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfleld Street, Glasgow; 25, Market Street, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Type- Writing Taught by Experts. Author s MSS. Copied at is. jif. per 1,000 Words at all Our Offices. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.} 2*. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colle=, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry (llaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4*. 6d. 5. The History of the Society des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession willfollow. THIS VIEW IS REFHOOUCH) HtOM APHOTDGRAPH OFAN OPERATOR* oarlock TYPEWRITER ^TlMES THE SPEED OF A PEN. Till: TYPK WRITER CO., I^d., 12, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON. 40. North Jnim St.-Liverpool; Guardian Bide., Ilinebeater; ja. \\--\- \ St., jci- chautfc Uliife'., Cardiff; ?83. Little ColIlUB St.. aielboume.  ## p. 128 (#162) ############################################ iv. ADVERTISEMENTS. NEW MODEL REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER. Sim For Fifteen Years the Standard, and to-day the most perfect development of the writing machine, embodying the latest and highest achievements of inventive and mechanical skill. We add to the Remington every improve- ment that study and capital can secure. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, Principal Office- LONDON: 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C. (CORNER OF LEADENHALL STREET). Branch Offices- LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET. BIRMINGHAM : 88, COLMORE ROW. MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the Cit of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 05 (September 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 05 (September 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-09-15-The-Author-1-5 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/242/1890-08-15-The-Author-1-4.pdf 0d81de26ef898bd28758ea63423e6984 PDF Text Text ������������������ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-08-15 Volume 1 Issue 4 Pages Page range in volume 89–102 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900815 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.–No. 4.] : AUGUST 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. published for the Society be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. 88 (#116) ############################################# B Bertan lebt na 1878 and trousands of lettus. Meu Matie, Foad Co., Heee it in as o an one Gentlemen. ... und and I hohe you all Thave sur me of your do the beach you can for in reus, to have a point mended though I have sin the mean rough New Horhe Luis hier tought acurther of your Ito. of the city. Ion may like to know that shake - Corrugatia macked C. I have made this seu constantly . Toe neut know whether formue han twenty Ecard, que cau hire this testimonial time the days of a book of min won't feel as if the pen when called "The Autonatop the han canied out to much of Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie .. any trought and brought back last Friday without refrain and To much in basiese forms air : alway kiho heafect Dalesfachan return was enlitted to this I have wither with is halfa carojicut of ammala tecnce dozen or more volumes, a Sau, Gunthen Yous turly Jance neemba of Enrays the Diva Wonotele Homes Illustrated Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to Mabie, TodD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.  ## p. 89 (#117) ############################################# flbt Jttttljar. (The Organ oj the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly?) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 4-] AUGUST i5, 1890. - - [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. PAGE 1 PAGE News and Notes 89 | The Annual Dinner 90 NEWS AND NOTES. IT has always been our custom to publish the proceedings at the annual dinner of the Society as a pamphlet, and send it round to our members, in order that those unable to be present on the occasion may benefit, equally with the guests, from the speeches, and may resolve not to absent themselves on a future occasion. There is a dearth of matter for Literary Notes and News in the month of August. The Author for this month has therefore been made to consist wholly of the proceedings at the dinner. We have received communications, which in the natural course of events would have been inserted in The Author this month, but have decided to delay their appearance. Several of these are so interesting, and so dis- tinctly have reference to our aims and objects that it would be the greatest pity to attempt to discuss them now. It is not fair upon any question of interest to submit it to the public—especially to a public largely made up of working litterateurs—at this season of the year. —*-— Paying for Production.—Thefollowingcutting from some unknown journal was sent to me :— "According to Mr. Besant's thinking, authors should not pay for the printing and publishing of their own books. "I am loth to mention names, but I can assure Mr. Besant that a great many of our now most popular vol. l authors did pay for the printing and publishing of their first books, including Mr. Besant and his clever partner, the late Mr. James Rice." This is one of the little paragraphs which contrive to tell the truth and to suggest a falsehood. It is perfectly false to say that my late partner and myself ever were such fools as to "pay for production." It is perfectly true that with many of our novels —certainly the first three—we chose to print and bind the work ourselves, and placed it ready for publication in the publisher's hands. He sold it on commission, which, in honest hands, is a very good way of publishing a book though it involves some knowledge of practical publishing and a good deal of trouble. The way to work it is— (1) To arrange with a printer and bookbinder. (2) Tofind a commission publisher and arrange about terms. (3) To make the time ofpayment to the printer fall at the time of receiving the first publisher's return. The advance or prepayment of money is thus avoided. What the author risks is the difference between the sales and the printers' bills. As in the case of those persons who insist on publishing what all the respectable houses refuse, it is perfectly easy to work in this way, I have always been amazed to find that they still fall into the trap of so much down towards "cost of pro- duction." The Committee wish to impress upon members of the Society, who are kind enough to interest themselves in obtaining new members, that only G  ## p. 90 (#118) ############################################# 90 THE AUTHOR. such persons are eligible for membership who have at any time published work which may fairly entitle them to be described as authors, or those who have been or are at present engaged in journalistic work. ♦ In last month's issue of The Author by an over- sight the names of Professor Max-Miiller and Augustine Birrell, M.P., were unfortunately omitted from those who have consented to join our Council. A document called a Memorandum, in reply to a certain pamphlet which is exercising the mind of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Know- ledge by sweating Christian authors, has been received. It shall be published in the September number with a few remarks; meantime, it is sufficient to say here, that it does not answer a single point raised in that pamphlet, that it gives no figures, that it explains nothing, that it admits everything, and that it ends by denying everything. * THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF AUTHORS WAS HELD AT "THE CRITERION" ON Tuesday, July 8th, 1890, PROFESSOR JEBB, Litt.D., IN THE CHAIR. • TH ERE were about two hundred members and guests present at the dinner, amongst whom were the following:— T. Bailey Aldrich. Dr. Allon. J. P. Anderson. Miss Anderson. A. E. Armstrong. Alfred Austin. James Baker. F.R.G.S. W. Balestier. E. A. R. Ball. A. Barczinsky. Mrs. Batty. Dr. Beattie-Crozier. E. Bechmann. A. W. a Beckett. Mrs. Belloc. Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G Oscar Berry. Walter Besant. Mrs. Walter Besant. J. A.-Blaikie. Herr Brand. C. Brookfield. Mrs. Brookfield. Oscar Browning. General Burton. Mrs. Mona Caird. A. C. Calmour. Mrs. Lovett Cameron. William Carey. Miss Childar. Professor Church, F.R.S. P. W. Clayden. Mrs. Clifford. Miss Clodd. Edward Clodd. W. Morris Colles. F. Howard Collins. W. M. Conway. Miss Roalfe Cox. Mrs. Roalfe Cox. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G. Miss S. Creed. Miss May Crommelin. A. P. Crouch. Miss Curtis. Mrs-. Cuthell Austin Dobson. Mrs. Edmonds. Charles Edwardes. John Eric Erichsen, F.R.S. Professor Michael Foster, F.R.S. G. W. Forrest. H. Gilzean-Reid, P.I.J. Mrs. Gilzean-Reid. Dr. Ginsburg. Dr. Goodchild. Edmund Gosse. Mrs. Edmund Gosse. Mrs. Egmont Hake. Egmont Hake. Professor Hales. Captain Harding, R.N. Henry Harland. Isaac Henderson. W. L. Hetherington. Mrs. Cashel Hoey. J. Hollingshead. H. M. Holman. Miss Eleanor Holmes.  ## p. 91 (#119) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. ■ 91 Mrs. Holmes. Rev. J. Inches Hillocks. Fergus Hume. Rev. W. Hunt. A. James. Mrs. James. (" Florence Warden.") C. T. C. James. Jerome K. Jerome. Rev. Prebendary Harry Jones. Major Jones, R.E. Mrs. Charles Jones. Mr. Jones. Miss Jones. C. F. Keary. H. G. Keene, CLE. Rudyard Kipling. R. B. S. Knowles. James Stanley Little. L£on Little. Mrs. Long. E. J. Martyn. Campbell McKellar. Dr. McKinney. Mrs. Middleton-Wake. Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S. Mme. Mijiatovich. C. Mitchell. B. Mitford. J. Fitzgerald Molloy. A. Montefiore. H. J. Montgomery. George Moore. Mrs. Chandler Moulton. H. Naidley. Professor Nicholson. Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D. Mrs. Goddard Orpen. J. R. Osgood. Mrs. Louisa Parr. Dr. Parker. A. Paterson. Mrs. J. Pennell. Miss E. Pollock. Mrs. Walter Pollock. Walter Herries Pollock. Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart. H. Campbell Praed. Mrs. Campbell Praed. Geo. Haven Putnam. Mrs. Rohlf. (" Anna K. Green.") Mr. Rohlf. A. Gait Ross. R. B. Ross. Mrs. Mary Rowsell. Mrs. Sala. T. Bailey Saunders. W. Baptiste Scoones. Sydney Scott. Professor A. Sedgwick, F.R.S. Mrs. William Sharp. William Sharp. Mrs. Olive Logan Sikes. G. R. Sims. Dr. Sisley. Professor Skeat. G. W. Smalley. G. Smith. Mr. Crafton Smith. Mrs. Crafton Smith. (" Nomad.") Rev. J. Smith. Miss S. J. Smith. S. S. Sprigge {Secretary). Dr. Balmanno Squire. Sir John Stainer, Mus. Doc. Lady Stainer. Captain Stannard. Mrs. Stannard. ("John Strange Winter.") James Sully. Miss Moy Thomas. W. Moy Thomas. A. W. Tuer. Mrs. Underdown. E. M. Underdown, Q.C. Edric Vredenburg. Arthur Warren. A. P. Watt. Theodore Watts. William Westall. Percy White. Rev. Henry White. Oscar Wilde. W. H. Wilkinson. Dr. C. J. Wills. T. Woolner, R.A. At the conclusion of dinner :—The Chairman (in proposing the toast of "The Queen") said: Ladies and gentlemen, the toast which I have the honour now to propose to you is ever the first where British subjects are assembled, and is ever received with sincere loyalty and reverential attach- ment,—sentiments justly inspired by a reign which has given to this Empire, in the fullest measure, the blessings of constitutional freedom, and which, in every sphere of thought and action, has been auspi- cious for the fruitful rivalries of peace. (Cheers.) I ask you to drink to the health of our most gracious Sovereign, the Queen. The toast having been duly honoured— The Chairman said: Ladies and gentlemen, the next toast which I have the honour to propose to you is that of the "Incorporated Society of Authors," and I rejoice that I can commence by offering congratulations. During the past year, as the VOL. I. G 2  ## p. 92 (#120) ############################################# 92 THE AUTHOR. Report shows, the prosperity of this Society has not only been fully maintained, but has been increased in a marked degree. There has been a very large accession to the number of members; in every sphere of work which the Society has entered, it has received fresh encouragement to persevere; and amongst the new forms of activity which it has developed, there is one which is especially deserving of mention. The Society now possesses a monthly periodical of its own in a journal entitled The Author, which was published for the first time in the month of May, and the second number of which we have had in June. It is an organ for the record and discussion of everything that concerns the profession of letters; it is also designed to be the medium by which the Committee of the Society of Authors may keep the other members informed of their proceedings. The inception and editing of this Journal is a new benefit which the Society owes to a member of its Council, to whom it has been indebted for so much else—Mr. Walter Besant. (Cheers.) I think one may say that the establishment of this Journal is a formal expression of the fact that this Society is now the recognised guardian of great and constantly growing interests. (Hear, hear.) It is well known to all of you that on the list of this Society's members are found some of the foremost names in every branch of literature, science, and art; and therefore in its corporate capacity the Society may claim that representative character which the appearance of this Journal indicates. (Hear, hear.) Literary property is no inconsiderable element in the wealth of the nation; and yet hitherto the producers of this wealth have, for various reasons, been too often careless of their rights, and some- times unable to defend them. This Society was formed for the purpose of diffusing clearer know- ledge regarding the nature and the value of literary property, and also for the purpose of adopting all possible means which may render such property more secure. In pursuing these aims there are, broadly speaking, two principal provinces of endeavour which such a Society as this is called upon to enter:—One is that of the relations which exist between authors and publishers; the other is the Law of Copyright. As regards the relations which exist between authors and publishers, the desire of this Society is simply to see those relations placed on a thoroughly intelligible and equitable footing (hear, hear), a footing equitable for both the partners in the joint enterprise. The Society w;-' :s to see literary business conducted on prin- ■ similar to those which regulate business in Lther form. Simply to state this is to say that this Society has no quarrel whatsoever with any honourable publishing firm. (Hear, hear.) On the contrary, the work which this Society is attempt- ing must be not less welcome to such firms than it is to the authors themselves, for that work tends to eliminate from the publishing vocation any persons who may be likely to discredit it. It also, by securing the fruits of his labour to the labourer, encourages the deserving, and so seeks to elevate the standard of literary produce. It is fully and cordially recognised by the mem- bers of this Society—recognised with a pride natural to Englishmen—that the general history of publishing in this country has been marked by integrity, in many cases by enterprise, and in very many cases by generosity. (Hear, hear.) On the other hand it is undeniable that many authors are incapable of appreciating the merits of a bargain proposed to them by a trained man of business who regards the matter from a commercial point of view; and it is also undeniable that the details of the publishing trade have too often been surrounded with a needless amount of technical obscurity. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) We fully recognize that publishing is a useful, it may be a fine art, but we deny that it ought to be a mystery. (Hear, hear.) Now what have been the principal causes of such mystery as has existed? The first cause concerns what is termed the cost of production, that is to say, of printing a book and introducing it to the public. The Society has contributed to the elucidation of this subject, which is well within the range of the capacity conventionally described as "mean," by publishing a little work for the use of its members, called "The Cost of Production." The other great cause of the haziness to which I have alluded is of a subtler character: it is in fact the time-honoured doctrine of "risk," which might be described as the fundamental dogma of bibliopolic orthodoxy. The classical adage that "books have their fates" has been extended into the doctrine that the fate of most books is very nearly a toss up, and that, if a publisher has the intrepidity to take his chance of heads or tails, such heroism deserves a golden reward. (Laughter.) Well, we are very far from denying that, down at least to the early part of the eighteenth century, the business of the publisher was in fact very often an extremely hazardous one. But why was it so? Because the reading public for most books was then comparatively small; because circulation was not assisted by such agencies as Book Clubs or Literary Institutes; and because, for both those reasons, the publisher found it difficult to feel the pulse of the book-market. But before the end of the eighteenth century a considerable change had already occurred in that respect; and at the present  ## p. 93 (#121) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 93 day it is affirmed by competent persons, who have investigated the subject, that a publisher very seldom indeed brings out a book with the danger of losing much by it. A certain margin of uncertainty must of course always exist; but the authors of these original researches say that theamount of speculative element in the publishing trade has been greatly exaggerated. And yet how strange, how almost pathetic it is to reflect on the large part which this dreaded monster "risk" has played in literary destinies! There was a time when the average author, after receiving from the publisher that modest recompense which was appropriate to those who ventured nothing, beheld almost with awe the publisher pass within the veil, bound for those mysterious regions, "farin the unapparent," where, like Hercules or Sir Calidore, he was to meet single- handed that appalling bogey " risk," and to conquer or to fall. It must be our best comfort to reflect that by far the larger proportion of these daring publishers have survived the ordeal. And surely in their turn they will permit us to say that writers desire a revelation of this monster "risk" which shall be less in the manner of Milton and more in the manner of Dante. It it not enough for us to know that he floats many a rood. We should like to have some more exact measure of his dimensions. (Laughter.) Before leaving this topic of the relations between author and publisher, I would onlyadd that, when an author submits to the Committee of this Society a proposed but still unsigned agreement with a publisher, the Committee does him a service if it points out a flaw, but it does him a service also if it tells him that there is no flaw—that he has no just grievance, and that he is getting as much as he can fairly expect. (Hear, hear.) Now I will touch very briefly on the question of copyright. As you are aware, the International Copyright Act of June, 1886, enables this country to enter any International Copyright Union which may be established. But before this country can do so on equal terms it is desirable—it is even necessary—that the various existing Acts affecting Domestic Copyright should be amended and con- solidated. (Hear, hear.) The draft of a Bill for that purpose has been prepared by a Committee of this Society, of which the chairman is Sir Frederick Pollock. (Applause.) As regards International Copyright, the case of course in which it most directly affects British authors is that of protection for their works in the United States. (Hear, hear.) It was naturally with a certain feeling of dis- appointment that we lately learned that the House of Representatives in Congress had thrown out, by a majority of 28—by 126 votes against 98—the Bill which would have afforded such protection. But under our disappointment it is no small alleviation vol. 1. to know that everything that is soundest in American opinion deplores that result (hear, hear), and anxiously desires a correction of a state of things which is felt to be unworthy of a great country. (Hear, hear.) The present situation has been clearly described in the current number of the Fortnightly Review, by Mr. Edmund Gosse. (Ap- plause.) Among our guests this evening, the educated opinion of the United States on this subject is represented by some gentlemen who have been strenuous supporters of that much-needed measure of justice. One among them I may be permitted to mention—one who for a long series of years has been an indefatigable worker in that just cause— Mr. George Haven Putnam. (Applause.) We greet him and them, not as the champions of a defeated cause, but as the champions of a cause which in our hope and belief is destined to no uncertain and no distant victory. (Cheers.) The true interests of literature in the largest sense are always international; and it is a source of peculiar gratification to us that our meeting this evening should be graced by the presence of a representative of the German Society of Letters, to whom we offer a respectful and cordial welcome. (Cheers.) And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I sit down, it is my privilege to give you a message, which I know you will receive with deep interest and gratification. It is from the venerable an'd illustrious President of this Society (general cheer- ing), whose recent restoration to health has caused rejoicing, not only throughout the British Empire, but wherever the English language js spoken. Lord Tennyson desires to assure you with what sincere pleasure he learns of the continued and increasing prosperity of this Society, and how glad he is to know of the excellent work which it is doing, in trying to make literary property more secure. (Hear, hear.) Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the toast of "The Incorporated Society of Authors." (Loud and prolonged cheering.) Sir Frederick Pollock, in acknowledging the toast, called attention to the practical work of the Society in matters of foreign and colonial copyright, and pointed out that the best and most certain way to make the Society still more useful to its members and to the world of letters, was for the members to exert themselves to procure recruits and diffuse knowledge of the Society and its operations. Mr. Alfred Austin (in proposing the toast of "Literature, Science, and Art") said: Professor Jebb, ladies and gentlemen, when somewhat to my surprise, and certainly very much above my deserts, I was invited by the brilliant and vigorous man of c 3  ## p. 94 (#122) ############################################# 94 THE AUTHOR. letters, who is the Chairman of this Society, to propose this evening the toast of "Literature, Science, and Art," my first impression was that it would be difficult for any man, and for me well nigh impossible, to rise to the height of so great a task; but on further reflection it occurred to me that perhaps I was taking the toast, and myself as well, a little too seriously, and I remembered that in days less decorous, but perhaps more convivial than these, there invariably appeared in the programme of a festive evening the toast "Our noble selves." Well, sir, in an assembly consisting for the most part of men of letters, of men of science, and of artists, what after all is the toast of "Literature, Science, and Art," but the ancient toast "Our noble selves"? So far as science and art are concerned, I almost think that toast is superfluous. Science certainly has received abundant homage in this way: it has been hailed, justly no doubt as the master of the modern world, and art too it seems to me, still enjoys the favour of princes, and the deference and adulation of critics. But I feel sure that literature stands in poorer case. Whatever we men of letters may think of ourselves, I fancy the present age thinks very little of us, most pedple in the present generation it seems to me, being of opinion that the writing of great works is a thing no longer worth doing, or that writing is a thing that anybody can do. In the face of such an attitude towards letters, is it not natural, nay indeed, is it not necessary to ask ourselves the question—What is literature? But the moment we propound that question we find ourselves confronted by two principles, two opinions, that are a little hard to reconcile. Is literature whatever people may choose to write and publish, or is it that finer breadth of knowledge, that finer spirit of thought, that finer form of expression, which, as we all know, is the secret of only a minority of those who write? In a word, is literature something refined, elevated, fastidious— allow me the word exclusive—or is it on the other hand something broad, comprehensive, familiar, and in which anyone, if so he chooses, may share? The man who in these days seeks to be the champion tif exclusiveness, or indeed of superiority in any form, sets himself a difficult, an invidious, and certainly a most unpopular task. Yet in an assembly like this—an assembly consisting of men who are proud of literature, proud of being men of letters, and to whom the only patent of nobility that they would think of for a moment, is literary distinction—perhaps I may be allowed to add, in which, so far as I can observe, any belief in any other form of aristocracy, is well nigh dead—it may still be desirable to maintain an aristocracy; it may be a natural, but withal a recognisable aristocracy of letters. Of course, by "aristocracy," I mean the influence and recognition of what is best, and I think that in this age an aristocracy of letters might well be maintained. But, sir, if it is to be maintained, is it not the fact that it must be imbued with a deep reverence for tradition. Whatever position we men of letters may occupy in the present age, we at least have had great ancestors, and the greatness of those ancestors, it seems to me, compels us in our turn, whether we succeed or whether we fail, at any rate to try to be great, or they will reproach us if we fail to do so. But what was it that made the distinction of those ancestors? Surely it was the manner in which they presented their thoughts, the methods by which those great writers contrived to insinuate their thoughts at once, and to make them abide for ever in the minds of men. In a word it was the style, style, which is the most aristocratic of all things, because it implies absolute self-respect on the part of the writer, and a most perfect consideration and deference for those whom he addresses; surely without style, before these days, no one would have supposed that there could have been such a thing as literature at all. Nevertheless, I suppose we shall all be of opinion that even the claims of style may be pressed too far. Everything in this world most readily and most rapidly tend to degeneration and to decay, and it is conceivable that a select class of writers, animated by a passionate attachment to style, may end by caring for nothing else. Now, substance without form is better than form without substance; and is it not possible that in our search for that harmony, that common ground, of which I spoke, between the champions of easy going comprehensiveness on the one side, and fastidious exclusiveness on the other side, with regard to literature, is it not possible that we may now have come upon that very thing of which we are in search? The barbarians destroyed the Roman Empire, but in that very act they renovated the world and sowed the seeds even on the fields they devastated, of the love of literature in the future. And may we not be seeing at this moment something akin—something analogous? I think the masters of style whom I see around me to-night will concur in the observation that in this age there has been a tremendous irruption of barbarians into the domain of literature; but instead of reviling them should you not receive them with open arms? They bring with them I suppose the modern spirit. Their baggage may be sometimes rude and occasionally perhaps a trifle scanty ; but at any rate it is new and it is their own. Nor do I think there is any fear of their overwhelming you, the masters of style. At any rale they will not overwhelm you permanently nor for ever keep back from mankind  ## p. 95 (#123) ############################################# THE AUTHOR, 95 that in you which deserves to be perpetuated and when the fear of their onset, the onset of these barbarians, has passed away, style, like Shelley's cloud, will " silently laugh at its own cenotaph," and changing, but never dying, will arise after a time and re-assert its perpetual fascination. Therefore I am sure I shall most faithfully carry out your behests if in proposing the toast of "Literature, Science, and Art," I regard literature in no narrow spirit, but in the broadest possible signification, heartily sympathising with all those, whether they may be masters or apprentices, whether poets or novelists, historians or artists, dramatists or journalists, who aspire to be regarded as men of letters. Many of us are of opinion that the state of English Society with its infinite variety and easy, endless gradations, is the most satisfactory, as assuredly it is the most natural that the world has ever seen. And is not this infinite variety—are not these easy, endless, elastic gradations represented in literature? It is no question of high and low; it is no question of superior and inferior; it is only a heterogeneous but harmonious company, ani- mated by a common animation, and marching on to a common end under the banner of a generous brotherhood. And here, sir, I think I might cease to occupy your attention, were it not that 1 find that in this toast science and art are coupled with literature, and I should gladly testify, however inadequately, to the close kinship which subsists between litera- ture and science, and between science and art. Many persons in these days have expressed grave anxiety lest science, with its hard-headed temper and practical spirit, should prove to be the enemy of literature. Surely, sir, there never was a more idle or more unfounded fear. Astronomy, I sup- pose, is the oldest of the sciences; but surely the definite and helpful discoveries of Kepler and Copernicus, or of Newton and Galileo, have in no degree diminished the magic and" mystery of the stars. But there is a still more helpful relation between science and literature. It is more than 250 years since Harvey published his celebrated treatise on the circulation of the blood, but I suppose that neither lovers nor men of letters discourse less effectively or less fervently about the heart than they did in days of old when Helen was killed, or Dido was abandoned. With regard to the connection between literature and art, I prefer that Professor Conway should discourse upon that subject. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I propose to you the toast of " Litera- ture, Science, and Art," coupled with the names of Professor Hales, Professor Erichsen, and Professor Conway. (Cheers.) Professor Hales: Professor Jebb, ladies and gentlemen, at this late hour of the night I will not waste your time. Though I am sorry that no more worthy name than my own could be selected to respond to this toast, I thank you sincerely for the honour you have done me. One thing strikes me forcibly, however. I can imagine the amaze- ment with which the authors of the last century would have contemplated such a sight as we are witnessing here to-night, downright regular authors dining in state as wre are dining this evening. (Laughter.) Projessor John Eric Erichsen: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, when the history of the nineteenth century comes to be written, the future Lecky of another generation will have the task before him of endeavouring to show the great and deep influence that science has exercised during the Victorian age, and not in its academic, or so to speak, its scientific relations alone, but in all that concerns the improvement of the social con- ditions and the well-being of man, and in much thatconcerns the political and international relations of the civilized communities of the world. Every century is an epoch or presents an epoch peculiarly characteristic of itself in which some dominant method of thought has found expression and has influenced the feelings and the work of mankind; and one may truly say that science in the nineteenth century governs that expression. If we compare the position of science as it was in the first decade of this century with that which it now occupies in the last decade, we cannot but be struck with the enormous progress that it has made and the enormous influence that it is exercising upon all classes and all conditions of the community. If we look back to what natural and applied science was in the earliest period of this century—in the first decade of this century—and compare it with what it is now, we shall be struck with this enormous difference—we shall see that in the early period of this century what is called Natural History or Zoology was really nothing but a description of animals, the collection of stuffed beasts, the classification of plants, and the giving, as it was somewhat cynically termed, of " barbaric names to worthless weeds," we shall find that more than half a century had to elapse before that great doctrine of evolution which has exercised so deep an impres- sion, not only upon the scientific, but on the philosophic and religious thought of this generation had been put forward by Darwin. If we look at the other natural sciences, and I shall not attempt to lead you through them—we shall find the same remarkable fact—that chemistry, which was only getting into the position of a science under the guidance of Davy and Wollaslon,  ## p. 96 (#124) ############################################# 96 THE AUTHOR. has now become not the handmaiden but the master of every technical art, of every manufacture, and has contributed largely to the comfort and happi- ness of mankind. We shall find if we look back to physical science, greatly advanced as it was, that the professors of it had not the remotest conception of the enormous strides it was destined to take in days antecedent to railways and locomo- tives—still more was it impossible, in the wildest dreams of science, to think of locomotives not only running along a level plane but ascending moun- tain sides, tunnelling through Alpine chains for many miles, carried aloft on gigantic structures many hundred feet high above arms of the sea, and founded upon bases that were buried a hundred feet below the surface of the tide. If we look to the other sciences, to electricity, for instance, which at that period was simply a toy to amuse schoolboys, or to instruct the audiences of mechanics' institutes, we find now, beating gas as an illuminant, that other great power which has been created almost within our own time, that it has in the electric telegraph connection in every part of the world, that by telephone it conveys, not only the voice, but the very tones of that voice, to a distance of hundreds of miles, that by the phonograph it records on almost indelible tablets the accents in which those words were spoken. And if we go to other departments of Science—to that with which I am the most conversant—we shall find that by those inestimable chemical agencies pain has been rendered a thing of the past, that surgery has been deprived of its terrors, that procedures which appalled the stoutest, the most heroic breast, are now submitted to by the most timid person with complacency and without a murmur. These great triumphs of science are enduring; they are perma- nent, and can never be lost to mankind. There is no such thing as retrogression in science; science never moves in circles, but ever in advance; year after year some fresh position is conquered, often it is true, after a hot conflict, though happily not a sanguinary one; and once having been obtained, it is never lost. There is no finality in science. Art may be final—it may be final, if not in its conception, at all events in its perfection; but science is illimitable alike in its conception and in its execution. What oi)r ancestors knew we well know, and we know much more than they did. What they could'db we can accomplish, and more —more than they ever dreamed of accomplishing. The same will be the case with our successors undoubtedly. They will stand in the same relation to us that we now stand in in regard to our predecessors. Great as the triumphs of science have been, there are yet, in all probability, greater triumphs still in store for science. Any day may bring forth a discovery that may revolutionize the world. We are ever on the threshold, as it were, looking over boundless plains of research, great fields of know- ledge which may yield most fruitful results. Whatever may happen in the future, if we may judge from the past, we may be sure that nothing but benefit from science will accrue to mankind— that his social condition will be improved, that his intellectual status will be raised, and that he will have a wider horizon of knowledge constantly spreading before him in the field of science. (Cheers.) Professor Conway: Ladies and gentlemen, I will only detain you for one moment, and during that moment I will express my astonishment at "Art " having been included in this toast. I have been debating in my own mind during the course of dinner for what reason it has been done, and it was not until I heard the words of the Chairman with reference to the art of publishing that I under- stood why art should be included in our toast list. Unfortunately, I am no representative of that art. The only art I know is the art of listening, and I hoped that I should not have been called upon for an after-dinner speech. Professor Michael Foster (in the absence of Mr. George Augustus Sala) then proposed the toast of "The Guests." He said: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry—it is not necessary for me to say—that I am not George Augustus Sala. Why George Augustus Sala is not here and where he may be at the present moment I do not know; but I am very sorry that he is not here— sorry for those whose health he was about to pro- pose, sorry for those who were about to listen to him, and sorrowing still more for myself who have to put my diminutive feet into his somewhat roomy shoes. (Laughter.) Who I am does not, I think, concern you to know; it is sufficient to say that I belong to a large class, to those who cannot say "no" when Walter Besant asks you to do a thing, and I do it under circumstances of great difficulty. Just before dinner in the room down below, when we were expecting the time when the clock would strike half-past seven precisely, I was talking to one of our distinguished members, and he drew the conversation towards speeches after dinner, and I thought then that I had no speech before me. I do not like to quote his exact words—in my scien- tific memoirs I always quote the exact words of authors—in this assembly I feel a diffidence in doing so, but I will give you the effect, and it was that instructive speeches after dinner are detestable. Now I must unfortunately, be instructive, because I have to propose to you "The Guests," and although they are known to all the world they are  ## p. 97 (#125) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 97 not all of them known to all of you. In the first place, there is Mr. Gilzean Reid, who is the President of the Institute of Journalists, which is a kindred Institution with similar aims and identical objects. If that is so Mr. Gilzean Reid is not a guest but a brother. Then there is the German Society of Authors, represented by Herr Brand, who has already been referred to by the Chairman, and on the principle that bis dat qui cito dat and therefore qui bis dat cito dat, the toast will get to him all the earlier if I ask you to repeat what has been said. Then we come to a whole group which, in the instructions that Mr. Walter Besant has kindly given me, is spoken of as our American friends, and here again I must commit an act of reduplication. The first name I have to mention is that of Mr. Geo. Haven Putnam, the greatest friend of American Copyright. I have further to mention Mr. Harry Harvey, who is well known all over America—and perhaps I might venture to say in the obscure little island of England—as Sydney Scott. Then there is Mr. Bailey Aldrich, an American poet, whom an English poet dares to welcome as his guest. Lastly there is Mrs. Chandler Moulton, the American poetess, with whose poems all of us are familiar. Then I come to one of whom, perhaps, though she is last is not least Arriving at King's Cross this afternoon I had an opportunity of a hurried word with a lady who is not distantly connected with your Chairman. I spoke to her of the interest attaching to ladies dining in public with gentlemen. She said she always thought that ladie s were in the way; she then rushed into a cab before I had time to say that that way was in all cases a shining way. But perhaps Walter Besant will allow me to say that with all respect for the great deeds that you have done of late, I am inclined to think that the great work of this Society of Authors has been that they have instituted the practice of ladies dining in public with gentlemen. (Applause.) I do not know how the ladies have stood the severe baptism of smoke, as my friend near me calls it, to which they have been subjected; but I trust that in spite of that and in spite of the speeches to which they have listened and to which they are listening, they have passed a pleasant evening. (Hear, hear.) Ladies and gentlemen, I propose to you "Our Guests," mentioning particularly the names of Mr. Gilzean Reid, the President of the Institute of Journalists, Herr Brand, and Mr. George Haven Putnam. (Cheering.) Mr. Giltean Reid: Mr. Chairman, Professor Foster, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that I shall not occupy your attention very long. A friend has reminded rae that this is only the three hundred and thirty-ninth time that I have responded to the toast of the Institute of Journalists, and you may rest assured that I am as anxious to get rid of it as you are to get rid of me. I must protest against being classed as a guest. I may claim in one respect to be an author, as I wrote a book which had a circulation of 1,400, which was sold to the public at 6s., and which brought me the hand- some recompense of £2 \2S. 3d. I also wrote another book which had a circulation of 100,000, and which never brought me a farthing profit. And therefore I think I can claim to be one of your- selves. We have not present here to-night George Augustus Sala, and I always feel that a meeting of literary men is defective without his genial sparkling picturesque personality, which has added lustre to a great profession. (Hear, hear.) Let me say we, the Institute of Journalists, are entirely in sympathy with the Society of Authors, and you may rest assured that we shall continue, as we have been doing, to work together for common and bene-- ficial ends. There are many common ends to which we can co-operate, and to which we have co-operated with this Society of Authors in seeking to promote an equitable distribution of the property in literature, and we have agreed to co- operate in trying to establish an equitable inter- national scheme of copyright, and I hope we journalists shall also co-operate in exposing those publishers—for a few still remain—who, whether they be artists or not, know something about being artful dodgers. (Laughter.) Let me say that our Institute has made consider- able progress. A few years ago we had only a handful of members; to-day we have between two and three thousand; and I can fairly say that our membership represents nearly all that is best and certainly all that is thoroughly representative in Journalism. A friend has hinted here that the times have changed. In the days of Queen Anne Acts were introduced to restrain and repress and tax news- papers. The press of the country was even then becoming too powerful for the powers that were. But a great change has taken place since that time. Within the last few months another monarch, good Queen Victoria, has given the journalists of the Empire a royal charter, which enables them to define their position, to secure privileges, and to establish a scheme of administration and education; and we shall work on as we have worked with this Society of Authors, and other kindred institutions, so that we may establish that which will be in truth a real and healthy brotherhood of the pencil and the pen. (Cheers.) Herr Brand: Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to thank you for inviting me to this charming assembly to-night. I shall not fail to report it in the proper quarters, hoping that if any of you were ever to come  ## p. 98 (#126) ############################################# 98 THE AUTHOR. to our assemblies, you would be made to feel welcome in the veryheartiest manner as we have been made to feel welcome amongst you here to-night. I am afraid we could not offer you such a splendid banquet, but we would try to make up for that in the extension of our festivities. Our annual assembly actually extends over three whole days and part of the night as well. (Laughter.) It is chiefly devoted to the transaction of the business of the Society, but still there remains some time left, as there was last summer in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, for a festival performance at the Opera one night; for an excursion to the Rhine; for an excursion to Wiesbaden, and for a few other entertainments. With those exceptions the time was strictly devoted to business. This summer, next month, the gather- ing will take place at Breslau, and if any of those present here to-night should be there, we shall offer them a hearty welcome. (Cheers.) Mr. George Haven Putnam: If I remember my Scriptures, directly Daniel was able to get safely out of the Den of Lions he made a speech; but I do not think he was asked to make a speech before he got out. (Laughter.) I am conscious of being a publisher; however, I am not come here to speak these words to-night in the rdle of a publisher; but only because my business happens to be associated with international copyright. On behalf of the associated trades of authors and publishers of the United States, who have been doing very hard work under circumstances of some little discouragement and difficulty, I have to express to this Society that it is their fixed intention to carry on that work with the hope that in the future international copyright will be put in a proper position of solidarity, and that the relations of authors and publishers will be put on a proper footing. I need only say with regard to the work already done, and in connection with the discouraging vote in the House of Representatives a few weeks back, a great deal has been done in the United States. As you Englishmen know, we have used English books very largely during the last century, and not paid for them. A great many of the States have instructed their representatives to vote in behalf of authors, both English and American, and the middle States, and the greater portion of the States of the North West, voted solidly in support of that Bill. So that we have won over communities, and the work of winning over communities will still go on, and will not be so long a task as people here dreaded. I look forward to the day when all these difficulties between authors and publishers will be settled on a mutually remunerative basis. Publishers will soon I expect have an association of their own, and we shall hear of the grievances of publishers against authors, and we shall then have our own organs on the other side. But these are practically, as between honest publishers and honest authors, matters of detail. I look forward to the day when authors all over the world will be receiving the highest remuneration. Then authors will become princes of finance, as well as princes of literature. Mr. Oscar Wilde: Ladies and gentlemen, I confess that I am of opinion that in the case of authors while speech is silver, writing is gold, and that on the whole those of us, who claim at all the distinction of being men of letters, should not get up after dinner and make serious speeches, except for the purpose, so necessary in a great re- ligious country like England, of conveying in a certain popular manner the sense of the tediousness of eternity. But on the other hand when I was invited by the Committee of this Society to pro- pose the health of our Chairman this evening, I felt that no incorporated author could attempt to draw back. This is, ladies and gentlemen, our third banquet. We had first Mr. Bryce, and I think it was a privilege to us to have as guest on that occasion a man so loved and so honoured amongst the people of the largest English-speaking country in the world, as Mr. J. Russell Lowell. Lord Pembroke, an author and a man of culture, and one whose name being so intimately connected with English literature, going back in- deed to Elizabethan days, conferred distinction upon our Society. And to-night we have to wel- come as our Chairman Professor Richard Claver- house Jebb, who is known, not merely in England, but certainly in Germany, France and Holland, and everywhere where Greek and Latin literature is read, as a scholar and a man of letters. (Cheers.) I must confess, sir, if you will allow me to address you personally, that I think that you, in confining yourself to the wide sphere of University life, have chosen the better part. The man of letters, on the whole, should live in a University and with University surroundings. We have constantly be- fore us the irresistible temptations of modern life, and now and then a dreadful rumour appears in the papers that many of our most popular writers are tempted to abandon literature for other things. I remember the pang that shot through many of us when we read in the Times one morning that Mr. Walter Besant was going to become a member of the County Council. Subsequently there ap- peared a statement that Mr. Rider Haggard, de- siring to find a fuller scope for the mendacity of Allan Quatermain, intended to seek distraction on a political platform, and that charming and graceful writer, the author of "Obiter Dicta," has lately joined the minority in the House of Commons. Yes, sir, you have chosen the better part. A scholar—a man of letters—should not live in  ## p. 99 (#127) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 99 the turmoil of modern life. With us Ariel comes too rarely and Caliban criticizes our books. You have written, sir, upon Homer. Alas! in our life there is nothing that is Homeric except the uncouth Thersites. Sir, we look upon you as one who has realized the ideal and as one who has devoted himself to literature. When I was at Oxford I was always consoled for the extraordinary and, as it seemed to me at the time, the deliberate dullness of my tutor, by the fact that one could loiter in the grey cloisters at morning listening to the voices singing, and lie in the garden on the grass and see the sunlight reflected on the towers and gilded panes, or wander up the staircase of Christ Church beneath its vaulted ceilings, and stroll across the College of St. John's and see the house that Laud built for his pleasure. You, sir, have surroundings no less lovely and beautiful; and those are the surroundings that a man of letters should have. Nor is it a question of sur- roundings merely. The great eras in English literature have been those when the Universities have been in immediate touch with the literature of the times; one imperishable thing we have in our literature—the work of Milton, which shows what I mean. I remember, sir, having the pleasure some years ago of reading a book of yours upon the Attic orators, a book, I need hardly say, distinguished by the highest scholarship j and in those days it seemed that the literary man was also able to make a speech. I am inclined to think that now that is the one thing we should never do. But as I have touched upon the definite work that you have done, not merely for your own University, but for all of us, allow me to remind the company present of other things you have done also. That great scholar, Richard Bentley, seems to me to have left the mantle of his critical insight to that scholar who now holds the position of Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, and who has written a monograph on his great predecessor that is a little masterpiece of style and method. It is said sometimes of those scholars who deal critically with minute work that they deal merely with words. Sometimes I think that words are the only reality, and I wish that the English critics whom we have now working amongst us would expend upon the linguistic criticism of the English language one-twentieth part of the care and trouble that a scholar of Oxford or Cambridge gives to the language of the Greek or the Roman. What is the mission of criticism but to preserve language pure and uncorrupted, to test every new intruder, to keep the old words from getting old-fashioned, and to always keep before the eyes of the writer that language is precious material. Our ordinary books have passed into uncouth realism or into what is not literature at all, and when one remembers what the Universities do for us in keeping alive the Greek and Latin lan- guages and Greek and Latin modes of thought, and then takes up some ordinary and possibly evening newspaper, one is tempted to think that the only dead language is the English language. (Laughter.) And finally, sir, you will allow me to remind the audience of authors who are present here to-night that your work is not merely confined to perfect scholarship, to the delicate traditions of the most perfect literature of the world, but that by your quick insight into modern culture you have been the link between the life of our own time and the life of the Greek; and that you yourself have also con- tributed to modern literature a work that no one would ever dream of parting with—that beautiful translation of Sophocles that enables us to hear the imaginative voice of music that once stirred the people of Athens. There is an Italian proverb "tradittori traduttori." I think the translation of the work of the creator of CEdipus Tyrannos shows, so far as we are concerned, that our withers are unwrung. There have been beautiful translations in verse of Greek and Latin things and one, a gentle and most courteous man of letters, Lord Carnarvon, whose death we all deplore, did recently into verse a translation of the "Odyssey," but your transla- tion, sir, is a classic. And so, sir, let me felicitate you in that you have chosen the better part: let me felicitate the University that has had so dis- tinguished a son: let me felicitate the Society of Authors in that we have as our Chairman one who is not only a perfect scholar but also a brilliant man of letters. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to drink to the Chairman of the evening. (Loud cheers.) The Chairman: Let me ask permission to thank you most sincerely for the kind words you have spoken, words which I felt to be most deeply sympathetic, and to thank this distinguished company for the very kind manner in which those words have been received. Allow me simply to say from my heart that it has been felt by me as the greatest possible honour and pleasure to be here this evening. I thank you.  ## p. 100 (#128) ############################################ IOO AD VER TISEMENTS. "THE LITERARY HAflDJKAID OF THE CHURCH-" HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION. BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. READY IN OCTOBER. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 101 (#129) ############################################ ADVER TISEMENTS. 101 NEW BOOKS. A New Translation. By W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow \ and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge. \ Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750 \ copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for \ this country and 250 for America. In two hand- \ some 8vo vols. Price 25*. the set. The aim of \ the above translation has been to render more \ accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which \ has exercised a wide influence on the French \ language as well as on European literature. \ A system of marginal reference has been \ introduced. Great attention has been paid RAREI AIQ I t0 ^e historical aspect of the book, and flHDLLHIO. J points bearing on the political and religious / affairs of the times have been carefully / noticed. As the work must be presented as / a whole, and as certain passages and parts / can no longer be presented in English, these / have been left in the original old French, where / they can be read by such as desire it. 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In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 102 (#132) ############################################ REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER. From No more writer's cramp. No more round shoulders. ra CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, New York, Publishers. "The value of having MSS. copied by the Typewriter is so evident that it is hardly necessary to advise authors to use the Typewriter for preparing copy for the printer." No more late hours. No more delayed correspondence No more illegible letters. SAVES COST OF PRINTER'S PROOF. Apply for Price List and particulars to Sole London Office- WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 100, GRACECHURCH STREET, E.C. Branch Offices, MANCHESTER : 8, MOULT STREET. LIVERPOOL: CENTRAL BUILDINGS, NORTH JOHN STREET. BIRMINGHAM : 88, COLMORE ROW. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 04 (August 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 04 (August 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-08-15-The-Author-1-4 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/241/1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3.pdf 4619135617444e4073491561b013fcc6 PDF Text Text ���������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-07-15 Volume 1 Issue 3 Pages Page range in volume 59–88 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900715 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. 1.–No. 3] JULY 15, 1890. . [Price, Sixpence, The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society Be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. - 1890.  ## p. 58 (#82) ############################################## Berton, Sept 1yh1878 anse Mersands of letters. Men. Marie, Todd & Co. Jene t it as of our one ..... und and I hohe ou une I have seus me of your do the beat you can for it frius, to have a point meuded . Though I have in the mean rough Meu Hoshu, leurs : Trier bought another of qui It. of Mencity. Ton may like to know that shake - Corrugated mached C. Thave and this yeu constantly I do not know whether : formure than twenty years, que caus hin this testimonial hine the days of a book of min hot'I jul as if the fun when called "The Automath of the Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie . has cancied out to much of muy thought and brought back last Friday without repair and always with herfect satisfaction To much in banin farms in ehun was enlitted to this I have written with in halfa - Certificat of hinnata tecnica dozen or more volumes, a lange number of Ennys de Mira Wordleli Hermes ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.  ## p. 59 (#83) ############################################## (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 3.] JULY 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. News and Notes ... "The Literary Handmaid of the Church" The German Society of Au-hors A Hard Case, No. Ill La Federation du Livre Unauthorized Publication of Sermons— I. Note by W. Morris Colles II. Note by F. P III. IV. Letters reprinted from the Times by the Bishop Peterborough {by permission) The Inauthorated Corpses Leaflet No. III.—On Paying for Publication of Questions, Cases, and Answers A Personal Experience Chestnut Bells Encore. By Charles G. Leland The Queen's English. By Oswald Crawfurd ... The Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury The Pensions of the Year A New Guide to Books Mr. Bainton on Himself At Work New Books and New Editions Advertisements PAGE ... 7« ... 78 ... 79 ... 79 ... 80 ... 82 ... 8a 83 ... 84 ... 85 ... 86 NEWS AND NOTES. TH F. Council of the Society has been strength- ened by the accession of the following names: — Lord Brabourne, Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G., Messrs. Alfred Austin, R. D. Blackmore, James Bryce, W. Martin Conway, P. W. Clayden, Oswald Crawfurd, Marion Crawford, Eric Erichsen, G. R. Sims, and Edmund Yates. Of these gentlemen Mr. W. Martin Conway joins the Committee of Management. The Third Annual Dinner of the Society was held on Tuesday, July 8th. The Chair was taken by Prof. Jebb. There were 200 present on the occasion. A full report will be presented with the next number. A lady who wishes to be anonymous has offered to present to the Committee the sum of ^30 annually for three years, to be expended in such a manner as may appear to be for the best interests of Literature. This offer of pecuniary assistance is a new thing of this year. It shows that the work of the Society is being understood and ap- preciated. Another sign of advancing opinion is that on the foundation of The Author a good many members came forward to give it a start. It isastound- ing how much may be effected even in such a Society as ours by means of the little cheque. We have never yet gone begging, but . Meantime, there would be no pecuniary anxieties if we had two thousand members instead of six hundred, and if everybody would remember the modest annual obligation. Amid the general mingled chorus of denunci- ation, exasperation, disappointment, satire, and dis- gust, caused by the loss of the International Copy- right Bill, there has hitherto been lacking—what it specially behoves The Author to supply—some recognition of the noble efforts made by the leading men, the men of culture, in the Eastern States. These men have never rested, and are still active, in advocating by every means in their power the passage of the Bill. They include all the authors of America, all the honourable publishers, and a great number of editors. The opponents of the Bill are the ignorant Western farmers, who know nothing about literature, literary property, authors' rights, or anything else except their own local interests. The education of these men is a slow process; they take a great deal of time to grasp new ideas; the existence of authors is not suspected by them ; the existence of authors' rights is absolutely unknown to them. But they are gradually being educated. Let us consider our own case before we throw stones at the Americans. It is now five years since vol. 1. E  ## p. 60 (#84) ############################################## 6o THE AUTHOR. this Society began its endeavours to educate the British world into the perception of the fact that there is such a thing as literary property and that it is a very real thing. We are not Western farmers. Yet we have not learned to grasp this one central fact any more than these honest members of Con- gress. Still the old ideas cling; still those who talk of literary property as if it was a real thing, like turnips, are regarded as madmen. Still the leading articles talk of the dangers and uncertainties of publishing. Still the old belief remains, that authors must take whatever their employers choose to bring them; still that old Bogey, "Risk," is trotted out to frighten us; still men continue to talk about the "generosity " of their publishers—as if writers were beggars, humbly holding out their hands for doles, instead of honest men demanding their just share in the proceeds of the work of their hand and brain. These ideas will slowly pass away. But meantime since they linger in this country, and are every day traded upon for their own purposes by interested persons, we cannot be surprised at an equal ignorance among the narrow-minded and half educated people who form the greater part of Congress. Consider, again, a special case, recent and treated further on in these columns. There is a certain great Society called the Society for Promot- ing Christian Knowledge. Its President is the Arch- bishop of Canterbury: its Vice-Presidents are other Archbishops and Bishops: its Publication Committee are all clergymen. Now, not one of these illustrious men seems as yet to have grasped the simple truth that an author may be sweated as well as a needlewoman; and that in the purchase of literary property there are elementary laws of morality based on the Eighth Commandment. Not one, so far as I know, up to the present moment of writing, when their Society has been called upon to compare its methods of publishing with these simple principles of truth and equity, and has, so far, by its silence, refused to do so, has boldly declared that he will no longer pre- side—or vicariously preside—over a great Corpora- tion, which, unless certain ugly allegations can be explained, seems to be little better than a Society of Sweaters for the greater glory of Christ. With this illustration before them can the authors of Great Britain expect from an ignorant Western farmer a keener thirst for righteousness than they have found at home among the Societies of the Anglican Church? As for what is said on International Copyright by newspapers in the Eastern States, read the enclosed from the New York Evening Post. It refers to the pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." "A certain man went from Edinburgh to America and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his sheets, and electrotyped him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And a certain Doctor of Divinity passed by on the other side; and when he saw him he went over, and came where he was, and said unto him: 'How is it with thee, my friend?' And he answered him: 'I am in sore distress, for that I have been robbed of nearly all that I possess.' And the Doctor of Divinity spake and said: 'My heart is heavy for thee, my friend; but hast thou yet anything left?' And he answered him again, saying: 'Yea, the half of what I had is left me; but I am in fear least my enemy return and carry off the rest!' 'Nay,' said the man of God, 'but if others are to have a cast at thee, I may as well come in for my share; but, for that I have great compassion on thee, I will leave thee a portion of what these wicked men have spared.' And, so saying, he took what pleased him of the man's goods, and having preyed upon him, gave him his blessing and went and prayed in the temple. Likewise a certain Pharisee, who was also a haberdasher and a man of letters, passed that way, voyaging from Washington by way of Philadelphia; and he came and looked on the man and saw that he was helpless, and heard his groans. And he also inquired of him what ailed him; and when he had heard his story he beat his breast and cried aloud: 'This is flat burglary, to take all that thou hast, and to leave next to nothing for me! Verily, I must protect myself against such wicked- ness, and must circumvent the doers thereof; since it is expected of me that when circumventing is to be done, I shall be there!' And with that he seized on the balance of the man's stock, and blessed him in the name of his peculiar god, and went his way. But a certain Government having on his breast a breastplate whereon was writ in letters of gold, 'In God We Trust,' came where the man was, and when he saw him, he had com- passion on him, and went to him, and opened his wounds, and rubbed into them salt and vinegar, and set him on a wild ass of the desert, and put a bunch of nettles under the tail of the beast, and cried unto the man: 'Away with thee, thou foreigner! What rights hast thou that I need respect? I care not twopence for thee or thy wrongs; and if ever thou darest come again, I will repay thee!"' In another place will be found a letter from Mr. Bainton on the subject of what he is pleased to call a " stab in the dark." Everybody else thinks that it has been a stab in the open. But never mind,  ## p. 61 (#85) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 61 The point and moral of the correspondence to the readers of The Author should be that in future they should not allow themselves so easily to be drawn. Why should authors alone, of all professions, be asked to explain their methods? Why should they, when they are asked, be so ready to reply? For my own part, I fell into the trap, like my neighbours, but fortunately wriggled out again and did not explain my methods. In future, let us behave with greater reticence. Now what would be thought if some enterprising gentleman were to write to all the barristers in practice in the following terms ?— Dear Sir, I must speak at last. There comes a time when silence is culpable. I have long" considered you the most eloquent orator as well as the most accom- plished and learned lawyer that at present adorns the Outer or the Inner Bar. I read nothing at all but your speeches; my wife reads nothing at all but your speeches. She takes them after early dinner, with a nap; moreover, I have for a long time given my mother-in-law, who lives with us, and is now in declining spirits, nothing at all to read but your speeches; my children learn your speeches by heart. My youngest—Teeny Wheeny, three—is now learning her alphabet out of your speeches. They are, in fact, deeply alphabetic. I am going to give a little lecture—just a little lecture —to one or two young people. I wish to call my lecture the "Art of Demosthenes, or the Ciceronian Bag of Tricks." I desire above all things to strengthen it by a description of your own Bag of Tricks, oratorical and legal. Will you therefore kindly tell me where you picked up your method of oratory, and how you manage to seem to know so much law? I remain, Sir, Your obedient admirer and respectful worshipper, Theophilus Swipe. Now who would expect a barrister to answer this letter, or to take the least notice of the writer? Vet the authors, when they receive a similar letter, reply all together en masse, without, apparently, any exception. There was, I learn, an exception. It was an American man of letters, and one of great distinction. He positively did not reply. It is not generally known that a certain fable of ^isop referring to a fox and a crow and a piece of cheese, was written for authors, who have so far failed to observe the moral. The following is a close translation of the fable in its first form. Amid the leaves—the leaves of bay—■ The leaves they use for crowns— The author sat, the livelong day, Above the common clowns; Well skilled was he the crafty rhyme And artful plot to mix; And in his hand he held, meantime, His precious Bag of Tricks. "Oh! Master, Master, greatest, first—" He heard, and blushed to hear— "All other bards with envy burst— I've seen 'em—that I swear. Day in, day out, the week about, Thy great works through and through, I read and read—I do, indeed; So do my children too. "Tell me, sweet author, whom I love— Ah !head so fitly crowned! Thy place so rightly set above, The bay leaves circling round!— Tell me, sweet author, if thou wilt, Oh! condescend to tell- How are thy tales romantic built? How canst thou rhyme so well? "Thy art, thy secret, and thy craft, Confide—confide to me." The author smiled—the author laughed; Yet never a word said he. "Oh! by the crown of glory grand That on thy pale brow sticks" That crown to feel, he raised his hand And dropped his Bag of Tricks! There is no moral to this fable in the original. But La Fontaine's will do— "Mon bon Monsieur, Apprens que tout flaneur Vit aux depens de celui qui lecoute.' The Daily News, which has always been on the alert to watch any step in the movement for International Copyright, reportsadecision which may lead to very valuable results. It was delivered on June 25th, by Judge Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court. Three suits were begun some time ago by Messrs. A. and C. Black, cf Edinburgh, and the Scribners, their American agents, against an American firm which had published a pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" from photographic plates, charging infringement of the American copyright laws because the republication contained articles written by Americans and copy- righted in this country by them. The defendants entered demurrers based on the general ground VOL. I. E 2  ## p. 62 (#86) ############################################## 62 THE A UTHOR. that the publishers of the "Encyclopaedia Britan- nica," in employing American authors to treat of American topics and then publishing their articles under copyright, thereby laid a trap for the American public and American publishers, and therefore a court of equity could not interfere to protect such a fraud. Judge Shipman overruled the demurrers, and declared that the assignments in no way permitted other parties to infringe authors' copyrights. This decision has been hailed with delight by the advocates of International Copyright, who regard it as the most serious check the piratical publishers have yet had. There are three photo- graphic editions of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" now selling at about a seventh of the price of the authorized edition. The decision is likely to alarm the publishers, since, if sustained in further judgments, Messrs. A. and C. Black will bring suits against them for heavy damages. "I have never yet had any disagreement with my publisher," said a well-known man of letters the other day. "Therefore, I have not joined the Society." The remark and the inference alike illustrate a common disposition to look on the Society as one which exists for the purpose of patch- ing up or even of creating quarrels and grievances with publishers. That is not the case, of course, only one is well-nigh tired of repeating the fact. It suits certain persons who regard us with natural hostility to keep this delusion alive. The Society has no quarrel with publishers as such, and never has had any. It maintains continually that the services which publishers render to Literature are solid, and must be substantially paid for. The Society exists, however, mainly for the purpose of maintaining the rights, the sacredness, and the reality of Literary Property. Therefore it fights the battle of all authors, and should be supported by all who approve of its principles. Briefly, they are these :— (1) Literary property is created by the author, and belongs at the outset to him. (2) Literary property must be held as sacred as any other kind of property. (3) Literary property is ruled by the demand for a book just as colliery property means the sale of the output. And as the value of a colliery depends first on the output in tons and their price, so the value of a book can only be estimated with reference to the number of copies sold. (4) The author must not part with his property without due consideration, nor without understanding exactly what possibilities, as well as what certainties, he gives and what he receives. (5) What the author is entitled to, is, after pay- ment of the cost of production and the publisher's agency and labour, all the remain- ing proceeds. This proportion of the returns is the property which he has to sell for a lump sum down, or to receive year by year. (6) The publisher has to be remunerated for his agency and labour out of the returns of the book in a certain proportion, which should be a fixed proportion recognised by both contracting parties and understood by both. These principles have long been recognized by the French after a good fight, carried on by the Socie'te des Gens de Lettres, an association of which ours is a successor and an imitator. But how, it may be asked, if publishers will not agree to the adoption, once for all, of an equitable arrange- ment? It is the task of the Society to create such a consensus of opinion on the subject as will cause all houses which desire to maintain a good name to fall in with the Society's views. It will also cause all authors of ability and reputa- tion to insist upon equitable agreements. How, it may be asked again, about the unfortunate begin- ners and those who have no name? The scheme to be put forward by the Society will cover their case as well. But they must, first of all, be protected. And for this reason our pages are full of stories of the scoundrels who deceive and rob the literary beginner. Consider. Is there to be no protection for the weak? Is a pickpocket to get off with impunity because he has only stolen a girl's purse? The Council of this Society does not hold that opinion. There are many who still maintain that sharks and thieves should be free to do as they please— devour and destroy—rob and lie with impunity, because ignorant and young literary aspirants ought to take care of themselves, and because most of their work is rubbish. In no branch of the industrial community should thieves be per- mitted to exist. And even if good quality of work were to be the condition of protection, we should have to protect a whole hundred because one of them—an unknown one—may have in him the gift of authorship. As a curious illustration of the growing change in opinion on this subject, it may be mentioned that in one of the most popular penny- papers of the day, a paper which circulates by the hundred thousand, there lately appeared an article on " Bogus Publishers," written by one who knows the gentry and has served under them. The article might have been written in this office,  ## p. 63 (#87) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 63 so true it is, and so complete in its details. Was it conscience or was it revenge which forced this ex- perienced person to reveal the secrets? "We have taken your new MS. on the old terms," said a certain small publisher recently. "Of course, however, you will not join the Society of Authors. In fact, we put a black mark against the name of every member of that Society." The writer of that work is a member. If this remark has been made to anybody else, let me hasten to point out that if this publisher were to put all the black marks he has got against all the names of all the authors, no harm whatever would be done because in such a case we should immediately find other publishers who would do the work of production and distribution quite as well, and in this case perhaps much better. Fortunately the public cares nothing who publishes a book; it is concerned solely with the contents. Plenty of men—hundreds and thousands of men— are willing and anxious to step into any trade by which they can make money. But to the marker in black—the black marker—we would point out very seriously that the Society itself can do a great deal more harm to a publisher than he can do to any individual member. We are now, he should under- stand, by no means a small, harmless, or a feeble body. One does not like even the appearance of boast- fulness, but the following little fact illustrates some- thing approaching to power. There is a certain firm in this city of which it is sufficient to say that all the worst things ever alleged against the publishing trade maybe brought together, and, with the greatest truth, alleged against this particular firm. We have for a long time kept work out of their hands, and we intend to go on doing so until they mend their ways. It was reckoned the other day, by one who has had the chief conduct of this business, that in the space of eighteen months or two years over ,£2,000 worth of work has been kept from these people, and that without reckoning on the chance of a big success among the authors kept from them. Now as writers learn more and more to distrust their own ignorance and to seek advice of those who know as to whom they should trust, this branch of our business will naturally increase and multiply. My statement in last month's Author that there are fifty men and women who make a thousand a year by writing novels has been questioned. I have, therefore, taken the trouble to draw up a list, which, however, must not, for obvious reasons, be published. I find that I can enumerate almost off-hand more than fifty—Americans and English —who are called novelists by the world, and make over a thousand a year by writing, though the whole income may be sometimes derived from other kinds of literary work. I know the facts partly from ex- perience acquired in the offices of the Society, partly from information. A note in the St. James's Gazette asks whether these works are worth the money. This question denotes some confusion of ideas. For what is the actual worth of a book? You cannot measure it at all by money. A suc- cessful novelist is one who holds the attention, commands interest, awakens emotions, amuses or terrifies, calls up tears or laughter, and brings brightness into millions of dull lives. This great power is not to be valued by money at all. If the St. James's critic asks whether the books really produce by their sale all this money, that is a very different question. They really do—and a very great deal more. Here is an interesting little proposal. A "Graduate of Oxford," modestly hiding his philan- thropic name, has conceived a theory that there are many poets, as yet unrecognized, who would like their "best" verses—only their best, mind—to be published. He invites them, therefore, to send him two or three short poems not exceeding in all 120 lines. With their best verses is to be forwarded a guinea. In return the contributor will receive two copies of a handsome volume in which—oh! Joy and Glory!—his own best verses will appear. It will be like bringing out the best china, or wearing the best clothes, or sleeping in the best bed room, all these things being among the innocent pleasures of our ancestors. "These," will say the glorified bard, "are my best verses; others I have, second best, for home consumption, and even third best, for washing day, but these are my best." If the poet is to be made happy, what shall be said of the benevolent Graduate? His handsome volume contains, we will suppose, 20 sheets, or 320 pages, with, at the rate of three pages apiece, 107 contributors. He must print 214 copies at least. The cost of the volume will be about ,£35. Grateful to their Graduate, the poets will contribute ^107. Net profit to the Graduate (besides gratitude, warmth of heart, and glow of virtue) ^72. Who will say that he is overpaid? The Society does not, as a rule, work for people whojare not members, but there are occasions on which it is necessary to break this rule. One such occurred the other day when a young writer sent up a grievous case. He had been writing steadily for a certain firm, until their obligations amounted to a considerable sum. He therefore  ## p. 64 (#88) ############################################## 64 THE AUTHOR. wrote for a cheque. He received no answer. He wrote again—and again. There was still no answer. He wrote therefore to the Society. The firm were informed that if they preferred legal proceedings to paying their just debts, they could have them. They preferred, however, paying the author in full, with the statement that they had not received more than one letter of application. Now the firm will probably never take any more work from the young man. But this is the very best thing that could possibly happen to him. He will now try to get employed by some firm which does pay. I give, after these notes, a brief resume of a pamphlet addressed to the Publication Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. I have received other instances of their treatment of authors, even more flagrant than those quoted in the pamphlet. No answer has been vouch- safed to this pamphlet either by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of the Society, or by the Publication Committee. As this worthy body will not meet till October, further action in the matter is deferred until then, when I hope to parade a few more facts to delight the world with the "Christian" methods of dealing with other people's property. —* Among the " warnings " which we publish every month in Tlie Author, and every year in the "Annual Report," is one which cautions writers against signing any agreement, in which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, without consulting the Society. A little circumstance which happened a year or two ago, and was related to me the other day by a very well known man of letters, illustrates the necessity for this warning. It is what mathematicians call an extreme case— that is to say, we have never at the Society come across one quite so "extreme." Here it is :—A person had produced a MS. on a certain subject which she—it was a lady—wished to publish. She accordingly took it to a man whom she believed honest, and asked him if he would produce it. He agreed to do so if she would pay the whole cost of production. He sent an estimate of this. It amounted, according to his showing, to £120 for so many copies. She showed the estimate to a friend, who submitted the MS. to a printer. He offered to print and bind as many copies for the sum of ^16—of course it was a very short manuscript. This was done and the work published. We have often seen the "cost of production" set down at double. But to multiply the actual cost by seven and a half shows an amount of enterprise which we could not previously expect. Waltlr Besant. "THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF THE CHURCH." THIS pamphlet appeared in the third week of June. A copy has been sent to the President and all the Vice-Presidents of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The following is an abridgment of its contents :— "The Publication Committee of the Society for the Promo- tion of Christian Knowledge, in their Report for last year, announce that they will 'gladly receive any suggestion' which may enable them to make * the venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of Eng- land throughout the world.' "A Publication Committee has to do with Literary Property. It is therefore desirable first of all to lay down certain pre- liminary observations on the nature of Literary Property. "(I.) First of all, it is very real property; it has its fluctua- tions, like corn, wine, and any other property; but it is a species of property which enables a few hundreds to live in great comfort, plenty, and luxury, and a great many thousands to live simply and carefully. "(2.) Literary property is subject to the laws w hich protect all property. The simplest and the most comprehensive of all these laws is the Eighth Commandment, ' Thou shalt not steal.' "Applied to literature and addressed to Publishers, Publish- ing Societies, and Publication Committees, this Command- ment is thus to be interpreted: 'Thou shalt not cheat the author while buying his work from him; thou shalt not pay the workmen a price which will reserve for thyself the principal profit ; thou shalt remember that the work is his—his the design of it, his the invention, the fancy, the imagination, the learning, the brain, and the hand of it. It is not thine at all. If it becomes thine it must be by an equitable agree- ment, which shall give thee only a fair reward for labour done, and leave to him all the rest.' In no other way can this Commandment be read and interpreted by a conscien- tious Publication Committee. "(3-) What is the value of a book? Clearly it is the price which it will fetch in the market. That is say, it depends upon the number of copies which the public will buy. An author, therefore, can claim his reward solely with reference to that number, and a publisher, can, equitably, make his offer of remuneration only with reference to that number. "(4.) The publisher is an agent ; he must be paid for his agency in managing, distributing, and collecting, out of the proceeds of the lxx>k. For his trouble he is entitled to a reasonable percentage on the proceeds. "For example, if a publisher gives an author £yi for a book out of which he makes a nett profit of £100, knowing, or reasonably expecting, that he is going to make that, or some similar amount, he may be a successful trader, but he must lie classed as a sweater and a robber in the eyes of honour- able men, and especially of a Society which exists for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. For if Christian Know- ledge be not promoted on Christian principles, then were it better not to be promoted at all. The author may never know that he has been robbed. But the fact remains. The Eighth Commandment still hangs upon the wall." The pamphlet then goes on to speak of the four kinds of publishers. "First, the upright, or perfect publisher. He, sensitive and lender of conscience, will not take from an author one penny more than is his own just due. lie has settled with his conscience what he should lie paid for what he has done, and  ## p. 65 (#89) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 65 he will lake no more. If he pays an author a sum of money down, it is considered by this person only as an advance on what may become due to him afterwards if his work succeeds. He will not publish bad work, or work that will not succeed. To have that publisher's name at the foot of a title-page is a hallmark of excellence. To be in his hands is to rest easy in the assurance that he will do the best for the book and be honest, that is, just, with the author. "Where is that publisher to be found? Surely, we should look for him first in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It is a Society whose President is the Primate of all England ; whose Vice-Presidents are all the Archbishops and Bishops; whose General Literature Com- mittee contains nine clergymen out of twelve members; and whose three Secretaries are also Clergymen. "There, if anywhere, should we expect to find the upright publisher. "The second kind of publisher is he who belongs to a house well established and desirous to be considered as honourable. The distinction, let us remember, between the 'honourable' houses and those which are not honourable is well known and perfectly understood by all who have studied the business of publishing. Now when we divide publishing houses into those which are honourable and those which are dishonour- able, there cannot, surely, be a doubt or a question on which side we ought to place the Literature Department of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge—the 'Literary Handmaid of the Church.' The gentlemen who form the Publication Committee shall themselves, if they please, when they have inquired into the conduct of their own business, answer that question, each in turn, after the manner of the House of Lords, every man his hand on his heart— 'Upon my Honour.' "The third class is that of the knavish publisher. These gentry, of whom there are many, are those who rob and cheat the ignorant author in every account that they produce, who chea-t and lie in their statements of the cost of produc- tion, of t he sums spent in advertising, in the moneys they have received, and, in fact, in every way that can suggest itself to the ingenuity of man. "The fourth class is that of the sweating publisher. "The Select Committee of the House of Lords, on the sweating system, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury, President of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- ledge, was a member, reports that the first evil of the sweating system is 'A rate of wages inadequate to the necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done.' Let us accept this definition, and apply it to this class of publishers. "The sweating publisher, then, is one who grinds down the faces of his unfortunate authors, who offers a miserable sum for work which is going to bring him in a hundredfold profit—who scruples not to toss an author a ten-pound note for his labour, and without a pang of shame or remorse makes ^50 or .£100 or £$oo profit for himself; who knows no law but the cruel law of supply and demand, and recognises no other right in an unfortunate author but his right to receive meekly the highest sum that he can obtain. "There are many of these people abroad. They deal largely with the productions of women. The sweater, it is well known, works more comfortably by means of women. They are helpless, they are ignorant of business, they are yielding; if they cannot be frightened they can be cajoled. And literary women, again, are timid about their own work, not knowing what amount of stability they have achieved or what is the extent of their popularity. Therefore the sweater can do what he pleases with them. If they venture gently to remonstrate, he bullies them; if they weep and entreat, he threatens. He enjoys making them feel that he is their master; he is never so happy as when he has them at his feet, humiliated and submissive. The sweater is always a bully as well as a sweater. "He has got all kinds of excuses for his sweating. His first excuse—in fact, the words are seldom out of his mouth—is that there is perfect freedom of contract between himself and his authors. 'It is take it or leave it. Here is a sum of money, there is the MS.' That is all. There is no other consideration. "Freedom of contract! It is freedom of contract w hen the wretched seamstress toils all day long—a day of sixteen hours—for 11 hi.—or less. She is free to take it or to leave it. It is freedom of contract when the poor woman who writes for her bread submits a manuscript which has cost her weeks and months of labour; yes, and that of a kind which requires, before it can be produced, a pure heart, a lofty soul, a brain rich with knowledge and a-glow with ideas, fancies, and a imaginings, and a trained hand. Such a woman is a most precious gift and blessing to the generation in which she lives and works. She may lie a most potent force in the advancement of humanity. But she is also a most sensitive, and delicate instrument. And she has to deal with a sweater! She goes to him trembling, because she knows what to expect. He will toss her j£\0, £20, ^30, £$o, whatever it may be. And out of her book he will make to himself a profit of ten, twenty, fiftyfold. "Freedom of contract! No greater mockery, no greater cruelty than to speak of such a woman driven to such necessities, as free to choose—free to accept or to reject. She is not free, she is the slave of the sweater." After these preliminary considerations, the pamphlet quotes three several cases and describes the treatment received by the author in each, and the sums received. In the first of these cases the Society bought, outright, the copyright of a small biographical work for the stupendous sum of £12! There was also a promise, as affirmed by the author, of future payment should the book prove "a success." \Vhat constitutes a success? The book is now in its seventh thousand—perhaps by this time in its eighth or ninth. The Secretary, while denying the promise, owns in his letters to a profit of about six times that of the author! This he states without a word of shame. Just as if it was a right and proper thing, a thing in accordance with the highest Christian ethics, that the Society should make this enormous proportion of profit! In a second case, the author, a lady, wrote ten books for the Society. She received, on an average, £50 a-piece for them. They were historical books and works of fiction. Taking one of the books as an example, it is shown that if 6,000 copies have been sold this just and generous Society has made a profit of about ^330 to the author's £50, i.e., £Z2> 5s- > so that taking the whole ten books the profits of this Christian Society seem to stand at the figures of ,£2,739 10 ^4rS—tne actual sum— given to the author. Who are the authors who write for this Society? "I turn next to the list of authors. Setting aside the clergymen who have written religious books and still keeping to the department of belles lettres and fiction, I find among the writers hardly one single name of those who at present  ## p. 66 (#90) ############################################## 66 THE AUTHOR. stand in the first rank, of those in the second rank'half a dozen. The rest are wholly unknown and obscure. Why is this? Why does not this venerable Society, with its enormous prestige, its immense clientele, its unparalleled power of selling books, command the services of the best writers? Have all the authors of Great Britain and Ireland abandoned the Kaith of their Fathers? No bruit or rumour of so deplorable an apostacy has reached my ears. How, then, can we account for their absence? "Is not the reason proclaimed—shouted aloud—by the facts quoted above? Does the needlewoman continue in her bondage when she has found a door of escape? Does she return to her old employer unless she is compelled by famine? "Let us, however, consider another imaginary scene. I see before me a Society which has a department devoted to the publication of books of all kinds; it defends, in the first in- stance, the tenets and doctrines of the Christian religion, and in the second place those of the Church of England. Besides these books it publishes, on terms and methods prepared with the most scrupulous attention to justice and righteous dealing, a vast mass of general literature. It is an honour to write for the Society ; it is a voucher of the value of the work, only to have the name of the Society on the title-page; no books have so wide a circulation. Hither come the historians, the scholars, the poets, the essayists, the novelists, the writers on science, art, music, everything. All the best men come to this Society. Its corpus of literature contains all that is best and noblest of the work of each generation. Those who are authors by profession long to get into the lists of the Society. If a clergyman of the Church writes such a lxx>k as Farrar's ' Life of Christ,' it is to the Society that he goes with it quite naturally, and as if it was the only thing to do. If another writes such a book as Green's ' History of the People,' it is to the Society that he offers it. If a novelist has a finished work, it is to the Society that he takes it. This Society leads all other publishers, and is an example for them; fair and honourable dealing is rendered necessary to all by the bright and shining example of the 'Literary Handmaid of the Church.' Nor is the money received the only thing. This Society, while it continues to defend the Church, regards literature from a broad and comprehensive point of view. The Church is better served by those who write for men, than by those who write for girls." This "Reply" to the invitation of the Publica- tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. has created a certain amount of interest, as was to be ex- pected from the nature of the subject and the position of the venerable Society concerned. The principles laid down in the pamphlet as to the Ethics of Publishing are simple, and will probably command general acceptance by all but persons interested in keeping up the old fictions. Among other letters received upon the subject is one from a Bishop which so remarkably and so fully (though in small space) illustrates a common attitude of mind that I venture to quote from it. His Lordship writes as follows :— (i) "I do not find any reason to suppose that the publishing department of the S.P.C.K.. act otherwise than other publishers." One is sorry, indeed, that the Bishop thinks so badly of other publishers. The pamphlet shows some of the prices given by the S.P.C.K. and some of the profits made out of the unfortu- nate authors. Now, the good Bishop would boil with indignation were he to read or hear of sweaters in other trades. Yet he can find no tear, no sympathy, for the sufferings of the man or woman who writes and is sweated. (2) "Nor am I convinced that there is any injustice in a publisher who has purchased an author's copyright making a larger profit on the particular work than he seems to have paid for. All publishers risk losses by books that do not pay, and take their chance of profit or loss. The author will not share the loss. He has made his own bargain and receives the money. I do not see that he is entitled to claim a share in the gain unless indeed that is part of the bargain." The Bishop has here confused two or more points of importance which should have been kept separate. Let us divide the word. a. No risk need ever be incurred by the S.P.C.K. Let us repeat this over and over again, be- cause of all the Bogies, Spectres, and Ghosts ever raised by interested persons this is the hardest to lay. No Risk. No Risk at ALL NEED BE INCURRED BY THE S.P.C.K. In the old days, in fact down to very recent times, the business of publishing was specu- lative and risky. It is so no longer. That is to say, the area of the reading public is so vast; the book trade is so enormous; the demand is so varied; the knowledge of markets and the demand is so much in- creased, that no publisher who knows his business need ever undertake a risk. In other words, having regard (i) to the literary worth of a MS. (ii) to the subject; (iii) to the name of the author; (iv) to his own machinery—the publisher who knows his business knows very well before he consents to publish a book that he can "plant" such a minimum number of copies as will repay the cost of production, in- cluding a certain profit for himself. p. In the case of the S.P.C.K. their machinery for the disposal of books is unrivalled. They have shops and agents all over the country; they have an immense number of subscribers; and they have the invaluable reputation of publishing only books that are doctrinally "sound." Another reason why the S.P.C.K. need never actually pub- lish a book which results in a loss. 7. "The author will not share the loss." First, there is, as I have said above, no loss except such as is caused by an error of judgment.  ## p. 67 (#91) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 67 Next, apply this principle to other branches of production. A man makes a beautiful desk. He takes it to a shopkeeper who sells desks. The shopkeeper says, "My friend, this is an admirable desk. It should be worth three pounds to you. But as I was a fool yesterday, and bought a desk which is too bad for me to sell again, I can only give you thirty shillings. You must share in the loss." The Lord Bishop's ears shall not be shocked by hearing the reply of that cabinet-maker. i. The principles laid down by this Society are few and simple. For our part we contend that they are based upon a commandment which is read in the Churches every Sunday once and sometimes in the week. It is contended by the defenders of the Society that they give away their books largely. Perhaps they do—but perhaps their gifts are not so very large. In one of the cases quoted the Secretary did not claim to have given any away: he only owned that the profits made by the Society amounted to something like six times the sum paid to the author. Now to repeat the Archbishop's own definition, "The first evil of the sweating system is a rate of wages inadequate to the neces- sities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done." Six times the author's profit! Six times! My Lord Archbishop, late of the Com- mittee on the Sweating System, will you produce that sweating cabinet-maker, that sweating shoe- maker, that sweating shirt-maker who sweats his workmen to the tune of a profit six times the men's wage? And there are other cases behind even worse than those quoted in the pamphlet which shall be produced in good time. It remains to be said that as yet no reply at all to this pamphlet has been issued by the Publication Committee, nor has any answer been received by the author from the President of the Society. * THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF AUTHORS. AS at present constituted the Deutsche Schrift- steller Verbund originated from a fusion of the old Schriftsteller Verbund (founded in 1878) and the former Schriftsteller Verein, a fusion which took place some three years ago, and it comprises now about 700 literary men and women of Germany, Austria, and German Switzerland. Its objects are :— {a.) To look after the members' interests as to their calling in general. (6.) To support them in case of need and in old age, as well as to provide for those they may leave behind. The constitution of the Society under the Presidency of Herr Robert Schweichel in Berlin, is similar to that of the English Society of Authors, but it is at the same time sub-divided into branch societies at Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Leipsic, Frankfort-on-Maine, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Prague, and Gratz. Rather important factors in the working order of the General Society are :— (a.) The "literary bureau," a kind of agency established with a view to placing literary work of the members, to providing situa- tions (in editorial offices, &c), and to find out pirated reprints. (d.) The "Syndikat," under a lawyer, to give advice gratis on all questions regarding their literary interests. (c.) Courts of Arbitration, settling any disputes between the members who, it must be remembered, consist of editors as well as contributors, and even as regards publishers, I should think he would be a rash man who would not readily submit to it. The official organ of the Society is the "Deutsche Presse," which comes out weekly. All this may look satisfactory enough, but I am afraid I must add that all is not yet in such perfect working order as it might be, and I feel sure, one day—will be. As a special feature of our Society, however, I should like to mention also the facilities for social intercourse afforded thereby, and which by drawing kindred—or may be sometimes even the reverse— spirits of the same calling together, constitute perhaps the greatest advantages cf all. There are not only frequent meetings all through the year ot the members of the different branch societies—some having even special "Vergniigungs" Committees for arranging entertainments, excursions, &c.—but once a year a particular place is chosen, to which a goodly number of the members always flock from all sides for several days' fete, and of course for the transaction of some important business of the Society. The place chosen for this summer is Breslau, and if you, or any of your members, should like to have any further information on the "Schriftsteller Tag" of this summer, I should be happy to give it as soon as the programme is out. If any of the members of your Society should be anywhere near Breslau at the time and care to be present at the gathering, I feel sure they would be heartily welcomed by my friends in Germany. Wilhelm F. Brand.  ## p. 68 (#92) ############################################## 68 THE AUTHOR. A HARD CASE. No. III. THIS was certainly a hard case, but it was also one where the author's negligence largely contributed to his own mishaps. For this was a publishing transaction undertaken without any agreement at all. The publisher approached the author with regard to the production of a technical work. According to his proposal the author was not only to contribute to the work, but was also to obtain and edit the other material necessary, and to pay towards the cost of production of the first edition ^150; it being understood that all other monies necessary for the issue should be found by the publisher. Any profits that might result were to be equally divided between the author and the publisher. These terms, however, were never embodied in any agreement. It is easy to see what they might mean. When the cost of production is left entirely in the publisher's hands, he can make it as high as he likes. He can make it as low as he likes. He can advertise to what extent he chooses. He need not even advertise at all. He can receive money for advertisements to be inserted in the work—it was an annual of the nature of an almanac, appealing to a very large body of scientific men, and especially likely to be used as a medium of advertisement by many tradesmen—and he can settle the scale at which such advertisement shall be charged for. He can print as many, or as few copies as he chooses. He can, in fact, if he pleases, put off the author's chance of a share of profits indefinitely, because it is in his power so to manage matters that there shall never seem to be any profit to share. He can, almost without fear of detection, add what sums he likes to the various items of the cost of production; he can receive from tradesmen and from advertisers whatever commission they may choose to give him: he can, in fact, so arrange a system of secret profits for himself, that he shall receive at least six times as much as the author, even should he allow the author ever to receive anything at all. Of course he would always and in all cases do such things at the risk of a law-suit or a criminal prosecution, and, if the author had provided himself with an agreement, having in it a clause giving him the right to demand an audit of the account, with the examination of the actual charges incurred by the publisher, it is clear that the publisher—though as unjust as the steward of Scripture—would not be able to render "cooked" accounts. Whether or no some such "cooking" took place in the case before us, cannot be certainly stated, but the publisher asserted that the first three annual editions only just covered the expenses, so that there were no profits to divide, while it came to the author's ears that considerable profits had really been made. He then directed his solicitors to apply for a statement of accounts. Then a strange thing happened. The publishers wrote repudiating the author's claim on the grounds that they had nothing to do with the matter at all! They were, they said, only issuing the annual on commission for another gentleman—naming one of their own employes, whose Christian name was par- tially, andsurname entirely identical with those of the head of the firm—and that to him all application for redress must be made. They reminded the author that all the correspondence concerning the business had been transacted between himself and this gentleman, who had, it appeared, represented him- self as the firm. Shortly afterwards the publishers went into bank- ruptcy. The trustees then communicated with the author, telling him that the accounts of his publish- ing transaction with the bankrupts were open to his inspection, but refusing to recognise his claim" against the estate upon the grounds alleged by the bankrupts. Considerable profits were then found to have been obtained upon the first three editions. The employe^ whom the publishers declare to be their client, and responsible to the author for the author's share of profits, then wrote and denied his liability. He asserted that the book was issued by the firm, and not hy himself, and that it was ridiculous for the firm to attempt to set up such a plea. He promised to give the author every assistance in his power, and, further, said that the accounts opened for inspection did not reveal the true state of the case, but that the profits were really larger than they were there made to appear. There was nothing to be done. The offenders were bankrupt, and the author had no agreement whereby to substantiate his claim. The want of a proper agreement has often, to our knowledge, been the source of great loss to an author in various ways, but this is the only case that has come before us in which the author was not able to prove with whom he had made a con- tract, having no written contract at all to show. This book, treated with such a contemptuous want of formality, seems to have been a fairly valuable property. Would tlie author have allmved a pig-stye of his to be hired of him without knowing who his tenant actually was, and without taking the trouble to record on paper the terms of the trans- action?  ## p. 69 (#93) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 69 It remains to be stated that the author, who only came to the Society when he thought it might help him, retired when he found that nothing could be done for him. This was, in fact, a Hard Case for the Society. There have been many such, of writers who keep aloof till they are in trouble, then get proposed and elected, pay the first year's sub- scription, sometimes entail upon the Society legal expenses amounting to many years' subscription, and then resign. * LA FEDERATION DU LIVRE. To the Editor of'The Author. I have read the " Literary Handmaid" with much interest; the correspondence in the Guardian I had seen at the time. I hope the Authors' Society will keep up the discussion, and give an eye also toother Religious Societies, which I do not imagine to behave much better to their authors than the S.P.C.K. This question of the duty of charitable or religious institutions, as employers of labour, is not new ; it must be thirty years or more since the Bookbinders' Union appealed to the dignitaries at the head of the Bible Society not to cheapen Bibles to such a point as to make them hateful to the starving folders and sewers. But in those days good people were afraid of labour questions and the operatives got no satisfaction. Has it occurred to you that in this matter the author, the printer, the binder—and even the ink and paper-makers—are more or less in the same boat? The unprincipled publisher, who grows rich by grinding the faces of poor authors, also has his binding and printing done cheap by the houses which the Workmen's Unions call "unfair." And these employers of cheap labour undersell liberal publishers, and make it more difficult for them to deal fairly by all grades of book pro- ducers. Now as authors—I won't say are—but are sup- posed by an indulgent public to be—a superior race of intellectual beings, would it not be appro- priate for them to take the initiative in organizing the industry with which they are connected dc fond en cortbic, in a reasonable and righteous manner? Should we not have a better position, as regards the public, when trying to convince the " Literary Handmaid " that the labourer is worthy of his hire, if we spoke on behalf of all those who get their living by assisting in the manufacture of books as well as in the interests of the writers? Is it even fair for the author to take a high moral ground and lecture the publisher on his duties unless he him- self is careful not to have any share in the profits of iniquity? But unless there is some concert and co-opera- tion between authors and operatives, through their respective organizations, how can the most scrupu- lous writer be secure against a partnership in the very evils, perhaps denounced in his book? At present there is nothing to prevent authors who, by position or principles ought to be most secure against such dangers, from falling a victim to them. There must be something rotten in the state of the book trade when it is possible for the works of a great and honourable writer to be printed at—what the mass of workmen call—an "unfair " house : or when the journal of a certain most illustrious Authoress (who does not depend for maintenance on her pen) narrowly escapes causing a strike among the women sewing it. (The book referred to was on extra thick paper, and the firm of binders employed by the publisher refused to pay extra on this account; the sore fingers produced by the hard work required in a short time are still well remembered in the trade.) On the other hand, supposing the printing trade to be hampered by any unreasonable or ignorant prejudices among the operatives, who could medi- ate with more effect than writers, who have an interest in cheap printing, controlled by the con- scientious desire to secure fair wages throughout the trade? Some slight approach has been made in Paris towards recognizing this natural solidarity among all workers in the book industry. I do not know whether the Soci^ti; des Gens de Lettres is in any relation with the Federation du Livre, which last year had between 5,000 and 6,000 members in Paris, including, besides ordinary compositors and bookbinders, highly-paid lithographers and various classes which have not yet learnt to act together in England. In the printing trade the State is not a better employer than the Church, and while State, Church, and competing private publishers continue to en- force the "Law of elevenpence ha'penny," what avails it for one eloquent author to lift up his voice against it? No doubt some people will say, authors have enough to do to fight their own battles without troubling about the operatives, who can take care of themselves. But it is often easier to do a big thing than a small one. Suppose there are six sets of work- men employed in turning out a book, including the humble functionary who writes it. Each of the six has to do with an employer or entrepreneur, with an interest in keeping down his wages; and all six, author included, are more often defeated A  ## p. 70 (#94) ############################################## 70 THE AUTHOR. thrm victorious in their bargains with this opponent. But let the six interests be allied, and they are stronger than any one adversary; and as a disin- terested alliance is only possible in a good cause, there is nothing to be feared from a rival federation of sweaters. If you object that the plea for extended organi- zation comes with a bad grace from a scribbler who has not joined the Society, I plead guilty and am willing to amend, but the fact is, I have been waiting for an occasion to ask your views on this point first, as one feels now-a-days that any or- ganization partaking of the character of a Trade Union is particularly bound to recognize the rights and interests interwoven with its own, and to sus- tain rather than endanger their just claims. Edith J. Simcox. * UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION OF SERMONS. I. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK in your June number criticises my note on "Copyright in Lectures " which you published in May. I hope you will permit me, as the writer of the note, to point out that the common law only gives protec- tion to lecturers so long as their lectures are not published by being publicly delivered. This protec- tion is afforded by the Courts in a practical way by issuing an injunction against infringers. But directly there is publication (as when a clergyman preaches a sermon in church or a public lecture open to all without condition is delivered) the common law protection is at an end, and the lecturer is left to such protection as the statute gives him. I am glad of an opportunity to make this distinction clear, although as my note only referred to public lectures I did not before allude to the common law rights in unpublished lectures. Sir Frederick Pollock cites the case of "Caird v. Sime" (12 App. Ca. 326) but it was there held by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Watson (Lord Fitzgerald dissenting) that Professor Caird's lec- tures to the students of Glasgow University were not public but private, and that, therefore, he was entitled to a "perpetual interdict" against their publication. Moreover, Lord Watson in his judgment remarks :—" On the other hand I do not doubt that a lecturer who addresses himself to the public generally without distinction of persons or selection or restriction of his hearers has, as the Lord President observes in this case, abandoned his ideas and words to the use of the public at large." The preamble of the Statute 5 and 6, Will. IV, c. 65, runs:—"Whereas printers, &c, have frequently taken the liberty of printing and publishing lectures delivered upon divers subjects without the consent of the authors, &c, to the great detriment of such authors, &c." This, I suppose, was true. As Lord Watson puts it in "Caird v. Sime," the purpose of the Act is to secure their right of property to the authors of such lectures, notwithstanding their having been pub- lished by delivery. Nor are all University, &c, lectures private, for, as Lord Watson was careful to add, "there may be lectures delivered within the walls of such institutions which do by their delivery become public property just as there may be others which do not." It was pointed out by the Copy- right Commissioners, 1878, that these are denied statutory protection. It was, as Lord P'itzgerald observes in his dissenting judgment in the same case, thought desirable by the House of Commons of the day that these lectures should remain public property, and that their authors should be denied statutory copyright. My authority for the statement that " a lecturer is powerless to prevent unauthorized re-delivery," is in the Report of the Copyright Commission, 1878, pp. xvi, xvii. "The present Act of Parliament," the Report runs, "which gives copyright in lectures, seems only to contemplate one kind of copyright, namely, that of printed publication, whereas it is obvious that for their entire protection lectures require copyright of two kinds, the one to protect them from printed publication by unauthorised persons, the other to protect them from re-delivery." The Report goes on to suggest that an author's copyright should extend to prevent re-delivery. If the Commissioners are right, I am correct in stat- ing that "there is no such thing as" performing right "in a species of literary production in which this may be really valuable." Sir Frederick Pollock further remarks:—"There- fore, a person acting on the commentator's opinion that sermons 'seem to be clearly public property,' would be more likely to make practical acquaint- ance with the nature and operation of an injunction than to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of pulpit eloquence." But I contend that it is a fact that the piracy of pulpit eloquence is a systematic, and, perhaps, a profitable trade. Lord Eldon, in Abernethy v. Hutchinson [3 L. J. (Ch.) 214], distin- guished the case of a clergyman as one in which there was no remedy by injunction, and Copinger remarks (Lmv of Copyright, p. 35), "it would appear that sermons by Clergy of the Established Church,  ## p. 71 (#95) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 7i in endowed places of public worship, are deemed public property." The Bishop of Peterborough, to whose case I referred, in complaining of the unlicensed publication of his sermons by the Editor of the Contemporary Pulpit, remarked (Times, June 14th, 1888):—"I am aware that for this kind of literary assassination an unhappy preacher has no redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny- a-liners and enterprising editors who make 'per- nicious nonsense ' of his discourses, and then vend them for their own gain." A story is told of the late Canon Henry Melvill to the effect that, on one occasion, he paused in the middle of a sermon, and exclaimed, pointing an indignant finger at a reporter, "There is a thief. He is stealing my property." Sir Frederick Pollock writes with authority, but it is more than singular that an injunction was never sought by any injured and outraged preacher; and I venture to think that the explanation is to be found in the fact that sermons, like public lectures, are, in Lord Eldon's phrase, "communicated urbi et orbi by the mere act of delivery." W. Morris Collet II. The point is certainly unsettled. I have little doubt that a generation or two ago Mr. Colles's opinion was the commonly received one. But, in addition to disclaiming any pretension of writing with authority myself (which would be superfluous if I were writing for lawyers only), I may point out that there is no real authority on the other side. The opinion of the Copyright Commissioners could not be referred to in a Court of Justice, and the dicta in Caird v. Sime are extra-judicial, not being at all necessary to the decision. It may be a long time before we get a legislative declaration, and meanwhile case-law can be improved only by those who have the courage to dispute current opinions. Many opinions quite as current as this, and having more show of authority, have been over-ruled in our own time. There would be a fair chance, to the best of my judgment, of inducing the Court of Appeal to throw on the unauthorized reproducer the burden of proving an unlimited dedication to the public. I do not know why authors should acquiesce more than other men in that view of a doubtful point which is least favour- able to themselves, and I only wish the Bishop of Peterborough had been advised to stand in the breach. At all events the author who publishes a revised text of his discourse has the protection of ordinary literary copyright for his additions and corrections. F. P. III. [Reprinted from The Times, June 14th, 1888. By permission of the Bishop of Peterborough.] To the Editor of The Times. Sir, I have just received a copy of a publication purporting to be a series of sermons on the Church Catechism by the Bishop of Peterborough, re- printed, apparently, from the Contemporary Pulpit. I ask your permission to state that this publication has been made without my consent or knowledge; and that (with the exception of the first sermon of the series, which was partially corrected by me) I am in no way responsible for its contents. The facts of the case are interesting as an illus- tration of what preachers, who, like myself, do not use manuscript, have to suffer at the hands of re- porters and editors of religious periodicals. I have preached lately a series of short sermons in Peter- borough Cathedral on the Church Catechism. These were reported in the local newspapers; and the editor, I think, of the Contemporary Pulpit, or, if not, some other editor, sent me shortly after a proof of the first of these for correction, with a view to publication in his magazine. I found it, as might have been expected, both imperfect and inaccurate. I could not afford the time, even if I had the ability, to reproduce the sermon from memory. I was obliged, therefore, to content myself with rendering into English a good many sentences which were certainly not printed in that language, and with erasing one or two amazing doctrinal statements which were the reporter's and not mine. The remaining sermons were published in the Contemporary Pulpit without any revision or cor- rection from me, and are now republished in a permanent form for the profit of the publisher or editor, with the heading "Magee Extra; price sixpence. I am aware that for this kind of literary assassina- tion an unhappy preacher has no legal redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny-a-liners and enterprising editors, who make "pernicious non- sense" of his discourses and then vend them for their own gain. I do not grudge them their gains, though, if I might be allowed the choice, I would gladly pay them what they might think their venture worth on condition that they would forego it. But what I do complain of is that, because I will not, and indeed cannot, reproduce for them my sermons, I must submit to the publication and circulation of all the bad English and worse theology which they think fit to give to the public as mine. I complain, too, of the further annoyance of having to answer numerous letters from per-  ## p. 72 (#96) ############################################## 72 THE AUTHOR. plexed, and occasionally angry, correspondents, who ask, "Did you really say this?" "Can it be possible that you said that ?"and of having to write to each one an assurance that I never said "this" or "that," and an explanation—sometimes a long one—as to what I really did say. I know that these complaints of mine will fall— so far as enterprising editors are concerned—upon deaf ears. Preachers are their natural prey and diet. But, as a matter of common honesty, I think it only due to any intending purchaser of this particular "Magee Extra "to apprise him that, if he expends upon it the sum of sixpence, he will get for his money a good deal more of the "Extra" than of the " Magee." I am, Sir, Faithfully yours, W. C. Peterborough. Palace, Peterborough, June nth. —» IV. [Reprinted from The Times, June 25th, 1888. By permission of the Bishop of Peterborough.] To the Editor of The Times. Sir, The editor of the Contemporary Pulpit alleges that "misunderstanding has been caused" by my not having "communicated with him" on the subject of his " Magee Extra," about which I lately wrote to you. I confess that I see no reason why I should have communicated with him on the matter. The injury of which I complained— namely, the publication of a volume of sermons as mine without my consent or knowledge and with- out any correction or revision from me—was done and could not be undone by means of any com- munication of mine to the doer of it. It seems to me that it would be as reasonable to expect me to "communicate " with a person who had assaulted me in the street in order to prevent any misunder- standing that might arise from my giving him into custody. Might I suggest to the editor of the Contemporary Pulpit that previous communication, in either of these cases, from the intending assailant to his intended victim, would be the more reason- able course of the two? It would prevent some pain to one of the parties concerned, and a good deal of trouble to both. I hasten, however, to correct, as far as possible to make amends for these "misunderstandings" that I have caused. I was "mistaken," it appears, in thinking "that my sermons were reprinted from the Contemporary Pulpit." That periodical, it seems, is none of your "penny dailies," nor six- penny weeklies even. It is nothing less—so please you—than a quarterly, which "publishes every quarter full reflexes of the best preaching of the day"—obtained in my case, at least, by printing off a bundle of uncorrected newspaper cuttings— edited with no greater pains or cost than is implied in the use of the scissors and the paste pot. I admit and apologise for my ignorance as to the rank and dignity of this youngest of the "quarterlies." Possibly, however, some of the editor's elder breth- ren may think that, under the circumstances, and for the credit of the family, some apology is due to them from him. I was also wrong, I am told, in believing that the editor was guilty of the weakness of allowing me to revise the proof of even one of my sermons. As a matter of fact, I did not assert this. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and said that this was done either by him or " by some other editor." I admit, however, my mistake in crediting him with even this small amount of fair- ness and courtesy, and I apologize accordingly. Having now, I trust, sufficiently explained my "mistake," I proceed briefly to comment on the remainder of the editor's letter. He is evidently a person who, in conducting his business, is in the habit of "supposing" a good deal. For (1) he "supposed " (he does not say why) that I revised all the reports of my sermons for the newspapers in which they appeared." (2) He " supposed" that the necessarily hurried and rough correction of reporters' errors and mistakes of the Press, which alone is possible in such a case, was really equiva- lent to the careful revision and to the supply of omitted passages which a preacher might not un- reasonably desire to make in a re-publication in a permanent form of newspaper reports of bis sermons. (3) He "supposed" that I had no "intention of publishing these sermons myself." For, as he assures us that it is his rule in such a case never to publish, and as he certainly never said a word to me on the subject, he must have either taken for granted that I had no such intention, or he must (4) have "supposed" that it was my business to notify such intention to every religious editor in the country, and that failing such notification they were free to publish the sermons on their own account. In the next place, I observe that this editor measures out his civilities to preachers in the same way that railway servants are sometimes accused of measuring theirs to railway passengers —namely, according to their rank. To a "more eminent preacher" than myself, it seems, "any terms " for the right to publish his sermons revised and corrected by himself." To second class preachers like myself he offers no terms whatever,  ## p. 73 (#97) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 73 and no opportunity for revision or correction. He roundly claims the right to republish our sermons as a literary speculation, uncorrected and unrevised, when and how he pleases, unless, indeed, we in- form him beforehand of our intention to publish them for ourselves. How he treats third-class preachers I hardly dare to imagine. It may be that he does not publish their sermons in any shape. If so, I should be infinitely obliged to him if he would henceforth put me in the third class. Probably, however, if we had the opportunity of interviewing the eminent preacher above referred to, he would tell us that, having been offered the uncomfortable alternative either of devoting much valuable time and pains to revising and correcting his sermons for another man's profit, or of allowing them to go forth unrevised, he chose, as the least of two evils, the latter course. So should I, were I given the choice, of which, however, it appears I am not worthy. The editor adds that "it is impossible for him to yield to any further claim of mine." Let me assure him that I made and make no claim upon him whatsoever. I fully anticipated, as I said in my former letter, that any claim of mine on him, either for justice or mercy, would "fall on deaf ears." Preachers are, as I said, "the natural prey and diet of religious editors;" and I have never heard that the carnivorous animals are much affected by the sufferings of the creatures upon which they dine. All that I claimed was the right to disclaim all responsibility for the "bald, disjointed trash," which he has published as mine, and to warn in- tending purchasers of it as to what they would get for their money. One word more on the general subject. I make no complaint of reporters. They do their best, often under very difficult circumstances, and it is no discredit to a country reporter if he is not as deft and practised as one of the staff of The Times, nor so well skilled in divinity as to qualify him for detecting doctrinal misstatements in his reports, which nevertheless may be distressing to a preacher. Nor do I in the least complain of the editors of local newspapers for publishing such reports. I am not so absurd as to expect that editors of newspapers should send me, even if it were always possible to do so, the proofs of my sermons or speeches, and still less that they should find space, to the exclusion of other matter, for sermons in extenso. I am quite content in this respect to share "neighbours' fare," and to suffer, as every public speaker must, the passing annoyance of some misquotation, which I can correct, if I care to do so, in the next day's paper, or the suppression of what I might wish had been published, but which the editor, probably quite rightly, thought might not interest his readers. I know that all such reports will, in a day or two, find decent in- terment and oblivion in the common grave of speeches and sermons, the back files of old news- papers. But it is quite another matter when some re- ligious editor exhumes the mangled corpse, labels it as mine, and displays it in an exhibition, "ad- mission sixpence," in order that he may turn what I suppose he calls an honest penny at my expense. To protest against this may appear to the editor a "claim " so outrageous that he "declines to com- ment on it." To me it appears a perfectly just and reasonable protest against a practice which I had rather not describe by its proper name. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, W. C. Peterborough. The Palace, Peterborough, June 22nd. * THE INAUTHORATED CORPSES. TWO Congresses, fifteen Legislatures, one House of Commons, and several hundred newspapers had sat upon the question of International Copyright for years; and nothing beyond pirated editions were ever hatched of it. As the honourable member for Lower Idaho pointed out in Congress: "If we can hike down the fruit of the centuries from the moss-gnarled trunks of an effete civilization over the sea, why in Paradise should we pay a dollar for a book when we can hook it for a dime? Let the good work go on." In England every vestryman knew that there were no votes to be obtained from authors, and no one could quite understand what it was the gang wanted, or why they should actually own what they had " made out of their heads, y' know," and the situation crystallued itself into a round game of grab. The American publishers began by giving an English author ten pounds for advance-sheets of a book which they brought out for fifty cents. Then the Sad Sea Wave Library would undercut the first firm, and produce a thirty cent edition; and last of all the "Bowery Bloodsucker Serials" would set a muzzy German to abridge and adapt the book and would issue the mutilated fragments for a dime or ten cents. When a man had taken some trouble over his book and put perhaps one or two ideas into it, and was feeling happy, his friends would post him American variorum edi- tions of that book to make him happier. Later  ## p. 74 (#98) ############################################## 74 THE A UTHOR. on the American publisher discovered that it was not worth while to pay the author for advance- sheets at all. The syndicates established an agency for appropriation, and their agents moved among the English printing-houses and turned the handle of a printing press four or five times more than was necessary, and went away with the advance- sheets. That was called Enterprise, and it made both the British and American reading public laugh. Then the authors borrowed some writing-paper and wrote a petition to Parliament asking that the fight might be made if not a fair, at least a free one. They respectfully prayed that all the laws were on one side, but, they said, if the matter of copyrights were "left to be fought out by such instruments as your petitioners' resources allow they would ever pray, &c." Parliament being then extremely busy with a new scheme for Local Self-Government in Cornwall (which county had discovered that it was Phoenician and not British), said, "Let it be law as it is desired," and it was law. Three days after it came into effect, the London representative of the great "publishing" firm of Fibbs and Glew met an author-man by appoint- ment in the former's rooms. "How is the Legend of the Spotted Death getting on ?" said the representative, with a grin. "Gone to press," said the author. "What are you going to do about it?" "Nothing much. One of our men photoed the MS. page by page in the office, with a button- hole camera. I've mailed the enlarged films to America, and I guess we've got the drop on your English lirm this time." "But I'm going to knock the thing about in proof a great deal," said the author. "There's more bad work in the last chapter than I care to think of." "'Can't help that," said the representative. "We must be first in the market if you wrote a revised edition of the alphabet with twenty-six misprints. However, we've dealt with you from way back. Here's a tenner. Take it or leave it." He turned to his desk to get the money. When he faced round he was looking directly down the barrel of a '440 Derringer. His hands stiffened above his head, the bank note in the right fist. "Who has the drop now?" said the author. "It's a fair fight at last—with such resources as we can command. Keep your hands up, please." "Don't be an ass," said the representative. "This isn't a theatre." "Quite right. It's a court of law. Understand, I'm not in the least angry with you. You had a perfect right to steal my work, which is about all the property I have or ever shall have. You were entitled to insult me with the sort of 'tip' his uncle gives to a boy going to Eton, as well as to make hay of my sentences to suit your con- venience. There was no law, and so you reverted to the primitive man. Quite right. Now you're going to learn the law just as a horse-thief in Idaho learns it—through fear of death and physical pain." He took the bank note from the uplifted hand. "Lie down on the hearth-rug with your hands behind you. I'm going to take all the money I can find in the office. Drop!" The representative obeyed, and the author made investigations which repaid him for two years' sales of unauthorized editions. "Now it's not safe," he concluded, "to leave you with a fighting hand. I should be within my right if I killed you as your countrymen kill horse-thieves. And let us be moral. Why do they kill horse- thieves?" "Because," said the representative, his face on the hearth-rug, "the assumption is that when you steal a horse you dismount a man, and the man may die in the wilderness." "Exactly. How do you know where I wish to ride on these my books, and why do you try to dismount me before I dismount myself?" "There was no law," said the representative. "The law has come now. It's primitive for the nineteenth century, but I think it will work. Hold your right hand over the fender-rim; I don't want to spoil your carpet. There! Through the right wrist. That will cripple you for life. If you can shoot me with your left next time we meet, well and good. Then you can go on stealing without fear. Let me tie your hand up. We must all learn the Law with pain and sorrow. Good bye!" The author departed while the representative lay fainting with his head in the fender. He came of a nation eminently just at heart, so he brought neither a civil nor a criminal suit against the author, but went to the very best doctor and the best gunmaker in all London, and made arrange- ments to bring out an edition as soon as possible of that author—in boards—limited to one copy.  ## p. 75 (#99) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 75 LEAFLET No. III. On Paying for Publication. THOSE who pay for the publication of their works are young poets, travellers, novelists, essayists, and clergymen who bring out their sermons. The number of poets who at the present moment can dispense with the ceremony of pre-payment for publication is certainly small, probably not more than eight or nine. And there appears no indication of an immediate increase in their number. The handsome illustrated books of travel appear also, for the most part, and judging from the agreements sent to this Society, to be largely paid for by the author, who is asked to "guarantee," that is, to take and pay for, at a certain price, so many copies. The greater number, however, of those who pay for the production of their books are novelists. Now in the year 1889 lhere were 828 new novels published and 353 new editions of novels. (Let us here remark that both writing and publishing of novels ought to be in a healthy condition since so many new editions are called for.) Out of the 828 new works of fiction at least one-half are children's books or goody books, of which the output is enormous. Of the remaining half between two and three hundred are three volume novels; the rest are either six shilling one volume novels, or shilling stories. In any case at least two-thirds, and perhaps three-fourths, of this long list of novels are books paid for by the author. The following is the invariable process. The author has written the book—perhaps with im- mense pains and trouble; perhaps he has " dashed" it off at odd moments when there was nothing else to do. In any case the MS. is at last ready. The writer of it now begins to send it round. He looks at the advertised lists of books. He selects a firm: if he is wise, he begins with a big house: and he sends off his manuscript. He then waits with a beating heart for a reply. Presently he receives a polite answer declining the work. He tries another publisher with the same result. And a third —being rejected again. At this point he generally commits a fatal error. For, if he were a wise man, he would argue that (1), these firms all vol.. 1. ardently desire to publish good work which they can sell; that (2), the fact of their refusal to pub- lish his work shows that it lacks at least com- mercial value, if not literary merit; and that (3), he should now revise it and submit it to some third person, say one of the readers for this Society, for an independent opinion as to the cause of these repeated failures. But he does not take this line at all. He says, "Perhaps, if a great house will not take my MS., a smaller house will." Now, there are small houses of various kinds. Most of them mainly live by bringing out books which are paid for by the authors. Some of them do this work, which can hardly be called the highest class of publishing, honourably and honestly. Others, to put it mildly, do not. He goes to one of these and he pays for production. Whether the author pays a large sum or a small sum need not here be considered. The question is, why he pays anything at all. Consider. There are many authors and many publishers. But there is only one public. It is true that there are many branches of the public. One branch, for instance, likes sporting books, and another likes religious books; some like love stories and others like murders. Still only one public, wherever the author goes—for all publishers alike. Let him ask this question then. If this public should refuse to buy this MS. if published—say —by Longman or Bentley, of what other pub- lisher would they buy it? and for what reason ? . In other words:—If a MS. is offered to all the respectable houses in vain, it is refused because all the respectable houses are agreed in thinking that the public will have none of it. Where, then, is that other public which will demand it when it is published elsewhere? In this Society, cases by the score—by the hundred—have been examined in which the author has had to pay for the production. Nay, in look- ing down the lists of new books advertised in the papers, we are able to name the books which are paid for because we know the houses which publish in this way. Seldom, indeed, does a case come before us in which the writer gets any of his money back. Never does he get any kuIo* at all. He 1  ## p. 76 (#100) ############################################# 76 THE A UTHOR. gets contemptuous reviews, his friends snigger at his failure, he writhes under the shame and pain of the plain truth : and when his accounts come in there prove to have been no sales. Only yesterday I read a letter from a young lady. She had paid ^50, being deluded by glowing hopes, but not actual promises, of large profits to divide. The sales amounted to £1 2s. gd. Sometimes, however, there are absolutely no sales at all. Literary vanity is, of course, at the bottom of this folly. All the writer asks for is to be in print, only to be printed; if he can obtain this, as he always can on such terms, he will pay anything and sign anything. No rebuffs, no reader's opinions, no rejections can persuade him that his MS. is worthless, and that, whatever he pays, he will meet with nothing but disappointment, vexa- tion and shame. He is quite sure that his work is brilliant and certain to succeed. There are instances on record of books, after- wards successful, having been refused by one pub- lisher after the other. The famous and leading case of Vanity Fair is one. These instances do mightily comfort the rejected author. He feels himself a possible Thackeray // only he can get printed. Mistakes, he says, have occurred before now. Readers are fallible. Mistakes may occur again. And perhaps the reader is also himself a novelist. We all know that jealousy is a common as well as a hateful vice. Or perhaps the reader knows some private enemy of the author and bears a grudge. What more likely than that the jealous reader should wish to smother a dangerous rival? Or perhaps the perfidious reader has not even taken the trouble to look at his work. Anyhow, since the best firms are so foolish as to refuse to make money by his work, some other shall have the chance. He will get it printed even though he has to pay for it. And so the output of worthless books is increased by one more, and the reviewers grow more and more savage over the swelling flood of rubbish, and the noble art of fiction is degraded and insulted. Will not the readers of this paper join in dissuading, by all means in their power, their friends from paying for produc- tion? Editor. QUESTIONS, CASES, AND ANSWERS. "Some years ago I wrote a biographical paper for a magazine. It was accepted and published. When I wrote for payment I had no reply. I wrote another paper also on an historical subject for a weekly newspaper. The editor returned it, ask- ing me to enlarge it. This I did, and he printed it. But he never paid me. "I recently sent an article of a similar character, on which I had expended a considerable amount of trouble and time, to a monthly magazine. The editor has now lost it. I have kept no copy, and must write it again. Is there no redress? "A publisher lately signed an agreement in which he covenanted to bring out a written work in a certain series at a certain price. He has printed the work and now refuses to bring it out, alleging that he believes it would be a failure. He offers the author the printed sheets for the price of set- ting up the work. What should the author do?" ♦ If such a thing should now occur of an editor accepting a MS., publishing it in his paper, and refusing payment, the author has only to bring the case before the Society and he will get redress. But the Society cannot take up old cases. As for losing a MS. most editors find it necessary to warn authors that they will not be responsible for losing MSS. If contributors could see the piles of MSS. offered to every editor they would not be surprised at this stipulation. The third question is one for a lawyer to con- sider. The proposer of the case should sent up all the agreements and letters to the Secretary. "When an author has paid for the publication of a book is it fair on the part of the publisher to sell the remainder of the edition as waste paper without consulting the author, without giving him the choice of buying up the remaining copies, which he would assuredly in many cases be glad to do at a price even above that of waste paper? "If the publisher is entiiled to do this can the poor author lay no claim to a share in the proceeds of this melancholy transaction?" The reply to the last question is that the agreement generally contains a clause giving the publisher such power. It is for the author before signing the agreement to make a stipulation that he shall first be consulted If he has paid for the publi- cation all the copies should be his own, and the remainder of the stock should be sent to him as soon as the sale is finished.  ## p. 77 (#101) ############################################# THE A UTHOR. 77 Up to the present, authors have always felt that to have an MS. published in a magazine was to ensure payment according to the scale of the maga- zine. This prop appears about to be knocked from under them. An enterprising publisher has now hit upon the ingenious plan of getting work into his magazine for nothing. His method and the generosity of his soul are shown in a letter addressed to an author. He says that he has been in con- sultation with the editor of the Magazine since he received the writer's MS. The Editor is willing to insert this story as a serial, if it is illus- trated. This the Firm would be willing to do at their expense, "if you are willing to make over the story to us free of charge." Should the Firm, in the future, think to bring out the work as a volume, they should perhaps be able to offer some small sum. The pages of the magazine, he says, are full for twelve months to come, but the Firm will retain the MS. and insert it after that period if the writer wishes. "It would have the effect of placing your name before the public at all events." He goes on to say, "The Firm feel that the publication is such a speculation, that considering that a great deal of money will have to be spent upon illustration and advertising before its publica- tion, no payment can be offered to the author until the work appears in book form." The letter con- dudes with these words: "We have really only made the offer to insert the story in the magazine so as to try and give you some encouragement to continue writing." Observe upon this:—i. The publisher, con- sidering the vast sums he spends on illustrating and advertising his magazine, cannot pay for the work at all. The same reasons apply to all other con- tributions. Therefore, we suppose, he has a good reason for paying nobody. 2. The author is to give him the copyright of the work. If he chooses, he is to give her " some small sum," whether it succeeds or not. Even if it turns out to be a great success, he is not bound to give the author anything. 3. This noble offer is wholly disvnteresttd and prompted by nothing but a disposition to help a struggling author! Generous, large-hearted, whole- souled Patron of Letters! One other observation presents itself. How enviable is the lot of the editor of such a magazine! "In your last number, quoting Mr. Rider Hag- gard's letter to Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., you very justly denounce what you call a 'new terror to literary men.' But this piratical liberty of mutilating as well as stealing literary property is by no means new. It must be some fifteen years ago that I picked up by chance on an American book- vor. 1. stall a little book of my own, which, without my knowledge, had been fitted for theft by the altera- tion of phrases likely to wound transatlantic sus- ceptibilities. I fancy such a process of judicious editing of stolen matter is far from uncommon. Has no enterprising American firm thought of bringing out a revised edition of the Bible, with desirable omissions—for instance, of the eighih commandment! We can sympathize with Mr. Rider Haggard; but he must not expect from all robbers the courtesy of a Claude Duval." A. R. H. M. "Do warn," a lady writes, "all young authors of the folly of doing all or nearly all their work for one editor. Editors die, or, as in my case, take up another paper or magazine, and the faithful old contributor finds her position changed. "Ten years ago I did an immense amount of work for a certain paper, which we will call the Strand Circus—essays, stories, &c. It was then edited by the eldest son of the proprietor, and I was given to understand that it would be worth my while to work away at the Strand Circus, to study- its interests, and not go roving here and there with MSS. Therefore I declined offers of work from other papers, and never sought new openings. All went well for many years. Then the father died; his son had to take over other work, and a new editor was appointed." The sequel may be guessed. The warning, however, is serious. Let no young author be contented with one magazine or journal. In every fresh opening he should find another pillar of support, and another body of readers and friends. ♦ Bad authors create bad publishers. This fact, once fully apprehended, should be an inceniive to the production of good work. But perhaps the state- ment wants explanation. A correspondent fur- nishes an illustration. "A lady once wrote to me 'as a successful author'—I had at that time published one in- different novel, which had been gently reviewed— asking my advice under the following conditions. She had published three novels at her own expense, not one of which had attracted any attention. What did I think she had better do now? The style of her stationery, as well as this confession, pointed to her being wealthy, while the literary style of her letter proved that she had no idea of writing at all. "This experience directed me in certain inquiries, and I discovered how- the idiotic three volume novels which are found in circulating libraries at F 2  ## p. 78 (#102) ############################################# 7« THE A UTHOR. seaside places get beyond the MS. stage. They are written by well-to do women who are ready to pay £200 to get a novel published. "Does not the existence of 'authors' of this kind account in some measure for the existence of low class publishers? May we not go even further and call this fact a justification of their existence? Honourable publishers refuse books which .ire foregone failures; they will not allow their names to appear on the title-page of such rubbish. Where, then, are the poor rich things to go with their MSS. and their money, save to such a friendly gentleman, who will kindly take £200 for publishing a book which costs less than £100 to produce?" My correspondent is a little too hasty. It is not only the rich woman but the poor woman as well who is responsible for the existence of these persons. It is any one, man or woman, who believes that a MS., refused by those who only publish books certain to be in demand, will be accepted by the public when they are issued by those who publish any rubbish brought to them. In another part of this number we deal with the question of paying for publishing at greater length. "I think," says a correspondent, "that you do not realise that small authors really get a great advantage in selling their copyright. In this way we get the money at once, without waiting for a year, and we have no risk or anxiety as to whether the book will sell or not." Well, if there is any risk or anxiety on that score the publisher will not buy the MS. at all. At the same time there are very few writers who would not rather take a lump sum down than the same or a little more spread over a term of years. The hardship is that the lump sum down is too often such a very little lump indeed. One fair and honest way would be for the publisher to buy an edition of so many copies, a new arrangement to be made when these were gone. * A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. MY remarks arise out of one made by Mr. Max Miiller :—" Find a respectable pub- lisher and stick to him." It has been the ambition of my literary life to do so, but I shall have to postpone it, I fancy, to another and a better world! I began full of hope ten years ago, deter- mined to give the public the best work of which I was capable as a novel writer. I loved the work and spared no pains to make it good. I sent what I had written to a firm of leading publishers, who accepted my novel. Terms—half profits. I accepted the offer with joy, thinking myself fortu- nate th:it I had not been asked to take any risks. My book was well launched and excellently re- viewed by all but the Athenceum, Academy, and the Saturday Revieiv. The Athenceitm called it "a wealth of nonsense," whereupon I asked the editor—when I told him it had been accepted on its merits by the firm in question, who, he admitted, would not have accepted "a wealth of nonsense "— how he permitted such an unjust criticism in the pages of a journal supposed to guide literary opinion. The Academy critic cast odium on his paper by uttering an opinion on the book and the writing which a subsequent critic in the same paper emphatically contradicted. He spoke of the book as "beneath criticism," while my next critic in the same referred to it as a book of " distinct merit." The Saturday Review danced upon it. The result of this handling by the three leading papers then, was, that the short three months' existence enjoyed by a three volume novel, by an unknown author, was insufficient to sell the number of copies published, and my publishers, while admitting that I had written a good book, found me a non-financial success, and bade me go else- where. The consequence of their decision was that other firms fought shy of my next book, which took three years in finding a publisher and was refused by twelve, one of whom took twelve months to consider it, and finally refused it "regretting—"! It was published at length and favourably reviewed. But all this came too late. The three years lost in finding a publisher made me practically once more a beginner after the lapse of five years between my first and second book. I lost heart after this, and tried no more "leading firms," since I found it was not good work they wanted so much as quick financial returns. Last year, ten years after my first work appeared, I went casually and as a stranger into a first class library in a fashionable watering place. I asked for a small shilling story I had just brought out—not by a leading firm. Of course it had never been heard of, so I humbly said, "It is by the author of and "naming my books. "Oh," ex- claimed the librarian, brightening up, "I know those books well, they are among the best read in our library." This after ten years! Moral:—Would it not be well for leading firms to be a little more patient with the slow sales of an unknown author's work ripening into "profits." My difficulty has been not so much in not being able to find a publisher I could stick to, but in finding one who would stick to me. I think I have proved that the adhesive properties are not lacking in  ## p. 79 (#103) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 79 consequence of bad work, or work that is short- lived. Where is the remedy for such a case as mine? Editor's Note.—Perhaps the author is wrong, and the three leading literary papers were right. That is to say, they were probably right when they condemned the book from a literary point of view, and in regard to style or artistic construction. In such matters these papers do not often go wrong. But there are readers in plenty who regard neither style nor artistic construction. For them the story—that is the leading situation—is everything. And the leading firms do publish many books every year the sale of which is necessarily slow. * CHESTNUT BELLS ENCORE. APROPOS of Chestnut Bells. We often see the hand-bell in grotesque sculptures of the middle ages used in a manner which clearly indicates that it is intended to impose silence, oras an intimation that what one person is saying is not believed in, or is ridiculed by another. Thus on the grand portal of St. Stephen's Church, Vienna, there is a sp;rited stone-picture of a rollicking witch and a reprobate priest (perhaps a sorcerer), engaged in a tussle, he holding her by one leg, while she with the right hand pulls his head back by the capote, and with the other rings a bell in his ear—as if to silence his love-making, and say, "Yes, I have heard all that before—enough—shut up!" A copy of this will appear as a vignette in my work on gypsy sorcery now in the press. On more than one bas-relief of the fourteenth century, we see a goat dressed as a monk, and in one instance, a sow, ringing a small bell. The allusion here is to telling coarse tales, since in modern German phrase doing this is called ringing the Sauglocke, or sow-bell, and I possess an outrageous little old work bearing that name, with the picture of a bell on the cover depicted in a manner "which could convey little joy to either moralist or Christian." The Lumpenglock, or blackguard's bell, is a term applied in Germany to the bells in steeples, rung at eleven o'clock p.m., as a signal to close all the beer-houses. So we are told of that veteran rois- terer, the Herr von Rodenstein, that when he died— "The blackguard's l>ell in the old Town Hall, Began of itself to ring." A man who is always telling coarse and rude tales —or a Zotenreisser—is commonly said to be contin- ually ringing the sow-bell. And I think it very probable that at a time when symbolism entered into every- thing, there was something of all this implied by the bells on the cap of the professional jester or fool. There was mockery in their sound, as in the words of their wearer, and both were like the ring of the chestnut bell, and the tinkling of brass pots of yore—all synonyms for vain repetition and idle chatter. It may be here observed that the primary object of church bells was not so much to call the faithful together to worship, as to drive away and avert evil influences, especially devils, concerning all which there is a deeply learned chapter in Southey's Doctor. The primitive Christian church bell was very truly what Mr. William Sikes called a " tinkler," since it was precisely of the shape, material, and make of the same which, in America especially, is hung to the necks of cows. Their object is to keep the cows from straying afield too far—that of the chestnut bell to recall men from wandering in discourse. When I was a schoolboy, I once invested my last cent in the purchase of a black letter Latin folio—the " Moralization of the entire Bible," by Petrus Berchorius, all of which I perused faithfully and admiringly many times. By the way, my copy had belonged to Melancthon. It just occurs to me that the spirit of the old monk Pierre Bercheur is living again in these disquisitions on the true inwardness of the chestnut bell, and the esoteric mysteries of the Sauglocke. "Oh, good old man— even from the grave thy spirit" comes over thy disciple, into the year eighteen hundred and ninety, prompting him to find preaching in pebbles and sermons in grains of sand ; of which "making great amount of small things," all that can be said is that it is better than making no account of or be-littling great ones, which is the vice of our day. Chari.es G. Leland. * THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH. '"T^ HE enrolment into a single company of I so numerous and influential a body of English writers as composes the Society of Authors, may perhaps be profitably utilized in a manner which, if it be a little outside the scope of its foundation, would interest and benefit every reader and writer of the English language. There has never yet existed in this country any academic body, any authoritative company of edu- cated Englishmen qualified to pronounce judgment upon moot points connected with the writing of English. It has been questioned whether the formal institution of such an Academy would be  ## p. 80 (#104) ############################################# 8o THE AUTHOR. for the lasting benefit of literature, and I doubt myself if the ex cathedra pronouncements of an official Board of Letters would ever carry much weight with Englishmen. We are too impatient of law and precedent; but in a humble way some nse- ful work might surely be done. An expression of the consensus of opinion of so influential a body as our Society, can never be without influence and effect, and a resolution of the doubts and uncer- tainties that exist on manypoints in syntax, spelling, prosody, and phraseology would be welcomed by every educated man and woman in the land inside and outside of our own circle. I venture to sug- gest therefore that the Society of Authors should from time to time hold an inquest upon some one or other of the aforesaid moot points, and that their deliberation should issue in the shape of verdicts to be arrived at by unanimity, or by a large majority of votes; the verdicts to be published to the world at large in the columns of The Author. There is another and perhaps a still greater service which our Society and its new organ might confer upon English letters, and that is by their sanction of the admission of useful provincial words into general usage. Many an admirable English word has no circulation beyond a limited district, many a word expressing ideas that can only be rendered else- where by a clumsy paraphrase. More competent persons than myself could cite many local words, which, if they were made general, would enrich the language. I will give but one example at present. In parts of the West and of the North of England backword signifies a refusal to comply with a pomise made or to fulfil some intention declared. The following telegram was recently offered at a London Post Office: "Dine with me on Saturday. A sends me a backword." The telegraph clerk refused "backword" as a single word, properly observing that it was in no dictionary, and the recipient of the message—a cockney—had no notion of its meaning. Now surely such a word deserves to pass into circulation, to enjoy the approval, to be stamped with the mint mark of some academic body, and to become at once current coin of full weight and value in the realm of English literature. Oswald Crawfurd. THE CIVIL LIST. I. The following is the Memorial which it was proposed to submit to Mr. W. H. Smith :— "This Memorial Sheweth as follows:— "(a) It was enacted by section 5 of 1 Vict., c. 2. That your Memorialists respectfully submit that further Legislation is urgently needed on the grounds and for the following purposes :— "(b) Section 6 of 1 Vict., c. 2, declared that it is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers of the Crown to recommend to her Majesty, for grants of pensions of the Civil List, 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 or attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country. "(c) The Select Committee appointed in 1837 to inquire into the then existing pensions, classed them under the following heads:—(i)Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplomatic; (4) Judicial and Legal; (5) Political; (6) Civil and Revenue; (7) Colonial; (8) Services to Royal Family and in Household; (9) Rewards for Literary and Scientific Attain- ments; (10) Royal Bounty and Charity; (11) Compensation for Forfeited Estates; (12) Mis- cellaneous. "The said Select Committee also reported as follows :—The operation of the Superannuation Acts, the system of retired allowances, the military and naval pensions for good services, the pensions granted by 57 Geo. iii, c. 65, for pensions holding high political offices, and the pensions for the diplomatic and consular services, have to a great extent superseded one of the original purposes of the Pension List. These Acts have also substi- tuted a strictly-defined and regulated system of reward for a system which depended on the arbitrary selection of the Crown or the recommen- dation of the existing Government exposed to the bias of party or personal consideration. "(d) The said regulated system of reward has since the passing of 1 Vict., c. 2, been confirmed, amended, and extended by the following statutes: The Superannuation Act, 1859 ; The Naval and Marine Pay and Pensions Act, 1865 ; The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1865; The Superannua- tion Act, 1866; The Diplomatic Salaries Act, 1869; The Political Offices Pensions Act, 1869; The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1872;  ## p. 81 (#105) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 81 The Superannuation Act, 1876; The Pensions and Yeomanry Pay Act, 1884; The Pensions (Colonial Service) Act, 1887. "(e) Notwithstanding the said Statutes, and the Report of the said Select Committee, pensions on the Civil List have been granted for services per- formed in the (1) Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplo- matic Service; (4) Civil and Revenue Services; and (5) Colonial Service. "(J) It appears from the 'Returns of all Per- sons now in receipt of Pensions charged on the Civil List' (1889), that of the ,£25,221 13*. 4*/. (the total annual charge of the pensions payable at the date of the said Return) £8,625 was payable at the date of the said Return in the following proportions for services in the (1) Army (.£2,710); (2) Navy (£1,335) j (3) Diplomatic Service (£9°°); (4) Civil Service and Revenue (£3,455) J (5) Colonial Service (.£225). "And your Memorialists respectfully submit that further Legislation is urgently needed for the following purposes :— "(a) The restriction of the grant of pensions on tie Civil List within ascertained limits. "(b) The allocation of pensions amounting to ru t less than £800 in each year to those who by th.iir useful discoveries in Science or attainments in Literature and the Arts have merited the gra- cious consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude of their country, or their widows and children. "(c) The increase of the Royal Bounty Fund and the Civil List Pension Fund so that her Majesty may be enabled to relieve distress and reward merit in a manner worthy of the dignity of the Crown." The Memorial speaks for itself and requires little further elucidation here. It places on record the following facts :—(1) That notwithstanding the wording of the Civil List Act, and notwithstanding the Report of the Select Committee, pensions on the Civil List have been improperly granted; (2) That of the £25,221 13*. ^d. (the total annual charge of the pensions payable in May, 1889), .£8,625 was paid to the classes of persons not contemplated by the Act or the Report of the Committee. Mr. VV. H. Smith remarks in his letter to Mr. S. S. Sprigge, which we published last month, " that the figures in the Memorial, accepting them as fairly correct, show that the practical administration of the Fund is almost identical with the distribu- tion proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to services rendered to the Sovereign, and two- thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature, and Art" From this it appears that the First Lord of the Treasury defends the grant of pensions on the "Civil List" for services performed in the Army, Navy, Diplomatic, Civil and Revenue, and Colonial Services on the grounds that these are "services to the Sovereign." The Act, however, only empowers the grant of pensions for " personal services to the Crown," and it is, we imagine, merely idle to pretend that this expression was ever intended to have any such meaning as that which it is now sought to give it. It was no doubt one of the original purposes of the Pension List to reward all these classes of public servants, but as the Report of the Select Committee (cited in the Memorial) points out, various statutes have been passed "substituting a strictly-defined and regulated system of reward " in all these cases fcr a system which depended on the caprice of the Crown and of Her Majesty's advisers. It was clearly not the intention of the Act or the desire of the Committee-—and it is necessary to remember that it was a Select Committee of Inquiry into this very question appointed in deference to a loudly expressed public opinion—that any pensions for these services should in future be charged on the Civil List. We think, then, that we have fully established the irregularity of all these pensions, and we regret that the First Lord of the Treasury, who admits that he enjoys "that discretion which must in such cases finally rest with some one res- ponsible minister," has attempted to evade the conclusion. Mr. W. H. Smith further remarks that" to make such changes as the Memorial suggests would necessitate a new Act of Parliament." This we are not prepared to deny. The Memorial prays for " further legislation " for certain specified pur- poses. We feel some diffidence in making any rejoinder to Mr. Smith's expression of opinion that there has not been "any such expression of dis- satisfaction either in the House or outside of it as would justify the proposal." But we think it due to ourselves to say that the Incorporated Society of Authors and the Institute of Journalists do not stand alone in objecting to the present administration of the Civil List Pension Fund. The press has almost without distinction or exception condemned the existing system in no measured terms, and we are not aware that a single voice has been raised in its defence. If the Fund were administered strictly within its proper limits, it would, it is universally admitted, be impossible to satisfy the just claimants. Restrictions, it appears, already exist. It will be seen from the correspondence published in the current report of the Executive Committee that literary pensions can only be granted to the writers of "historical novels and technical and useful books," owing  ## p. 82 (#106) ############################################# 82 THE AUTHOR. to the unexpected existence of certain regulations, or, as Mr. Smith denned them in the House of Commons, "notes on practice." The Society has already placed on record a protest against the "permanent exclusion of any class of Literary, Scientific, or Artistic production from the just claims on the Royal beneficence contemplated by section 6 of i Vict., c. 2." The Society has already demanded that "the regulations, if any, under which the Civil List Pension Fund is administered should be communicated to the public." The case for reform is now complete. It cannot be left to private secretaries to draw up rules which vary the meaning and affect the application of an Act of Parliament. It is high time that genuine regulations were framed, if necessary by statute, which should restrict the grant of pensions not upon an artificial theory but in accordance with public opinion. Mr. Smith "fears that Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum annually set apart for the Pension List." We, on the other hand, believe that if the necessity were shown to exist, the popular representatives would ungrudgingly support such a use of public money. And there is only too little doubt as to the urgent character of the necessity. It is the unanimous testimony of every First Lord of the Treasury that he is year by year deluged with applications for pensions which he is unable to grant. Many of those cases which now, perhaps, "lie forgotten in the cupboards of the Treasury," were, we do not doubt, sad and saddening, although no whisper of them reached the unofficial world. There are moreover, few years that pass by without the country being startled by the announcement that a pension has been refused to some distinguished man of letters or his surviving widow and children. We do not doubt, we repeat, that the public would support even an increase of the Pension List, but be that as it may, it cannot be denied that the country at large would welcome a re- form in the administration of the Pension Fund, which would ensure it being devoted to the pur- poses for which it was founded. II, The Pensions of the Year. The Civil List Pensions granted during the last twelve months have now been published. They are as follows:—William Muggins, LL.D., a pension of ^150 (very good). Ellen S. Scott, widow of (General H. Scott, R,E., a pension of j£iqo (very bad). The widow of a soldier does not fall within the limits of the grant. Bessie Hatch (widow of Rev. Edwin Hatch, a pension of £100 (very good). Ellen Isabella Tupper, daughter of Martin Tupper, a pension of ^75 (very good). Rosamond Bur- nard, daughter of Gen. Sir H. W. Burnard, a pension °f £lS- 1"ne daughter of a soldier has no business in the list at all, unless that soldier was also dis- tinguished for service, art or literature. Henrietta Elizabeth Wood, widow of the late J. T. Wood, a pension of £,!$■ Augusta Theresa Motteram, widow of the late Judge Motteram, a pension 0^75. l>ady Wilde, a pension of ^70. Pensions of ^50 each to Mrs. Caroline Blanchard, Mr. John Absolon, Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Dr. William Spark, Mrs. Kate Livingstone, Miss Catherine Shilleto, Mrs. Jane Eleanor Wood (widow of Rev. J. G. Wood). Pensions of ^25 each have been granted to the Misses Eliza and Mary Maquire, daughters of the late Dr. Thomas Maquire, of Trinity College, Dublin, and of £20 each to the four unmarried daughters of the late Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S. General verdict. On the whole, a great improvement on many recent lists. * A NEW GUIDE TO BOOKS. AGUIDE to Books should be found in any review. That is to say, the reader should be able to depend upon the review which he reads regularly to guide him in the ordering of books from the library. And, no doubt, the reader of the Saturday Review, for instance, would find no difficulty in understanding what is promis- ing in the way of new literature. But one can very well understand that there may arise cases in which the most perfect review may fail to inform the reader as to the best books on special subjects. For instance, the Saturday Review may be acknow- ledged by its best friends to be weak in the Department of Surgery, or of Pure Mathematics, or of Electricity. Therefore, a certain compilation which will first appear in the autumn may prove of great use to specialists, if not to the general reader. The object of the editors is to "place at the service of the reader the opinions of those who may be trusted to give sound advice upon the books which are of value in each department of knowledge." A great many people—specialists- have promised to assist. Among them—members of the Society—we find the names of William Archer, Courthope Bowen, James Bryce, John Earle, Richard Gamett, J, W. Hales, E. Ray Lankester, J. Norman Lockyer, Erikr Magnusson, Max Miiller, Sir Frederick Pollock, Burden San- derson, J. R. Seeley, Sir Henry Thompson, Andrew Tuer, and Sir Charles Wilson,  ## p. 83 (#107) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 83 MR. BAINTON ON HIMSELF. To the Editor of The Author. Sir, I deeply regret I should have been the cause of so serious an amount of feeling and annoyance as the correspondence in your paper reveals—a correspondence which comes upon me as a most painful surprise. I must ask your corres- pondents to believe me when I say that my fault or folly, whichever it may be, was wholly unintentional ; and that how- ever carelessly I may appear to have acted in certain instances, I have had no other than the purest purpose in view, and have been moved by no mean or dishonourable motive. Un- fortunately the book in question was quite an after-thought. When preparing my address I had no idea of so extended a compilation. I simply desired my lecture to be issued in pamphlet form, shoul 1 it stem likely to answer the purpose for which it was designed. My fault has been in changing the form of publication without first acquainting all my generous correspondents of what I purposed doing. But I acted under the impression that this was not necessary after having solicited their consent to use their words in print. That in this I committed a serious over-ight I now learn to my bitter cost, and I deeply regret it should have happ ned. But that I have been guilty of the unfairness, the wilful discourtesy, and other outrageous sins which some of your correspondents—and especially yourself—are anxious to fasten upon me, I most earnestly and indignantly deny. After the first portion of the address was given here in the Old Grammar School, to a united meeting of the Young Men's Associations of the City, and largely reproduced in the columns of our local papers, I was repeatedly urged to return to the subject, and put the matter I had already spoken into print. Through lack of time long delays inter- vened before I could make any attempt to compile a promised second part of the same address, or before I could do anything towards remoulding what I had roughly sketched out. When I did the contributions with which I had to deal were so many, and the interest attaching to them so great, that my MS. quickly exceeded the limits of an ordinary pamphlet. It was then, and not till then, the idea of the book occurred to me. Had I for a moment conceived that in this I was exceeding the bounds of a strict courtesy and integrity, I should most certainly have communicated again with the authors who had generously sent me the items of their experience. Indeed the book would have been at once abandoned had I known it would have given pain to any. I had no interest to serve by concealment, and nothing what- ever to lead me to act in the spirit Mr. Hall Caine insinuates. Some of your correspondents, and several critics outside the columns of The Author, have Hung the ungenial sneer at my supposed sordid desire for gain. The imputation is most unjust, and does not speak well for the spirit of those by whom it is made. I have not received one penny from the book. When towards the close of last year I finished the MS. and submitted it to the publishers, I did not stipulate for any payment, I did not ask for any terms on my own behalf, but gladly accepted their suggestions, with the assurance I should be only too pleased and grateful if the book repaid them the cost of production, and proved of some real in erest and value to its readers. Should anything ever come to me from its sale it will be hea tily at the disposal of those who made the book possible. I prepared the book with a good motive, and it was not the motive of personal gain. I notice in many of the letters you have reproduced your cor- respondents speak of their communications to me as private. They quite overlook the fact that I wrote to them upon a matter for a pitblic and not a private purpose. Letters sent expressly for use in illustrating a lecture can hardly be regarded as ordinary private correspondence. A lecture is not usually private ami confidential. It is liable to be reported and reproduced in print, with or without the lecturer's consent ; and as a matter of fact the lecture in question, which Mr. Hall Caine angrily infers was never given, was in great part printed in the columns of a local paper,* portions of the same appearing three successive weeks, with Ion*; extracts from the most interesting and useful letters, Mr. Hall Caine's not excepted. The com- munications were not sent to me as private, or for a private purpose ; they were not requested for any private aim, else they would have been treated strictly as such. A few of the most helpful letters I received and retain, were not used at all, because the writers expressly objected to their contents being made public. You mention several persons and say they were all ignorant that I intended to print their remarks. That is not correct. I wrote to almost every person you name, to almost every correspondent in your columns, asking permission to use their words in print. Only in two instances am I uncertain of having done so. To Mr. Allen, then in Italy, I wrote twice, to make sure he should receive my request, and neither letter was returned. Several like Mr. Allen did not reply. Was I wrong in assuming that such silence meant either indirierence or consent? If Mrs. Parr, Mr. Gilbe rt, and others had the opportunity to refuse and did not, where is the breach of faith of which they speak? Surely if they had felt so serious an objection to the use of their words they would at least have given expression to it. But though opportunity was afforded they did nothing of the kind; they left me, therefore, free to act as I thought best, and I inter- preted silence as consent. The majoiity did reply, and gave the consent I asked. How then can they have been ignorant of my intention to print their remarks? One of the most eminent of your correspondents assures you I acted in his case with perfect frankness and consistency throughout. In no instance have I sought to be less open and (rank. Why should I i What had I to gain by such concealment with one person more than another? Whatever you or others may affirm to the ontrary I am at least guiltless of any intention to deceive. Memory does not serve some of your correspondents with any great fidelity. Miss Yonge mvy perhaps recall her assurance that I could make the use I asked of what she had written, when I remind her that such consent was given upon condition that no mention should be made of a statement concerning a recent writer. I was careful to respect her wish. Mr. Blackmore too was asked and consented to the use of his letter in print ; and only a few weeks since, May 3rd, 1890, wrote in acknowledgment of acopyof his printed letter, "Am glad to hear of the appearance of your book, which I hope to procure at the first opportunity. With all good wishes for its success, &c." Yet this gentleman "'objects to the use Mr. Bainton has made of the reply procured through the good will due to a clergyman, and lor clerical purposes." Mrs. Kennard also joins in the protest that she did not know, though her letter was printed with her consent ; while writing on May 5th, 1890, she says, "My poor remarks scarcely deserved such prominence as you have been g'>od en ugh to give them. Thanking you for the compliment you have paid me, &c." To Mr. Rider Hagyaid I owe a special word of explanation and apology. The proof he requested when consenting to mv use of his letter would have been submi'ted, but for a statement I saw at the time that he was travelling in the Erst. I trust he will accept the expression of my sincere regret that for this reason his desire was not complied with. * Coventry Times.  ## p. 84 (#108) ############################################# «4 THE AUTHOR. Permit me to add in conclusion that only this week have I learned, and that quite casually, of this painful corres- pondence. No copy of The Author was sent me, and no intimation was given that you were endeavouring so seriously to injure my good name. Is it fair dealing to stab a man in the dark? Is it fair dealing to seek to destroy a man's reputation without a word of warning, and without so much as a hint of the course of action you have taken? Is this the spirit in which the Society of Authors is conducted? If so it is the spirit of a ruthless cruel'y. I do not for a moment doubt that your purpose is just and your motive pure; but surely before seeking fataby to injure the reputation and character of another, you might at least have had sufficient considerate feeling to give him a chance to vindicate himself and explain his conduct in the same issue of the journal in which you have printed your hard and harsh judgment. You have not done so, and I now claim the right that my letter shall appear in the following number of the paper, the columns of which have been used to do me so grievous a wrong. Gf.orgf. Bainton. Coventry, /tine 26/h, 1890. P. S.—When writing the above letter more than a week since, I could discover scarcely any of the replies I had re- ceived frc-m authors giving me permission to use their communications in print. 1 can now put my hands upon several, and I may even yet find others. Unfortunately I did not conceive the matter would ever be called in question, and, therefore, never thought it necessary to preserve them. But it would have been strange had I been so punctilious about the consent of some, and so careless about that of others of my correspondents. An impartial judge would surely admit the strong probability that what was done in so many cases was haidly neglected in the bulk cf the others. When I have used no more than a sentence or two I did not trouble the writers with a note of request ; but if I missed any others the omission was purely accidental. My complaint of the lady who opened this painful controversy is, that she printed two of my letters, and said not a word about the letter in which I responded to and thanked her for her communica- tion. It was in that I asked her to do me the kindness to consent to the use of her letter. Much has been made of the fact that I used in many cases the same form of request. After writing to the first author I retained a rough copy of the letter sent, and used it whenever its terms made it possible, or altered it as the circumstances of the case rt quired. This was done to save unnecessary trouble, and I cannot think in doing so I did wrong. I spoke in some of those letters of the author's books as having given me very special pleasure and help. After twenty-five years constant reading, a man may well have very many pleasant companions amongst the authors of the day—it would be strange if he had not. In my own case I think the book itself will sufficiently show I hardly deserve the suspicious comments you have made. It is easy for a critic to indicate a special point in the speech or conduct of another, and then draw from it a general adverse conclusion. At first I only purposed securing the aid of a few favourite authors, and wrote to that end. The words, which I fain hope were not often used, to which you so seriously and justly object, formed part of the draft of the earliest commu- nication sent out, and were not written with any attempt to mislead. All the correspondence I hold relating to the matter in question is freely open to the inspection of anyone concerned in it. George Bainton. July 5th, 1890. To the Editor of The AUTHOR. Sir, Mr. Bainton has only himself to thank for our change of tone towards him. Many may have wished him success—as I did—through misconception of his purpose. W ho could foretell from a page of his book what the nature of the volume was to be? It proves to be a piece of patchwork, collected from fifty quarters; and the patches, though not exactly pilfered, were procured for a very different use. If Mr. Bainton had said at first—" I am writing to all the English authors I have heard of, to ask them how they do their work; I shall use their replies for my own pupils first, and then (if I see my way) make a book out of them "—how many answers would he have got? Later on, when he had obtained replies (by writing to scores of authors, as if to each exclusively and for a benevolent purpose), in fairness he should have explained to each the character of his forthcoming volume, instead of describing it as a mere expansion of his lecture. In that case, how many would have allowed him to pour on the literary world (instead of his Coventry class) their off-handed replies? Faithfully yours, R. D. Blackmore. [Mr. Bainton's letter only shows the justice of those who complained of his conduct. He asked certain questions, the answers to be used for a lecture. That he admits. He then used them for a book. That he also admits. If a man prints a communication for one purpose which was intended for another it is not enough ;o write for permission—he must also obtain permission. A letter is a private document, unless the contrary is stipulated expressly. As for the spirit in which this Society is conducted, it is one of continued hostility to all who invade or attack the rights of authors. Having printed Mr. Bainton's reply, we can now leave the matter as between Mr. Bainton and his correspondents and between him and The Author to be judged by our readers. —Editor.] * AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. R. J. NORMAN LOCKYER, F.R.S., is editing Am£dee Guillemin's work, "The Heavens." Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., has presented to the Royal Irish Academy a "Catalogue of binary Stars for which orbits have been computed." The Catalogue, which will be published by the Academy, contains the elements of all the orbits hitherto calculated, the magnitudes and colours of the components, spectra, "hypothetical," and measured parellax, the relative brightness of each compared with a standard star, and data for computing the velocity in the line of sight, for use in the spectroscopic method of measuring the star's distance from the earth. The Catalogue is followed by a series of notes giving further details and the most recent measures of position of the component stars. There has been a change in the Editorship of the Publishers' Circular"; Mr. J. A. Steuart is the new Editor. Mr. Steuart has in the press a work of Criticism and a novel, both of which will be published in the autumn by- Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co.  ## p. 85 (#109) ############################################# THE A UTHOR 85 Mr. Charles Leland is now preparing a work on "Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling." There will be an Edition de Luxe. 150 copies only, and all numbered. The publisher, Mr. Fisher Unwin, receives names of intending subscribers. Mrs. Cashel Hoey has this year written the summer number for Household Words. It is a complete story called "His Match and More." In last month's "At Work," two mistakes were left uncorrected. The name of William Westall appeared as "William Werlah," and Mr. Watt wis announced as the agent for The Author under Ithe heading of Mr. W. F. Smith's new version of "Rabelais." The author should not be in italics. It refers to the translation of "Rabelais," not the Journal. Mr. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition of the "Autobiography of Koloko Kenes," with an historical introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven- ture Series." His biography of Klugas, the Protomartyr of Greece (Longman), has already shown his knowledge of kindred subjects. Mr. Oscar Wilde's story, " The Picture of Dorrin Grey," which constituted the July number of LippincotCs Magazine, will shortly be issued as a one volume novel by Messrs. Ward and Lock. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson will shortly issue, through Messrs. Chatto and Windus, "Father Damien: an open letter to the Kev. Dr. Ande." A second edition is ready of Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball's "Mediterranean Winter Resorts." It is a handbook to the principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the Mediterranean (London, L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand; and Paris, The Galignani Library, 224, Rue de Rivoli). The article on "Alexandria," in Nos. 9 and 10 of Cassell's "Picturesque Mediterranean," is by Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball, who is also the author, under the pseudonym of Evelyn Ballantyne, of the article called "The Pit and Its Critic." Rev. James J. Hillock has issued the third edition of his "Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness" (Houlston and Sons). Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d. Miss Frances Armstrong begins a story for the young called "Changed Lots; or, Nobody Cares," in the July- Number of Newbery House Magazine. Miss BIyth's new story is entitled " Adolphus Etherton ; or, the Boy who was Always Amused." Mr. Edric Vredenburg has recently completed a new story which will be published in the Weekly Times and Echo, beginning January 3rd of next year. Mrs. Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell's book on Palestine, called " Forty Days in Holy Land," is in the press, and will be published by Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co. A new edition of Mr. Justin McCarthy's " History of the Four Georges" is being issued by the same publishers. Volumes I and II are now ready. Esme Stuart commences a new serial tale in the July number of the Newbery House Magazine. It is now stated that Mr. Christie Murray is not lost at all. He has sailed for Samoa vid Sydney with the intention of joining Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson. The author of "Thoth" (Blackwood), and of " Toxar" (Longman) is Professor Nicholson of Edinburgh, a member of this Society. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Aubyn, St. Alan. A Fellow of Trinity. Chatto and Windus. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. (Shortly.) Author ok "Thoth." Toxar, a romance. 1 vol. 6s. Longmans. BESANT, W. H., D.Sc, F.R.S. Notes on Roulettes and Glissettes. Second Edition, enlarged. Messrs. Bell. 8vo. 5/. Collins, M. The Blossom and Fruit: A True Story of a Black Magician. Crown 8vo. 2s. Conway, H. Martin. Climber's Guide to Central Alps. I vol. 10s. T. Fisher Unwin. Conway, W. M. Climbers' Guide to the Central Pennine Alps. i8mo. lew. Crommelin, May. Midge. Trischler and Co. 6s. Dowden, Professor. The Poetry of John Donne. Chap- man and Hall. Farrar, F. W. The Passion Play at Oberammergau, 1890. W. Heinemann. 4to. 2s. 6d. James, C. T. C. The New Faith. 3 vols. 31*. 6d. Ward and Downey. "John Strange Winter." Dinna Forget. Trischler and Co. Paper, is. ; cloth boards, Is. 6d. Kennard, Mrs. G. Matron or Maid: A Novel. Crown 8vo. 2s. td. Lange, F., Ph. D. Elementary German Reader: A Gra- duated Collection of Readings in Prose and Poetry. With English Note and a Vocabulary. Messrs. Bell. 8vo. is. 6d. Linton, E. L\ nn. Sowing the Wind: A Novel. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. Murray (C), and Herman (H.). Wild Darrie. i2ino. 2s. Murray (D. Christie) and Herman (Henry). Paul Jones's Alias. Chatto and Windus. is. "Nemesis." By Seyton Crewe. Eden, Remington and Co. 6s. Oliver, Cai'T. P. Madagascar; or, Robert Deury'sJournal during Fifteen Years' Captivity on that Island. T. Fisher Unwin. 5*. Powell, F. York, M. A. History of England, Part I, From the Earliest Times to the Death of Henry VII. Rivington. 2s. 6d. Robinson, F. W. The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and Blackett. 3 vols. Ruskin, John, D.C.L., LL.D. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. New cheap editions. George Allen. Small post 8vo. p. 6d. each. ■ Aratra Pentelici. Seven Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture. Val D'Arno. Ten Lectures on Art of the Thirteenth Century in Pisa and Florence. Salmone, H. Anthony. An Arabic-English Dictionary on a New System. 2 vols. Triibner & Co. Symonds, John Addingto.n. Essays, Speculative and Suggestive. Chapman and Hall. 2 vols. Warden, Florence. St. Cuthbert's Tower. Popular Edition. Cassell and Co. $s. Westall, William. Strange Crimes. I vol. 6s. Ward and Downey. Whistler, J. McN. Gentle Art of Making Enemies. W. Heinemann. 4th thousand, ioj. 6d.  ## p. 86 (#110) ############################################# 86 AD VER TISEMENTS. THE LITERARY HAJYDJHAID OF THE CHURCH" J3 -V -%KT AIiTBB 3B E S A T. HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION. BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. READY IN OCTOBER. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 87 (#111) ############################################# 87 NEW BOOKS. RABELAIS. A New Translation. liy W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge. Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750 copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for this country and 250 for America. In two hand- some 8vo vols. Price 2$s the set. The aim of the al>ove translation has l>een to render more accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which has exercised a wide influence on the French language as well as on European literature. A system of marginal reference has been introduced. Great attention has been paid to the historical aspect of the book, and points bearing on the political and religious affairs of the times have been carefully noticed. As the work must be presented as a whole, and as certain passages and parts can no longer l>e presented in English, these have been left in the original old French, where they can lie read by such as desire it. The work will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of the environs of Chinon, the part of France where Ra!>elais was brought up, notes on the language and style, and on other points. It will be, in fact, an entirely new and complete presentation of the great French master. Prospectus giving /nil details ami all information to lie had OH a/plication from the Publisher. A HOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR. SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and Present. By John S. Fakmkk, Author of "Americanisms—Old and New," &c. A new and absolutely unique -Slang Dictionary, In three volumes, foolscap 4to, primed antique style, on thick paper, large margin, to the number of 500 copies for England and 250 for America, each copy being numbered and signed, to Subscribers only as follows: The Set (3 vols.) £5 51. net. In hall-calf, parch- ment sides. The price will be raised 011 completion as in the case'of "Americanisms—Old and New." A Dictionary, Historical and Comparative (011 the lines of Dr. Murray's New Ivnglish Dictionary) of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than 300 years, the whole presenting a Curious Picture of Social Life and Manners of the English People. Sotes and Queries says—" For the first time in a dictionary the subject of English Jantf is seriously treated. Recent works liavu been catchpennies, and Mr, Farmer is the first to treat the subject of slant in a manner com- mensurate with its importance. . . . Very full is Mr. Farmer s list, the first volume extending- to mer four hundred double columnct panes. . . . His book commends itself warmly to our readers, and its progress cannot be otherwise th.ui inUTi-^ttnif. As it is issued in a limited edition it can scarcely fail of becoming a prized possession." Prospectus and all information to be hadfrom the Publisher, AMERICANISMS: OLD AND NEW. By John S. Fakmeh. In 1 vol. Foolscap 4tot printed in antique style, and bound in vellum, £2 2s, A book for the library, desk, or general reading; for journalists. Members of Parliament, public speakers, and all professional men. It is a dictionary of words, phrases, and colloquialisms peculiar to the United States, British America, the West Indies, &e, &c, together with their derivation, meaning, and application. "Certainly the best and completes! dictionary of Americanisms at THREE NEW BOOKS ON THE HOLY LAND. PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS. liy GUY LE Strange, With Map, and numerous Plans and Drawings specially executed for this work. Handsome post 8vo, pp. 604. Cloth extra, 12s. txl. "A work intended to render the mass of interesting iiiN'niiatiun about Palestine, which lies buried in the Arabic texts of the Moslem geographers and travellers of the middle ages, available to the English reader." ".... is written throughout with a sort of luting care which proves how thoroughly the author nas lelt the fascination of his subject."— Saturday Review, Third Edition, now ready. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. By Henry A. Hakier. With an Introduction by Walter liesant. Coloured Map and numerous Illustrations, demy 8vo, 16*. "Instructive, interesting, and in many ways admirable . . . enables the reader so to revise his impressions of Scripture typography as in many caser, to throw quite a flood of new light upon a hitherto obscure narrative." —Manchester hxamintr% "Supplies .1 long-felt want by connecting in a popular and vivid manner the work which has been done by the Society with the Bible narrative."— Christian Leader, NORTHERN AJLUN, "Within the Decapolis," liy Hkrk Schumacher, Author of "Across the Jordan," &c. With Maps, Plans, and over 60 Illustrations, crown 8vo, 3.1. 6*/. "Altogether we have to thank Mr. Schumacher for an important addition to ojt knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita,"— Saturday A'eriert'. THE SURVEY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Only 17 sets of this magnificent work now remain. It will ttevtr be reprinted, ~<<ith the exception of the two volumes "Flora and Fauna " and "Jerusalem." '/'he price of the set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven uniform and handsomely bound volumes. $to. THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field by Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E,, and Colonel Kitchener, C.M.G., A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after their return. With thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, &c, drawn expressly for these volumes, a'id not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols. THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor K. H. Palmer. 1 vol. THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS. Con- sisttug mostly of reprints of important p.ipers from the "Quartet ly Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K..C.B., K.C.M.G., F.K.S., D.C.L., I.L.D., K.E. ; Col. fcir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.U., F.R.S., K.K.: Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont- 1 Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, etc. 1 vol. THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE. With manv Illustrations (hand-painted). riy Canon Tristram, LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol. THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio of 50 Plates. By Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol. THE MAPS. An IUnalrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be sent, post free, on application. Published for the Palestine Exploration Fund by London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.  ## p. 88 (#112) ############################################# 88 TYPE-WRITING! CHARING CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION, ■* 447, STRAND *■ (Directly opposite Charing Cross Station). Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART. Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch. Specifications. Law copying. Translations from and into all foreign languages. Shorthand Writers always in attendance. Misses GILL & CARPENTER, TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, 6, ADAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 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Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. W. J. RICHARDSON & Co., 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all members. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4-f. 6d. 5. The History of the Soctete" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition preparing.) 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 88 (#114) ############################################# The Society of Authors (Jncorporated). PRESIDENT. The Right IIon. The LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I. ALFRED AUSTIN. ROBERT BATEMAN. Sir HenRY BERGNE. WALTER BESANT, R. D. BLACKMORE. REV. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S. LORD BRABOURNE. JAMES BRYCE. P. W. CLAYDEN. J. Comen's CARR. EDWARD Clodd. W. MARTIN CONWAY. MARION CRAWFORD. OSWALD CRAWFURD. THE EARL OF DESArt.. A. W. DUBOURG, ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S. PROF. Michael Foster, F.R.S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D, COUNCIL. EDMUND Gosse. II. RIDER HaggarD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.: Rev. W. J. LOFTIÉ, F.S.A. GEORGE Meredith. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. . T. C. PARKINSON.. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D. WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.. A. G. Ross. GEORGE AUGUSTUS Sala. W. BAPTISTE SCOONES. G. R. Sims. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. Sully. WILLIAM MOY THOMAS. H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L. EDMUND YATES. - Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WKAE, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman-WALTER BESANT. I ROBERT BATEMAN. W. MARTIN COYWAY.. EDMUND Gosse. H. RIDER HAGGARD. A. G. Ross. J. M. LELY, Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK. Solicitors. Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, PORTUGAL Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/240/1890-06-16-The-Author-1-2.pdf 0e782e419ce1e0f01bbad5fa958b897c PDF Text Text ������������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-06-16 Volume 1 Issue 2 Pages Page range in volume 25–58 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900616 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. 1.—No. 2.) JUNE 16, 1890 [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Society be ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. 24 (#42) ############################################## The Society of Authors (Incorporated). PRESIDENT. The RIGHT HON. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I. ROBERT BATEMAN. Walter BESANT. Rev. PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S. J. COMYNS CARR. EDWARD CLODD. THE EARL OF DESART. A. W. DUBOURG. PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D. EDMUND GOSSE, H. RIDER HAGGARD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. COUNCIL. Rev. W. J. LOFTIË, F.S.A. George MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. J. C. PARKINSON." THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D. WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. George AUGUSTUS SALA. W. BAPTISTE' Scoones. J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. SULLY. William MoY THOMAS. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Auditor—Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman-Walter BESANT. 1. H. Rider HAGGARD. I J. M. Lely. ROBERT BATEMAN. EDMUND Gosse. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.  ## p. 24 (#43) ############################################## (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 2.] JUNE 16, 1890. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. News and Notes "Thou shah not Steal," by Wilkie Collins The Troubles of a Beginner "Cursed Coincidences" The Exchange of Books Leaflet No". II.—On Royalties Royal Literary Fund A Hard Case, No. II PACE ... 35 ... 31 - 35 ... 37 - 37 ... 38 - 39 ... 41 The Chestnut Bell "The Art of Authorship" ... Notes Literary Puzzles Questions, Cases, and Answers At Work New Books and New Editions Advertisements **AOE . . 42 ... 44 ... 47 ... 49 ... 50 ... 52 ... 54 ... 56 NEWS AND NOTES. AMONG other suggestions received from readers some have been sent anony- mously. I thought it was unnecessary to warn correspondents that no notice can be taken of unsigned communications. As, however, the warning has to be made, I hope that this note will be sufficient. It was stated in our last number that we proposed inviting the First Lord of the Treasury to receive a deputation on the Administration of the Civil List Pension. A memorial was prepared and sent with the letter. The following is the reply of the Right Hon. W. H. Smith. The memorial will be published in our next number with a lew obser- vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr. Smith's letter in especial:— Downing Street, June 6th, 1890. Dear Sir, Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward- ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him to receive a deputation on the subject. Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements and suggestions placed before him, and he need not say that he would be glad to receive such a vol. 1. deputation if any useful purpose could be served thereby; but he fears that there is some misappre- hension as to the power of the First Lord of the Treasury in regard to the Fund. The administration is governed strictly by Act of Parliament, and the intervention of the First Lord is limited to that discretion which must in such cases finally rest with some one responsible minister; his decisions, although not subject to the review of Parliament, are by Act yearly brought under the cognisance of both Houses and of the public, by the annual return of all pensions granted within the year. To make such changes as the memorial suggests would necessitate a new Act of Parliament, and Mr. Smith does not think that there has been any such expression of dissatisfaction either in the House or outside of it as would justify the proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum annually set apart for the Pension List. Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct, show that the practical administration of the Fund is almost identical with the distribution proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to the services rendered to the Sovereign and under the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature, and Art. With this explanation, and looking also to the extreme pressure of engagements on his time, c  ## p. 24 (#44) ############################################## Zhe Society of Hutbors (Jncorporateb), PRESIDENT. The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. COUNCIL. Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. George Meredith. Herman C. Merivale. T. C. Parkinson. The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D. Walter Herries Pollock. A. G. Ross. George Augustus Sala. W. Baptiste' Scoones. J. J. Stevenson. Jas. Sully. William Moy Thomas. H. D. Traill, D.C.L. Bon. Con/isei—'E. M. Underdown, Q.C. Auditor—Ret. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Chairman—Walter Besani Robert Batbman. H. Rider Haggard. Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe. & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge. OFFICES. 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I. Robert Bateman. Walter Besant. Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S. J. Comyns Carr. Edward Clodd. The Earl of Desart. A. W. Dubourg. Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S. Herbert Gardner, M. P. Richard Garnett, LL.D. Edmund Gosse. H. Rider Haggard. Thomas Hardy. Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. Sir Frederick Pollock. A. G. Ross.  ## p. 25 (#45) ############################################## (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. 2.] JUNE 16, 1890. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. News and Notes "Thou shall not Steal," by Wilkie Collins The Troubles of a Beginner "Cursed Coincidences" The Exchange of Books Leaflet No~ II.—On Royalties Royal Literary Fund AHardCase.No.il I ACE ... 25 ... 31 ••■ 35 ... 37 ■•• 37 ... 38 ... 39 ... 41 The Chestnut Bell "The Art of Authorship" ... Notes Literary Puzzles Questions, Cases, and Answers At Work New Books and New Editions Advertisements PAGE • • 42 ... 44 ... 47 ... 49 ... 50 ... 52 ••■ 54 ... 56 A copy of this paper will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d. including postage, to be sent to the Society, 4, Portugal Street, W.C. 111C XVIglJl HUH. »». 11. OllllLU. inv. uuuuuu. ..... be published in our next number with a few obser- vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr. Smith's letter in especial:— Downing Street, June 6th, 1890. Dear Sir, Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward- ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him to receive a deputation on the subject. Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements and suggestions placed before him, and he need not say that he would be glad to receive such a vol. 1. nOUSC Or UUIS1UC VI 11 tu mmu jUu...; proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum annually set apart for the Pension List. Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct, show that the practical administration of the Fund is almost identical with the distribution proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to the services rendered to the Sovereign and under the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature, and Art. With this explanation, and looking also to the extreme pressure of engagements on his time,  ## p. 26 (#46) ############################################## 26 THE AUTHOR. Mr. Smith hopes that the gentlemen represented in the memorial will not feel it necessary to seek for a personal interview. I remain, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, S. S. Sprigge, Esq. C. Maude. It is pleasant to find that one's efforts are appreciated by all the persons concerned. I am therefore glad to report that The Author has received a cordial welcome from the Publisher's Circular. It has also received the kind of criticism which somewhat cools the cordiality. Let us re- peat, therefore, one point on which we have always insisted and which those who profess to write in the trade interest always try to evade or else boldly deny, viz., that there is very little speculation or risk in modern publishing. However, since the Publisher's Circular declares that the Society has their "most hearty sympathy" in asking for "just and honest treatment, fair and open agreements, and honourable observance of those agreements," we will not find fault with these criticisms, and we shall look for the practical co-operation of the Publisher's Circular, especially in our determination to show authors what, in their agreements, they concede to publishers and what they keep to them- selves. I am happy to report that The Author has met with a very satisfactory reception from all quarters. The "literary ladies " met at dinner on the 30th of May at the Criterion. The chair was occupied by Mrs. L. T. Meade, who was supported by Miss Mabel Collins, Mrs. Pennell, Miss Corkran, and Mrs. Grahame R. Tomson. Letters of apology for non-attendance were read from Lady Colin Campbell, Miss Jessie Fothergill, Mrs. Crawford, Miss Sarah Tytler, and Mrs. Leith Adams. Let us hope that a pleasant evening was the result. We shall be very glad to see the literary ladies side by side with the literary men at our own dinner next month. And I, for one, have no doubt as to which will prove the pleasanter function. Literature, like the world itself, is of both sexes, and therefore happiest when fully represented. The fusion of the two old publishing firms of Longman and Rivington, or rather the absorption of the latter by the former, destroys one of the few remaining old publishing firms. The history of Literature in all ages is that of the publication of new works, if only for the simple reason that authors must work to live, and that if men are not forced to work they will for the most part produce nothing. The history of Literature in the eighteenth century is very closely bound up with the two houses of Longman and Rivington. If it were written, which never has been done, we should learn howtheliterary public—the people who read and look for new books, and buy them—gradually increased during this century, until by its close publishing was no longer a speculative and uncertain business conducted in ignorance by persons who had small means of judging the state of the market, who bought MSS. for so many guineas apiece, losing largely by one work, and doing pretty well by another. By the end of the eighteenth century the reign of the Book Clubs had already well set in; these were literary centres in provincial towns, such as Norwich and Birmingham; the clergy were scholars and students; a publisher knew where he could "place" a certain number of every good book; and a great change had come over the whole art and mystery of publishing books. Prac- tically, "Risk," that good old Bogey whose demise is still so persistently denied, had already vanished. ♦ There appeared lately in the New York Tribune a communication signed by the well-known letters, G. W. S., which, beginning with the relations of bookseller to publisher, passed on to the questions in which we ourselves are mainly interested. It is this portion of the letter which we reproduce, sup- pressing the name referred to, as it has nothing to do with the argument. "It is A. B. who, among others, makes himself responsible for the statement that it is rapidly becoming impossible for a bookseller, pure and simple, dealing in current literature, to make a living profit from his business. No doubt A. B. is right, if the publisher's view of what constitutes a 'living profit' is to prevail. A. B. is a partner in a very eminent publishing house, and anything he says on the publishing or selling of books deserves attention. He has written a long letter about bookselling to a trade organ, and expresses some sympathy with the booksellers in their present difficulties. Before we proceed with that, might I suggest to A. B. that some of his sympathies might be bestowed on another person concerned in the book business, the author? If the figures I have given above are correct, the seller of books, even in his present wretched estate, makes a profit of 30 per cent. Will A. B. be so kind as to tell us in what proportion the profits on a successful book are distributed between author and publisher? Does the author make a ' living profit' on what is commonly the only capital he possesses, his  ## p. 27 (#47) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 27 brains? Let us take an imaginary case. We will suppose that an eminent firm publishes a book, say, of reminiscences in two handsome volumes at $7.50, and that, notwithstanding the high price, the public buys four editions of it. That, surely, is a successful book, and one that ought to pay everybody concerned a living profit, and perhaps something more. Does A. B. think he could find out what share of the proceeds the author received and how much the publisher kept for himself, and, if he could, will he let us know? "A private transaction? Oh, no, A. B., that is one of several mistakes into which you publishers occasionally fall. It is a matter of very considerable public interest. It concerns the community deeply that literature should be encouraged, and should be profitable to the producer of it. The patron on whom the author once in some measure depended has disappeared. The publisher has taken his place. He is, or ought to be, the Maecenas of the nineteenth century. But if Johnson were living now, do you think he would soften the terrible lines which he wrote under the sting of Lord Chesterfield's neglect? 'There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,— Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail.' "To substitute publisher for patron would spoil the metre. Would it much affect the sense? The publisher is a man of business, the author is not, or seldom is. Do you think publishers have always borne that in mind? They have drawn their own contracts. Have the interests of the author or of the publisher been most carefully considered in those printed forms, filled up ac- cording to circumstances which are presented to the author, all unacquainted as he is with affairs, for him to sign? "Do not imagine, my dear A. B., that I address these questions to you because I mean to imply that you personally do not conduct your business on the most honourable principles. I am per- suaded that you do. But I apprehend you would admit, or perhaps even assert, that among your many rivals in the business of publishing books are to be found some whose treatment of authors is less considerate than your own. I will not say, and perhaps you would not, that any of them are dis- honest. I prefer to use a word which was a favourite with Matthew Arnold, and to suggest that in their dealings with the authors on whose productions their own prosperity depends, some of them are sometimes indelicate. You would not, I think, refuse to go as far as that. You would say, no doubt, there are publishers and publishers, and that not every firm is so scrupulous in its trans- actions or so high-minded as your own. "If they were, how would you explain, for ex- ample, the existence of the Incorporated Society of Authors, and what construction would you put upon some of its recent proceedings? Some of the most respected and popular authors of the day are members of that Society. They have an executive committee, and that committee go so far as to declare that there are firms of so-called publishers which exist solely by robbery and cheating. Surely you, and all other publishers of high character and repute, must desire to dissociate yourselves as widely as possible from the scoundrels who profess to carry on the same business that you do. You would agree with the committee, would you not, in their urgent re- commendation that authors should send their agreements with publishers for examination by the Society before signing? If there were clauses in those agreements injurious to the author, he would be warned not to sign. If there were none, no harm would be done. You would heartily dis- approve, I am sure, every attempt to induce an unwary writer to bind himself not to publish in future with any other house than that which was then to issue a particular book—an attempt which Mr. Besant calls monstrous and indecent. You would, if the Society called upon you for advice, strike out that agreed statement of the cost of production which the less delicate publisher some- times inserts; and is sometimes careless enough to exaggerate. You would not justify for a moment the refusal of a publisher to submit his books to examination, in order that his statement of the expenses of publication, of the number of copies printed and sold, and other such interesting and vital particulars, might undergo an indepen- dent audit. You will rejoice in the appearance of that little treatise on 'The Cost of Production,' and that other now preparing on 'The Different Methods of Publishing'; including, I think, the Half-Profit System, and probably pointing out the method by which the indelicate publisher charges the author full price for advertisements which cost the publishers nothing, and omits to deduct the discount he obtains on the nominal prices of paper, printing and other important items. Mr. Besant, less scrupulous in his choice of words than our lamented friend Arnold, talks of frauds. You would join him in exposing and repressing and preventing them. In short, you and the Incor- porated Society of Authors have so many aims and interests in common that you will perhaps permit me to wonder that you are not already a member of it. For the one person to whom it is of the utmost consequence that the business of publishing should be freed from all stains and all suspicion is the publisher." vol.. 1. c 2  ## p. 28 (#48) ############################################## 28 THE A UTHOR. The death of Mr. Fletcher Harper, the senior of the second generation of the brothers, removes another of the American firm which first began to recognize the right of English authors. Perhaps the child is already born in the United States who will, before he finally droops his snow-white head, see a tardy justice sullenly granted. But we must not hold out illusive hopes. The great American public from whom are taken the members of Congress are not exactly composed of gentlemen, nor are they in their public, any more than their private acts, guided by the delicate sense of honour for which we ourselves still try to retain a traditional reverence. In fact we are too apt to suppose that the cultivated, well-bred American cousin we meet here is a specimen—perhaps a little favourable— of the ordinary citizen of that big Republic which will perhaps some day be great as well as big. The attitude taken by the American editors and authors alike on the Copyright Question is every- thing that can be desired, or, indeed, expected of a body of gentlemen. It must not be thought, there- fore, that in publishing Wilkie Collins's views we are in the least reflecting upon our American con- jrlres. One of them writes, "The Copyright Bill was defeated by ignorance misled by greed, but we hope to retrieve our reputation soon. Everybody is hard at work to this end." Wilkie Collins says nothing so severe. Here is a practical suggestion. Some time ago we poor English had to pay, justly or unjustly, ^3,000,000 for the Alabama claims. The claims did not amount to half that money. Suppose the Government of the U.S.A. were to hand over the difference to British authors. The moral effect in the States of such an act of reparation would be enormous, while its material effect in this country would be, to say the least, extremely beneficial to a hard-working and deserving set of men and women. This is what Mr. Lowell says :—" I have had too long experience of the providential thickness of the human skull, as well as of the eventual success of all reasonable reforms, to be discouraged by the temporary defeat of any measure which I believe to be sound. I am too old to be persuaded by any appearances, however specious, that truth has lost or can lose that divine quality which gives her immortal advantage over error. Foreign right to property in books stands precisely on the same footing as Ameri- can home right, and the moral wrong of stealing either is equally great. But literary property is at a disadvantage, because, as the appropriation is not open, gross, and palpable, it is not regarded as wrongful. It touches the public conscience more faintly. In ordinary cases it is the thief, but in this case the thing stolen, that is invisible. To steal is no doubt more immediately profitable than acquisition by the more tedious methods of honesty, but it is nevertheless apt to prove costlier in the long run. How costly our own experiments in larceny have been, only those know who have studied the rise and progress of our literature, which has been forced to grow as virtue is said to do, in spite of weight laid upon it. But, even if this particular form of dishonesty against which we are contending, were always and everywhere com- mercially profitable, I think the American people are so honest that they may be made to see that profit which is allowed to be legitimate by us alone among all civilised nations, profit, too, which goes wholly into the pockets of a few unscrupulous men, must have something queer about it, something which even a country so rich as ours cannot afford. I have lived to see more than one successful appeal from the unreason of the people's representatives to the reason of the people themselves. I am there- fore not to be tired with waiting. It is wearisome to ourselves and to others to go on repeating arguments which we have been using these forty years, and which to us seem so self-evident, but I think it is true that no reformer has ever gained his end who has not first made himself an intoler- able bore to the vast majority of his kind." Out of the fine chorus of indignation which has ascended from the better class of American papers unto the heavens like incense, and, like that fragrant smoke, probably of small practical use, I extract the following from "America," a Chicago paper of great promise. "The International Copyright Bill has been slaughtered in the House by protectionists after almost all the authors' interests in it had been sacrificed to the manufacturers and mechanics in order to get protectionist votes for the bill. There was very little protection for authors in the bill, and a great deal of protection for publishers and paper-makers and type-setters, and then the bill was knifed by the statesmen who have great respect for manual labourers, who are numerous on election day, and none for authors, whose vote is not a political factor. We Americans look well, do we not, rejecting an International Copyright Law for fear that it would make books dear; that is, after paying for the paper and the type-setting, we flatly refuse to pay anything additional for the author. Our statesmen oppose the bill because they want cheap books for the people. By all means then, let us steal the books as well as the learning, or the imagination contained therein. Let us repeal the law against horse stealing, and we may all ride.  ## p. 29 (#49) ############################################## THE A UTHOR. 29 This objection to the International Copyright Bill, that under it book purchasers would have to pay the foreign author of the book something, is the most shameful proposition I have happened to hear in Congress. The interest of the American author is perfectly plain; if the American publisher can get English copy for nothing, he will be propor- tionately unwilling to buy a copy of an American author. The Congress that proposes to pass the McKinley bill for the additional protection of American manual labour, refuses to pass the In- ternational Copyright Bill for the protection of American intellectual labour. It is easy to see what kind of labour we value most highly." How it strikes the American author, again, is set forth by Mr. J. D. Gilden, in "The Critic." Says Pirate A. to Victim B. :— "You've got no reason to complain; Just see how popular you be; Your books is read from Tex. to Maine. "Were not the foreign stuff ' free grat.' I'd buy some native fellow's wares; Just paste that 'memo.' in your hat, And don't go puttin' on such airs." "Aye, true enough my books are read,— No doubt your imprint makes them sell; But if on air I must be fed, Why won't that fare serve you as well? "Henceforth we both will write for fame,— I write, you publish, free of charge; Whatever type proclaims my name, Yours shall be printed just as large. "Should profits by some chance accrue, Deed them forthwith to charity: I'm rich, of course; and as for you, What's wealth to popularity?" How the present question struck Wilkie Collins is pretty well known. The paper printed in this number by him was recovered by accident, and is here published by permission of his literary executor. Mr. Edwin Waugh, the poet, is dead. With him dies a pension on the Civil List. It has been pro- posed to the First Lord of the Treasury that he should transfer this pension to Mr. Ben. Brierly, the well-known Lancashire writer. Mr. W. H. Smith cannot transfer a pension which dies with its recipient. He will, however, consider Mr. Brierly's claims. The centenary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund took place on May 14th, the Prince of Wales being in the chair. This venerable Society was founded, and still exists, for the purpose of granting doles to distressed authors. It administers a good deal of money in this way every year. It is sad that there should be distressed literary men and it is very good indeed that there should be a fund for their relief. The Prince of Wales, in an excellent speech, dwelt largely on the precarious nature of the literary calling. The occupation of the literary man, he said, is uncertain; his remuneration is not high. There is no flow of promotion for literary- men. All this is true indeed; it is said every year at the dinner; never once has it been asked by the Council of this Society why this remuneration of the literary man is so small—why his calling is so uncertain. Well: it is small and uncertain because there is no rule arrived at as to the share which he should justly take in the proceeds of his own labours. When that rule is airived at and put into practice the labours of the Royal Literary Fund will be con- fined to the relief of the distressed incompetent. It may be asked why our Society does not at once lay down this Golden Rule; well, there are two reasons, of which the first should be enough, viz., (1) that the Society has not yet arrived at the Golden Rule, though it is getting nearer, and (2) that there is no use in laying it down until public opinion is riper. It is a rule well known in legislation that to make laws before the people are ready for them, unless you can carry them out in spite of popular resistance and apathy, is not good government. Let us go on a little longer teaching people the reality of literary property and its sacredness. Let us go on a little longer hammering into the heads of authors their folly and madness in signing agree- ments by which they ignorantly give themselves away and go into slavery. We shall then have a better chance with our Golden Rule. ♦ Mr. John Morley, who always speaks" well on literature, made a very curious slip the other day. He stated that there are not fifty or even twenty men and women who live by authorship. Why, by the writing of novels alone there are at least fifty who make over a thousand a year, let alone a vast number, especially ladies, who live on incomes of a hundred or two made by authorship. As for this great mass we may find at an early opportunity some- thing profitable as well as interesting to say about them and their incomes and their methods of work. I have written a small pamphlet for the Publi- cation Committee of the Society for the Promotion  ## p. 30 (#50) ############################################## 3° THE AUTHOR. of Christian Knowledge. My intention has been to point out to this body, first, certain elementary laws which govern literary property and its ad- ministration, &c, and next, to set forth certain cases which illustrate their own administration of the literary property in their hand. Lastly, I have invited them to draw their own conclusions for themselves as to their own methods. There is no desire to make any money by this pamphlet—■ which is published by Mr. Henry Glaisher in the Strand—and if any member of this Society would like a copy I will send him one on the simple con- dition that he undertakes to read it and to pass it on to some person interested in the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The following explains itself. The ingenious Rand, M'Nally and Company, of Chicago and New York, have added a new terror to literary men. Not only do they steal their works but they alter and mutilate and ruin them. The idea will doubt- less be copied and widely adopted in Pirate-land. In a few years, probably, there will be two Rider Haggards in the field, one of Great Britain and the other of that other country, totally unlike each other and of literary reputation entirely different. Let us have patience. "Gentlemen, June $rd, 1890. "A pirated edition of my novel ' Beatrice' has been forwarded to me, bearing your names as its publishers. I find, on lookng through it, that the book has been hacked and hewed till it bears about as much resemblance to the work which left my hand as an oaked felled and barked does to the same tree in leaf. "Thus, to take one or two examples among many which offer:—Chapter 18 has been reduced to little more than three pages, and from chapters 25 and 26 some 16 pages have been omitted bodily. Nor is this all; another chapter has been mis- named, and in one place, at least, your editor, or, judging from the style, perhaps I should hazard, your compositor, has tried his hand at improving my text —has printed under my name words which I never wrote. In short, the story is turned into a string of disjointed situations, its life, spirit, and meaning are gone, all of which is done without warning to the reader, and, I need hardly add, without reference to the author. "At first I believed that these evils must have been wrought maliciously, perhaps to save expense in the printer's bill, but reflection shows me that it cannot be. Of course, when the Legislature of your country, alone among those of civilized nations, has hoisted the black flag, not merely by tolerating an established custom but publicly and after full debate—thereby declaring the labour of foreign writers to be the spoil of any who wish to profit by it—it would be Quixotic of you to refuse to sail beneath that flag. But I feel convinced that your native courtesy and kindness would prevent you knowingly from treating an author as I have been treated in this instance. You would remember that in America almost the only good left to an English writer is his chance of a literary reputation, and this, at least, you would strive to protect in every way as some small return for the amusement he affords your readers and the money which he earns for you. Certainly, therefore, you would not send his work willingly from your press in such a questionable shape, and thus expose him to the contempt of critics and the wonder of your reading public. "This being so, I have to ask, I am sure not in vain, that for the sake of your own fair name, as much as for the sake of mine, you will withdraw from circulation the pages of printed matter which are being passed off, no doubt unwittingly, by you among the American public as a reprint of my novel 'Beatrice,' and that you will give this letter of repudiation every publicity in your power. Awaiting the favour of a reply, "I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, "H. Rider Haggard. "To Messrs. Rand, M'Nally, &■> Co., Publishers, "Chicago and New York." Coincidences (see p. 37) are interesting. Here is one sent me by a correspondent from the North. The editor of a certain paper lately received the scenario of a story submitted tor his approbation. He liked it, and commissioned the author to write it for him. The day after he received the same story, that is, the same plot and the same set of characters distributed in the same way, from another correspondent writing from a different part of England. Therefore one of two things. Either two minds were at the same moment pursuing the same imaginary series of events, or two minds were at the same time cribbing from the same source. One would like to read the scenario. Perhaps it was only a commonplace plot such as one may read in any penny novelette. There is another ex- planation possible. One lady at least there is among us who adds to her income by the sale of plots for stories. There may be more than one plot inventor among us, and he—or she—may have sold the same plot twice over, a thing which has happened once or twice in the buying and selling of sermons. The Editor.  ## p. 31 (#51) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 3i "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL:" Considerations on the Copyright Question. Addressed to an American friend by WILKIE COLLINS. YOU were taking leave of me the other day, Colonel, when I received from the United States a copy of a pirated edition of one of my books. I threw it into the waste-paper basket with an expression of opinion which a little startled you. As we shook hands at parting, you said, "When you are cool, my friend, I should like to be made acquainted with your sentiments on the copyright question." I am cool now, and here are my sentiments. I shall ask permission to begin by looking back to the early history of your own family. The fact is, that I wish to interest you personally in the otherwise unattractive subject on which I am about to write. I. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, one of your ancestors, voyaging with the illustrious Hendrick Hudson, got leave of absence from the ship and took a walk on Manhattan Island, in the days before the Dutch settlement. He was pos- sessed, as I have heard you say, of great ability in the mechanical arts. Among the articles of per- sonal property which he had about him was a handsome watch, made by himself, and containing special improvements of his own invention. The good man sat down to rest and look about him at a pleasant and pastoral spot—now occu- pied, it may be interesting to you to know, by a publishing house in the city of New York. Having thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze and the bright view, he took out his watch to see how the time was passing. At the same moment, an Iroquois chief—whose name has, I regret to say, escaped my memory— passed that way, accompanied by a suitable train of followers. He observed the hand- some watch; snatched it out of the stranger's hand; and, then and there, put it into the Indian substitute for a pocket—the name of which, after repeated efforts, I find myself unable to spell. Your ancestor, a man of exemplary presence of mind, counted the number of the chiefs fol- lowers; perceived that resistance on his single part would be a wilful casting away of his own valuable life; and wisely decided on trying the effect of calm remonstrance. "Why do you take my watch away from me, sir?" he asked. The Indian answered with dignity, "Because I want it." "May I ask why you want it?" The Indian checked off his reasons on his fin- gers. "First, because I am not able to make such a watch as yours. Secondly, because your watch is an article likely to be sufficiently popular among the Indians to be worth . . Thirdly, because the popularity of the watch will enable me to sell it with considerable advantage to myself. Is my white brother satisfied?" Your ancestor said that he was not satisfied. "The thing you have taken from me," he said, "is the product of my own invention and my own handiwork. It is my watch." The Indian touched his substitute for a pocket. "Pardon me," he replied, "it is mine." Your ancestor began to lose his temper; he reiterated his assertion. "I say my watch is my lawful property." The noble savage reasoned with him. "Possibly your watch is protected in your country," he said. "It is not protected in mine." "And therefore you steal it?" "And therefore I steal it." "On what moral grounds, sir, can you defend an act of theft?" The chief smiled. "I defend it on practical grounds. There is no watch-right treaty, sir, be- tween my country and yours." "And on that account you are not ashamed to steal my watch?" "On that account I am not ashamed to steal your watch. Good morning!" The prototypes of modern persons have existed in past ages. The Indian chief was the first American publisher. Your ancestor was the parent of the whole European family of modern authors. II. You and I, Colonel, are resolved to look this copyright question fairly in the face. Suppose we look at it from the historical point of view to begin with. The Dutch emigrants settled on Manhattan Island about two hundred and fifty years ago. They might have pirated the Island on the ground that it was not protected by treaty. But they were loth to commit an act of theft; they asked the Indians to mention their price. The Indians men- tioned twenty-four dollars. The noble Dutchmen paid, and a very good price, too, for a bit of un- cultivated ground, with permission to move your "Wigwam" to the neighbouring Continent. In due course of time arose the Dutch City of New Amsterdam. Civilization made its appear- ance on Manhattan Island; and with civilization  ## p. 32 (#52) ############################################## 32 THE AUTHOR. came Law. Acting as the agent of Justice, Law- protected property. In those days of moral im- provement, if an Indian stole a Dutchman's watch, he committed an offence, and he was punished ac- cordingly—for, observe, a watch was now property. Later dates brought their changes with them. The English forced themselves into the Dutch- men's places. New Amsterdam became New York. As time went on, a foolish English King, and a tyrannical Government were deservedly beaten on a trial of strength with the descendants of the first English settlers. The Republic of the United States started on its great career. With peace came the arts of peace. The American author rose benignly on the national horizon. And what did the American Government do? The American Government, having all other property duly protected, bethought itself of the claims of Literature; and, looking towards old Europe, saw that the work of a man's brains, pro- duced in the form of a book, had been at last recognised as that man's property. by the Law. Congress followed this civilised example, and re- cognised and protected the published work of an American citizen as that citizen's property. Having thus provided for the literary interests of its own people within its own geographical limits, Congress definitely turned its back on all further copyright proceedings in the Old World. After a certain lapse of time, the three greatest nations on the Continent of Europe, France, Ger- many, and Italy, agreed with England that an act of justice to Literature still remained to be done. Treaties of international copyright were accord- ingly exchanged between these States. An author's right of property in his work was thus recognised in other countries than his own. It was legally forbidden to a foreign bookseller to republish his work for foreign circulation without his permission; for the plain and unanswerable reason that his work belonged, in the first place, to him and to no other person. With this honourable example set before it by other Governments, what has the United States done? Nothing! To this day it refuses to the literary property of other people the protection which it gives to the literary property of its own people. To this day the President and Congress of America remain content to contemplate the habitual perpetration, by American citizens, of the act of theft. III. Having now done with our historical survey—in plainer words, having now got our facts—we may conveniently confront the grave question :—Why does the Government of the United States refuse to foreign writers the copyright in their works which it concedes to the works of its own citizens? Colonel, when honest men perceive an act of justice to be done, and determine really to do it, there are never any insuperable difficulties in the way. On the plain merits of the case—work that if you please, you will see why—there are no more difficulties in the way of international copyright between England and America than between England and France, England and Germany, England and Italy. The cases run on parallel lines; the necessity of foreign translation, in the European case, being an accidental circumstance which adds to the expense of publishing the book, and nothing more. My work is republished in America in English, and republished in French. Whatever difference there may be in the language of the republication, the fact of the republication remains the same fact in both instances. 1 am very careful to put this plainly; there must be some clear ground to stand on before I can attempt to clear away the extraordinary accumu- lation of delusions under which the unfortunate question of copyright has been suffering in recent years. If you see any difficulty in accepting my statement of the case thus far, let us revert to first principles, and ask ourselves—What is the object to be obtained by the thing called International Copyright? In answering this question I will put it person- ally for the greater facility of illustration. The object of International Copyright is to give me, by law (on considerations with which it is possible for me to comply), the same right of control over my book in a foreign country, which the law gives me in my own country. In Europe, this is exactly what we have done. When I publish my book in London, I enter it at Stationers' Hall, and register it as my property— and my book is mine in Great Britain. When I publish my book in Paris, I register it by the per- formance of similar formalities—and again my book is mine in France. In both cases my publisher (English or French) is chosen at my own free will. His position towards me is the position of a person who takes the business of publishing and registering off my hands, in consideration of a bargain pre- viously made between us—the essence of which bargain is, that the book is my property, and that my written permission is necessary before he can obtain his right to publish the book, and his ex- clusive claim (for a greater or lesser period of time) to the privilege of selling it. Why can I not do the same thing in the free Republic of the United States?  ## p. 33 (#53) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. do IV. Here the Colonel lays down my letter for a while, and looks bewildered. "The copyright difficulty, as stated by Mr. Wilkie Collins," he says, "appears to be no diffi- culty at all. What am I to think of the multitu- dinous objections from the American point of view, raised in leading articles, pamphlets, speeches, and so forth?" My good friend, a word in your ear. The American objections (I say it with all due respect for the objections) are, one and all, Ameri- can delusions. The main object of this letter is, if possible, to blow these delusions away. I promise not to be long about it, and to keep my temper—though I have lost some thousands of pounds by American pirates. Let us begin with the delusion—the most extra- ordinary in the whole list—that the American people have something to do with the question of International Copyright. An American citizen sees a reprinted English book in a shop window, or has it pitched into his lap by a boy in a railway train, or hears from a friend that it is well worth reading. He buys the book, and reads it—and, as I can gratefully testify from my own personal experience, he feels, in the great majority of cases, a sincere respect for litera- ture and a hearty gratitude to the writer who has instructed or interested him, which is one among the many honourable distinctions of the national character. When he has done all this, what in Heaven's name has author, publisher, orator, or leading-article writer any further right to expect from him? When I have paid for my place at the theatre, and added my little tribute of applause in honour of the play and the actors, have I not done my duty as one of the audience? Am I expected to insist on knowing whether the author's rights have been honestly recognised by the mana- ger, and the players' salaries regularly paid without reductions once a week? It is simply ridiculous to mention the American people in connection with the settlement of the copyright question. The entire responsibility of honourably settling the question in my country rests with the Legislature. In the United States the President and Congress are the guardians and representatives of American honour. It is they, and not the people, who are to blame for the state which book-stealing has set on the American name. Ixt us get on to another delusion which has amused us in England. We are gravely informed that the United States is the paradise of cheap literature, and that In- ternational Copyright would raise the price of American books to the inordinately high level of the English market. Our circulating Library system is cited as a proof of the truth of this assertion. There can be no two opinions on the absurdity of that system—but, such as it is, let us, at least, have it fairly understood. When a novel, for example, is published at the preposterous price of a guinea and a half, nobody pays that price. A de- duction of one-third at least is made. An individual speculator buys the book, and lends it to the public. Even this man, as an annual subscription, demands the nominal price originally asked for the book (a guinea and a half), and he will send you at least three novels a week, for a whole year. If this is not cheap reading, what is? But you will say the public may want to buy some of the best of these novels. Very well. Within a year from the date of its first issue, the book is republished at five or six shillings (a dollar and a half); and is again republished at two shillings (fifty cents). Setting the case of stolen literary property out of the question, are these not correct American prices? But why should the purchaser be made to wait till the book can be sold at a reasonable price? I admit the absurdity of making him wait. But is that absurdity likely, under any conceivable circumstances, to be copied in America? In England the circulating library is one of our old institutions which dies very slowly. In America it is no institution at all. Is it within the limits of probability that one of your citizens should prefer lending a novel to a few hundred subscribers, when he can sell it to purchasers by the thousand? It is a waste of words to ask the question. The one thing needful, so far as works of fiction are concerned, is to shew you that our popular price for a novel is the American popular price. Look at the catalogue of " Harper's Library of American Fiction," and you will find that the prices range from two to three shillings—fifty to seventy per cent. Turning to literature in general let us consult Messrs. Harper again. I am away from home while I write, and I have no means of quoting from a more recent catalogue than the summer list of 1878. However, the prices of less than two years ago in New York cannot be obsolete prices yet. Here are some specimens :— "The Atlantic Islands." Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth. $3 (twelve shillings). "Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1877." Large i2mo. Cloth. 82 (eight shillings). "The Student's French Grammar." i2mo. Cloth. $1.40 (say five shillings and six- pence).  ## p. 34 (#54) ############################################## 34 THE AUTHOR. "Art Education applied to Industry." Illus- trated. 8vo. Cloth gilt. (Sixteen shillings.) "Harper's Travellers' Handbooks for Europe and the East. $3 per volume (twelve shillings). I am quite ready to believe that every one of these books is well worth the price asked for it. But don't tell me that American books are always cheap books, and let it at least be admitted that English publishers are not the only publishers who charge a remunerative price for a valuable work, which has proved a costly work to produce and which is not always likely to command a large circu- lation. To sum it up, literature which addresses all classes of the population is as cheap in England as it is in America. Literature which addresses special classes only will on that very account always be published at special prices (with or without inter- national copyright) on both sides of the Atlantic. V. I must not try your patience too severely, Colonel. Let me leave unnoticed some of the minor misunderstandings which obscure the American view of the copyright case, and let me occupy the closing lines of this letter with a really mischievous delusion. Just consider what this extra- ordinary delusion really amounts to. "We don't deny (the American publishers say) that you English authors have a moral right of property in your books, which we are quite ready to make a legal right, on conditions that we are to dictate the use which you make in America of your own property. If we confer on you international copy- right, we see with horror a future day when English publishers and English printers may start in business under our very noses, and we will only give you your due, with the one little drawback that we prohibit you to employ your countrymen to pub- lish your books in our country. Our respect for justice is only matched by our respect for our purses. Hurrah for honourable dealings with the British author—so long as there is no fear of a decrease in the balance at our bankers! Down with the British author, and away with the national honour if there is the slightest danger of the almighty dollar finding its way into other pockets than ours!" Am I exaggerating? Let two of the American publishers speak for themselves. Hear Messrs. Harper Brothers first. After reciting the general conditions on which they pro- pose to grant us copyright in the United States, they proceed as follows :—" And provided further, that within six months after registration of title the work shall have been manufactured and published in the country, and by a subject or citizen of the country in which such registration has been made." Mr. \V. H. Appleton, writing to the Ixmdon Times (in a curiously aggressive tone), expresses himself more plainly. "Our people," he says, evidently meaning our printers and publishers, "would rejoice to open this vast opportunity of your intellectual labours . . . But they hold them- selves perfectly competent to manufacture the books that shall embody your authors' thoughts, in accordance with their own needs, habits, and tastes, and in this they will not be interfered with." (Extracted from Messrs. Harper Brothers pamphlet, "New York, March 17th, 1879.") To argue the question with men who are of this way of thinking would be merely to waste your time and mine. It we are ever to have international copyright between the two countries we must have the same unreserved recognition of a moral right, the same ungrudging submission to the law of honour, which has produced the treaties exchanged between the European Powers. In this respect England has set the example to the United States. And, let me add, England has no fear of compe- tition. I have put the question myself to eminent London publishers ; they have no idea of intruding their trade interests into a gTeat question of national justice. They are ready to welcome wholesale competition in an open market. If they set up branch establishments in New York, the American publishers shall be free to follow their example in London. What does Mr. Marston (of the London firm of Sampson Low, Marston and Co.) say on this subject, in his letter to The Times, published May 12th, 1879 ?— "As a publisher, I trust I shall l>e absolved from the charge of advocating trade interests, when I express my strong conviction that the only Convention between the two countries which can possibly bear the test of time, must be one based upon the original and inherent rights of property! Let registration in Washington and London, within a month or two months of first publication in either country, convey respectively to English and American authors the same right in each other's country as in their own, and one's sense of justice will be satisfied. . . . Such restrictions as those proposed by American publishers exist in no other Conven- tions; they arise out of a most unfounded and unnecessary fear of competition by English publishers!" There is the opinion of one member of the representative of the trade. I could produce similar opinions from other members, but I must not needlessly lengthen my letter. Hear, instead, an American citizen who agrees with Mr. Marston, and with me. Let Mr. George Haven Putnam speak—delivering an address on International Copyright in New York, on the 29th of January, 1879:- "I believe that in the course of time the general  ## p. 35 (#55) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 35 laws of trade would and ought to so regulate the arrangements for supplying the American public with books that, if there were no restriction as to volumes, the author would select the publishing agent, English or American, who could serve him to best advantage, and that agent would be found to be the man who would prepare for the largest possible circle of American readers the editions best suited to their wants ... If English pub- lishers settling here could excel our American houses in this understanding and in these facilities they ought to be at liberty to do so, and it would be for the interest of the public that no hindrance should be placed in their way." I have now, I hope, satisfied you that I do not stand quite alone in my way of thinking. If you make inquiries you will find that other American citizens, besides Mr. Putnam, can see the case plainly as it stands on its merits. Thus far I have been careful to base our claim to international copyright on no larger ground than the ground of justice. Would you like, before I conclude, to form some idea of the money we lose by the freedom of robbery which is one of the freedoms of the American Republic? Take-the illustrious instance of Charles Dickens. The price agreed on with his English publishers for the work interrupted by his death, " Edwin Drood," was seven thousand five hundred pounds, with a promise of an addition to this sum if the work exceeded a certain circulation. Even Dickens' enormous popularity in England is beaten by his popularity in the United States. He was more read in your country than in mine, and, as a necessary consequence (with international copy- right) his work would be worth more in America than in England. What did he get in America for the "advance sheets?" With the pirates to be considered in making the bargain? Less than a seventh part of what his English publisher has agreed to give him before a line of his novel was written—one thousand pounds! But the case of Charles Dickens is a case of a writer who stands apart, and without a rival in popularity. Take my case, if you like, as repre- sentative, the position of writers of a lesser degree of popularity. I fail to remember the exact price which Messrs. Harper paid me for the advance sheets of "The Woman in White." It was certainly not a thousand pounds; perhaps half a thousand, or perhaps not so much. At any rate (with the pirates in the background waiting to steal) the great firm in New York dealt with me liberally. It has been calculated by persons who under- stand the matter better than I do that for every one reader in England I have ten readers in the United States. How many nnauthorized editions of this one novel of mine—published without my deriving any profit from them—made their appear- ance in America? I can only tell you, as a basis for calculation, one American publisher informed a friend of mine that he had sold one hundred and twenty thousand copies of "The Woman in White." He never sent me sixpence! Good-bye for the present, Colonel. I must go back to my regular work, and make money for my American robbers, under the sanction of Congress. * THE TROUBLES OF A BEGINNER. THE perusal of a " Hard Case" in the first issue of The Author tempts me to put on paper my own experiences as a beginner. Owing to what might be called a mild inoculation of the fraudulent publisher at the commencement of my career, the consequences of my gullibility have not proved so pecuniarily serious as they were in a "Hard Case"; but that has not been for lack of trying on the part of the various so-called societies, or dishonest tradesmen, who thrive on the inexperience and vanity of the literary fledgling. I launched my first effort in the shape of a short story, under the auspices of the "London Literary Society." Their prospectus was all that could be desired. For the modest sum of one guinea per annum my literary success was assured. They undertook to place MSS. in the hands of magazine editors, who (apparently) had no other means of obtaining copy for their publications. Thus young and unknown authors were placed upon the first rung of the ladder of fame, and it would be their own fault if they did not eventually reach the top. By thus establishing a regular method of communi- cation between author and publisher, interest and prejudice, so fatal to beginners, would be over- ridden, and a long-felt want supplied. So it would, —but the "long-felt want" was that experienced by the organizers of the Society. I sent in my guinea and my MS., and waited hopefully for the result. The receipt for the money was a work of art; it was no common receipt, it was a Diploma informing me that I had been enrolled a member of the London Literary Society, and re- questing that in future I would add L.L.S. after my name when communicating with the Secretary. In due course I received an official looking docu- ment which proved to be a criticism of my story. Then for the first time I knew, what I had hitherto only suspected, that I was undoubtedly a writer of merit! According to the criticism nothing stood between me and success but the narrow-minded- ness and prejudice of undiscriminating editors.  ## p. 36 (#56) ############################################## 3« THE AUTHOR. The document concluded by recommending me to send my story to a publication entitled Lloyd's Magazine. Of course I was delighted. Certainly I could not remember having ever heard of Lloyd's Maga- zine, but then it was hardly to be expected that I had heard of all the magazines published, and at any rate I hoped they would pay well. It was probably connected with Lloyd's paper. The editor was very civil, and assured me he would be pleased to print my story, adding casually that some alterations would have to be made, and little technicalities attended to, before the MS. would be ready for the printer's hands, but that half a guinea would cover these necessary expenses. Hard as it may be to believe, I sent my half guinea! How I marvel at my credulity. But then I knew nothing of such things, and it seemed quite possible that a tyro like myself might have made technical mistakes that would entail a certain amount of trouble. I also received a prospectus setting forth the advantages enjoyed by subscribers to Lloyd's Magazine. "Every talented author would ensure immediate appearance in print;" this, it was as- serted, would prove most beneficial in treating with editors who objected to unknown writers. "Ster- ling merit would be amply remunerated;" this was satisfactory, as the verdict of the Literary Society- had inferred that my particular qualifications came under that head. In fact, the advantages were so great, and so plausibly set forth, that I felt I really must get into Lloyd's Magazine at any price. Finally, the editor wrote to say that the MS. was now corrected and ready for the press, and that if I invested in twenty-four copies of the magazine, at 6d. apiece, my story should appear in the next issue! Having already paid so much, I took the twenty-four copies, thinking, as so many beginners do, that to get a story printed in anything was better than not getting it printed at all, and trust- ing to the promises of the prospectus as to the future. However, one glance at Lloyd's Magazine was sufficient to dispel any such hopes. To judge by the calibre of its contents all the contributors must have paid as heavily as myself, to induce anyone to print their productions; and heartily disgusted I sent in my resignation to the London Literary Society. I was informed in return that not having given three months' notice I was liable for my subscrip- tion. I sent it, and at the same time an intimation that I wished to withdraw. The following year I received a claim for my subscription, upon which I drew the attention of the Secretary to my previous communication. The only answer to this was another claim, of which I took no notice. Again, the year after I was sent a request for two years' subscription, which was quickly followed by a letter threatening me with the law. Whether further proceedings would have been taken against me I never knew, as the Secretary solved the question by going bankrupt. The Court of Bankruptcy informed me that I was down on the books of the Society for two guineas, but on explaining matters the affair was dropped, and my dealings with the London Literary Society became a thing of the past I think that I bought my experience cheaply. One of the most ingenious attempts at fraud of the kind was perpetrated by a Society calling itself the "Southampton Association." Upon seeing the advertisement of a new magazine entitled Pen and Ink, I sent in a sample MS. In response, I got a letter informing me that, after looking through my MS., the Society was prepared to accept me as a "staff member" of the Association. This, at first sight, seemed all I could wish for—there is a peculiarly fascinating ring about the word "staff" to a beginner's ear. The letter, however, went on to explain what the privileges of a staff member were, i.e., "one whose contributions can be accepted and paid for," not will be "immediately proofs are passed by the editor." The wording of this sounded suspicious, and when the epistle concluded by a casual request that I would fill up the form enclosed and return it, the said form being a pledge on my part to pay a guinea to the Society, I decided to have nothing further to do with it. My course of the Literary Society had rendered me proof against any more attacks of the same sort. I was very nearly falling a prey, however, to the wiles of the fraudulent publisher. I had perpetrated a one volume novel, and sent it up to Messrs. A. and B. Of course it was "favourably reported on" by the reader, and was going to make a great impression. The firm offered to publish it and pay half expenses, if I would pay the other half, the profits to be also equally shared. This offer sounded reasonable to inexperienced ears, and I asked for an estimate. The answer was, that my half share would amount to ^55 io*. (Refer- ence to a little book since published by the Society of Authors will show that the entire cost of publish- ing such a volume is £25 18*. yd.!) Fortunately I was alarmed at the sum asked, and declined the offer. They wrote again, offering to publish the book if I would pay ^40 towards it, and receive one-third of the profits; this I also declined. They then suggested bringing it out in is. form for the book stalls, my share to be ^28 10s. At this point, however, I became a member of the Society of Authors, and on sending the whole correspondence to the Secretary, received a letter  ## p. 37 (#57) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 37 in reply, which saved me from the clutches of the respectable A. and B., and quite decided me that it was better posterity should suffer from the loss of my book, than that I should suffer from the loss of my money. I may add that the above are a few of the ex- periences to which any beginner is liable when acting without advice. In my successful under- takings I have been fortunate enough to fall into the hands of one of the most honourable members of the profession. * "CURSED COINCIDENCES." London, June io, 1890. There is a source of great annoyance and pecuniary loss to authors for which it is possible that some remedy may be found by your aid. I can best set it forth by stating the simple fact that every one of the last six works which I have written, or on which I have collaborated, has been met or anticipated by a similar publication on the same subject; in every instance to my own detri- ment and annoyance, or that of others. In some of thesecases the coincidence was doubtless accidental; and I am satisfied that the authors of the books were as ignorant that I was engaged on a like work, as I was of their intentions. Could we have known it I am sure that we should have been spared in one way or the other great trouble, loss, and vexation. It is true that such an extraordinary run of bad luck savours of the marvellous; but if anyone who reads this suspects me of mistake or exaggeration, I shall be glad to supply him with all the details, and refer him to my publishers, who will fully confirm my assertions. But the history of literature is full of instances of men who, after devoting months or years to a work, have had the sorrow to learn that another had been engaged in a similar task. The very obvious remedy for this among honour- able men would be for authors to announce their intentions, and make it known in your columns what they are actually engaged on and really intend to publish. On the other hand, there are innumerable hacks and quacks in literature who would avail themselves of these very announce- ments to "hurry up " works on the same subjects, to say nothing of the half-honest scribes who would pre-empt a subject by declaring that they are engaged on it—the engagement being like that of the American young woman who admitted, in a breach of promise case, that she had nothing written to prove a betrothal, nor had the defendant ever spoken to her, but that "looks had passed between them." Many men seem to think that if they have only looked at a subject it is their property for ever. If there were a real guild of literary men holding and exercising power—such as the Society of Authors may become—this great evil of "the unlucky chance," or cursed coincidence, could really be obviated. For it could declare thieves and plagiarists "niddering" or infamous, and by establishing and exacting a high code of honour it could eliminate much of the disreputable Bohe- mianism or carelessness as to morals from the profession of letters. And if it be not really a profession it would soon become one by the simple process 01 outlawing all who disgrace it. For in fact the dishonest writer is as great an injury to his betters in the craft as the dishonest publisher, and deserves even greater punishment. A few cases of flagrant meanness vigorously exposed would soon end the career of many literary sharpers. Charles G. Leland. THE EXCHANGE OF BOOKS. WOULD it be possible 10 open a Book Exchange in the pages of The Author? I am myself continually compelled to buy books which serve their purpose and are hence- forth of no more use to me. I buy them not for their rarity but for their practical use. Others there are who are always looking out for the completion of sets or the improvement of collections, for first editions, for books specially bound, for books privately printed (of which a certain second-hand bookseller is now bringing out a catalogue). Everybody who wants books depend upon those excellent people, the second-hand booksellers and their lists. They depend upon the people who, like myself, are always wanting to get rid of books. Why cannot The Author give us space, if only a page, to advertise our wants and our wares? Members of the Society should, perhaps, be allowed to take up a certain space for the mere cost of the printing and paper. Other people might be made to pay for the privilege at such a rate as would assist the finances of the paper. Can my suggestion find a corner? F. R. S.  ## p. 38 (#58) ############################################## 3« THE AUTHOR. LEAFLET No. II. On Royalties. WHAT is loosely and ignorantly called "The Royalty System"—a system where all is chaos—may be defined as pay- ment by results. It came into existence chiefly as a sop to authors who were discontented with the so-called half-profit system, after it had been worked into a system which gave all the profits to the publisher. "At least," they thought, "there will be something for us if we are to have so much for every copy sold." They therefore signed any agreement in this sense that was placed in their hands without asking what it meant—what the proposed arrangement kept for the publisher and what it would give them. They signed what they were told to sign, and they took what was offered them. They began to sign these royalty agreements about twenty years ago, when the "system" first came into use. They have continued to sign them; they are signing them every day, and it is not too much to say that not one single author up to this day of writing, outside the office of the Society, knows when he signs, what he has kept for himself, or what proportion of the results of his labour he has given to the man who sells his book. In accordance with the principles of this Society, which endeavours to throw light upon everything connected with the production and sale of books, or in other words, enables authors to understand exactly what they give away and what they reserve —what, in fact, an agreement means—the Leaflet of this month is devoted to a very brief statement of the "Royalty System " in its various forms applied to author and publisher. The discovery that the author was as easily gulled by a Royalty as by a show of half profits, caused certain gentry to introduce improvements into the original plan. Thus the Royalty at first offered and eagerly taken by the ignorant author was 10 per cent, on the published price from the beginning. Then one man sharper than his brothers discovered that his authors would take 5 per cent, from the beginning; another that his men would take 10 per cent, on the trade price; a third, and this was the most happy discovery of all, that his men would take 10 per cent, to begin when a great number of copies had been first sold. In the forthcoming work on "Methods of Publication," the author prints a table which shows the working of the system and the results to author and publisher. He takes as an example an ordinary novel in one volume, sold at 6s., a very common form of book at this day. These six shilling novels vary considerably in length, running from 70,000 words to 180,000 words—or even more. The average length, however, may be taken as from 70,000 to 100,000 words. The cost of producing such a work is, with a liberal allowance for advertising, as follows :— (1) For the first 1,000 copies nearly £100. (2) For the second edition of 3,000 copies, £120, or with a liberal increase of adver- tising, .£150. (3) If the success be so great as to justify a large edition of 10,000, the cost of production of this edition would be about ^360, or with increased advertising say ^400. (4) The trade price of the book varies from 3s. 4</. to 3-r. Sd. We may fairly take it at 3*. 6d. The trade price is generally arrived at by - taking two-thirds of the published price and allowing thirteen copies as twelve. In the case of the great distributing houses an additional 10 per cent, is allowed. There are also cases in which lower terms are given for special reasons. Many copies, however, are sold at a higher price. (5) The publisher therefore obtains— a. For the first edition of 1,000 copies, ^175- /3. For a second edition of 3,000 copies, 7. For an edition of 10,000 copies, ^1,750. Out of this he has to pay the author, printer, paper- maker, binder, and the advertisements. We might proceed at once to our table, but for one objection which will be raised. It is this.  ## p. 39 (#59) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 39 Suppose the publisher prints io,ooo copies and sells only 1,000 copies, he then has 9,000 copies on his hands. That is true. To overprint is a mistake that inexperienced publishers often make: experi- enced, rarely. The wise publisher feels his way even though to print 3,000 only will cost him a halfpenny more on each copy than boldly to order 10,000. When the demand for a popular book ceases, which is not suddenly but gradually, the prudent publisher is not generally left with many copies on hand. It must be remembered that we are here speaking of a popular and successful book, of which there are a great many issued every year. Now, then, for our table. We deduct from the publisher's profits (1) what he pays to the author, (2) what he pays for production. The reader will see set forth in order the respective shares of profit presented by a 5 per cent, up to a 35 per cent, royalty to author and to publisher. The per- centage is taken on the published price, the full price of 6s. I. On the sale of the first 1,000. Per cent. ■ 10 ■5 20 25 30 £ £ £ £ £ £ Publisher 60 45 3° — — Author ... '5 3° 45 60 75 90 II. On the sale of the next 3,000. Per cent. 5 10 "5 20 3° 35 £ £ £ £ £ £ £ Publisher 33° 285 •40 195 ■ 50 105 Author ... 45 90 13s 180 225 270 315 III. On the sale of an edition of 10,000. Pe r cent. 5 IO IS 20 3" 35 £ £ £ £ £ C £ Publisher 1,300 1,050 900 750 600 45° 300 Author ... 150 450 600 75° 900 1,050 Since it is more common to meet with a success corresponding with the second than with the first table, let us consider what the figures mean. They speak for themselves, but to those who cannot understand figures let us explain. "Your publisher, dear Sir or Madam, when he benevolently offers you a 5 per cent, royalty, will on a second edition of 3,000 copies make ^330 to your ^45, i.e., eight times your share. If he gives you 10 per cent.—which is common—he will make ,£285 to your £90, that is, three times your share. If 15 per cent, he will make ^240 to your ^135, i.e., twice your share. If 20 per cent., .£195 to your ;£i8o. If 25 per cent., ^170 to your .£225. If 30 per cent., £10$ to your ^270. Consider this, and refuse the 10 per cent, with indignation." As for the "fancy" royalties, those on trade price, those to begin when a certain number of copies have gone and so forth, the reader may calculate for himself the meaning of these pro- posals. We will, however, on a future occasion assist his calculations. With the help of these tables, too, the reader will be able to make an intelligent attempt towards finding an answer to the question, "What proportion of profit should in equity be the share of the publisher in the case of a book which has no risk?" * THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND. "Yours be the task to foster and protect Genius in rags and learning in neglect." W. T. I- ITZGERALD. THE object of the Royal Literary Fund, as summed up in Mr. Fitzgerald's Anniversary Ode, is one of which all of us, members of this Society, must cordially approve. Here are its aims set forth a little more at length:—■ "To administer assistance to Authors of published works of approved literary merit and of important contributions to periodical literature, who may be reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or deprived by enfeebled faculties, or declining life, of the power of literary exertion. This assistance may  ## p. 40 (#60) ############################################## 40 THE AUTHOR. be extended at the death of an Author to his widow and children." Every one may not know the pathetic incident to which the Fund actually owed its origin. It was this. A member of a club in London, much frequented by literary men, being arrested for a small debt, died in consequence. It then leaked out that the unfortunate scholar had lived for years in the extremest poverty, but had borne his suffer- ings in silence. Some fifteen years before this occurrence, in the very club of which he was a member, an attempt had been set on foot to found some sort of pension scheme, but it had fallen through, after a few desultory meetings. This, however, galvanized it into life again. Mr. David Williams was from the first the life and soul of the movement. He had been the person with whom the idea first originated, and he was the first to assist in its resuscitation. He organized the scheme, and was indefatigable in its promotion. He levied taxes on all his friends and acquaintances, and persuaded actors, poets, and princes to sound the praises of the new institution. We fear he must have been, good worthy man, a terrible bore. We learn that he himself made house-to-house visits in behalf of his project, and collected large sums of money in that way. In addition to which he gave personal attention to all the routine business, with the result that, when the Society had literally thousands invested, and a most magnificent roll of supporters, the executive expenses were returned as only £$o. In 1818 the Society was incorporated. After Williams's death, however, the Society had rather a stormy time. This was not only due to the loss of their indefatigable leader. The extreme secrecy with which the doles were made, while show- ing the kindly delicacy of the administrators, might, it is obvious, if sufficient care were not taken, be the source of abuse. Sufficient care was not taken, and abuses followed. The affairs of the Society were at that time administered by an Executive Committee and a Council. The Executive Committee did the work, and the Council lent their name. When some of the work could not be approved of, a quarrel took place between the Council and the Committee. Many of the Council joined in the general demand for an investigation into the manner in which the Society's affairs had been conducted. Then came an agitation for reform. The leader of this was Dickens, who attributed the malpractices, which had undoubtedly occurred, to the demoral- izing effect inflicted upon men by much sitting on boards of direction. The demand was to a certain extent acceded to, and Dickens, Mr. Wentworth Dilke, and Sir E. L. Bulwer were placed upon the first Committee of reform, and no one has since that day breathed a word against the way in which the Fund is administered. The benefits are disposed entirely without regard to religious sect, the only disqualification being offences against public morality. Neither are they con- fined to Englishmen. At the dinner of 1822, when Chateaubriand's health was proposed by the Duke of York, as the ambassador of France, he mentioned, in his acknowledgment of the toast, that he was himself aware of the benevolent character of the Fund, for, during the period of the French Revolution, a French literary gentleman was in difficulties, and these difficulties having been repre- sented to the Committee by one of his friends, a sum was voted sufficient to relieve him from all anxiety, and that at a time when the institution was itself struggling into notice. ' This gentleman, Chateaubriand continued, was thus enabled to maintain his ground. At the Restoration he returned to France to acquire fresh honours as a literary man, and to rise in the favour of his Sovereign. He had now returned to England, but in a different capacity—as the ambassador of his Sovereign; and he was that man. When Macaulay inveighed against all institutions having for their object the pecuniary relief of authors, he was taking a position he might be expected to take, one which it was dignified for him to take, and one which we sincerely wish could rationally be taken. Macaulay's contention was that good work would always find sufficient pay, and that therefore the very people who would require such assistance were the people who did not do good work. That, in fact, all such Societies must lead to the encouragement of the incompetent. This of course is very far from being the case. A great deal of admirable work, useful to mankind, and most creditable to the author, never can command sufficient circulation to make it remunerative. The Fund most wisely allows for the fact that, whereas while the author is able to work at full pressure, he may keep his head above water, there may come a time when such "H state cannot be continued. His methods may get out of date. The very lucidity of his teaching may have enabled some younger man, more in touch with modern thought, to carry similar work to a point of higher perfection. Old age and sickness may arrive. At once poverty stares the author of unremunerative work in the face. He need be in no way impro- vident and yet be unable to lay aside money to meet such an emergency. It is in such cases as these that the bounty of the Royal Literary Fund is freely and delicately bestowed.  ## p. 41 (#61) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 4- It is in such cases as these that such assistance is too often urgently necessary. There exists another institution for the relief of authors. There is a provision on the Civil List for pensions to the amount of ^1,200 per annum, which should be devoted to the reward of (1) Persons having just claims on the Royal benevo- lence; (2) Persons who have rendered personal service to the Crown; (3) Persons who have benefited the public by discoveries in science; (4) Persons who have benefited the public by their attainments in literature and the arts. Mr. Colles' book* has shown very clearly that these pensions are awarded in a most reprehensible manner, and are very generally devoted to the relief of people often having no claim to charity at all, certainly having no claim upon this establish- ment, and occasionally having a distinct claim to bounty from other sources. The author may well look somewhat askance at an institution whose benefits are administered with so much caprice, and so regularly reaped by the wrong people. While there is no doubt that the writers of much good work do not derive much good pay from it, so that in certain cases the assistance of charity be* comes absolutely needful, it is perfectly certain that there would be fewer such cases if the literary man were more alive to his own interests, mors careful of his own property. We learn from the Prince of Wales's speech that the Royal Literary Fund has lately made grants to the families of the late J. G. Wood and the late R. A. Proctor. These men's names were household words; their teaching and their books were known in every family. They were not devoted to abstract and abstruse science; they did not produce works of great research, appealing necessarily to so small a public as to make it impossible that their work should be pecuniarily successful. On the contrary, they were the most popular expositors whom the world has ever seen of the physical and natural wonders of the world. Their books had an enormous popular circulation, and the fact that it has been necessary for their families to apply for assistance to the Royal Literary Fund speaks volumes for the statement made so often in the paper of this Society. "The nature of literary property is mis- understood and its very reality is hardly recog- nized." Had these writers understood the value of their own property they would never, perhaps, have become the recipients either in life, or through their widows, after death, of the Literary Fund Bounty. * "Literature and the Pension List," by W. Morris Colles. Cr. 8vo., y. td. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. VOL. I. A HARD CASE. No. II THIS publisher, Mr. Henry Skimpington- Brown, prided himself on his double- barrelled name. It certainly lent weight to his assurances that he was in a position to pro- duce guarantees from most influential people that he was honest—nay more, that he was generous. He came under the notice of the Society of Authors in the following way. He was an adver- tising person, whose letter paper bore the elastic title of "publisher" upon it, and whose address was in Fleet Street. An author, bitten by one of his specious circulars, sent a manuscript to him for his consideration. Here is the author's account of what followed :— "I unfortunately entrusted my book to Mr. Skim- pington-Brown. He engaged to publish for me any number of copies required " up to 1,000," beginning at 200. The book came out. I at once began to receive letters from friends, acquaintances, and book-sellers, complaining that they could not obtain copies through the ordinary channels. Mr. Mudie also informed me privately that my publisher was quite unable to meet his orders. I wrote re- peatedly to Mr. Skimpington-Brown demanding an explanation. Sometimes I got an evasive answer; generally no notice was taken of my letters. By this time I was quite certain that something was wrong, and a friend of mine, who interviewed him for me, elicited from him :—that he had only printed 100 copies; that the type had been broken up; and that he had not enough money to pay for composition again." The author had given the man £%o to produce the book. Now, although a part of the money paid was for advertisement of the book, no adver- tisements were ever seen except in a trade circular once or twice. Hardly any copies were sent out for review. What reviews were obtained were very good ones. Therefore when the author applied to the Society of Authors, the position of affairs was thus:—He had been induced to pay the publisher a sum of money equivalent to double as much as was actually spent in bringing the little book out; also an extra ^5 on some pretext or other; third, a large sum for author's corrections. Only 100 copies were printed. The circulating libraries could not put the book on their lists, because they could get no copies. The author had received nothing back but a small sum obtained by privately disposing of a few copies to his friends. A few letters were written which seemed to have 11  ## p. 42 (#62) ############################################## 42 THE AUTHOR the effect of temporarily frightening Mr. Skimping- ton-Brown, for it was at this time that he sent to the Society a letter in which he said that most in- fluential people were willing to come forward and speak to his honesty and generosity. It happened that another author had some idea of publishing a work with Mr. Skimpington-Brown. To this gentleman, whom he seemed to think might possibly prove a new victim, the worthy publisher mentioned the first author's book, and stated that he was bringing out a second edition of it, for which there was already a demand for neatly 3,000 copies! But the two authors were acquainted with each other, and this communication reached the first author. As he said, "the state of things is worse now than ever. As long as the book was prac- tically unpublished, there was a chance of getting a new publisher for it; but if this man, hiving evidently no position, no capital, and, indeed, no right to the name of publisher, really keeps his hold on the book, it is a ruined work. He cannot, in fact, publish it himself, and yet he deprives the author of his chance of finding another publisher." So it was determined that, at all events, the book must be got out of his hands, and that after- wards the possibility of making him disgorge some of the plunder must be considered. The agreement was unstamped, that is, for prac- tical purposes. It must be admitted that it had affixed to it a penny postage stamp. In it the publisher covenanted to "print,publish, and push(\) the book, and meet all demands up to 1,000 copies." This latter phrase alone would have put anyone of experience upon his guard. It is almost invariably the prelude to the following dodge for extortion. A large number of copies is named, say 10,000; then a correspondingly large figure is named as the publisher's risk, say £50. The author may feel that £50 is not much for 10,000 copies; more, he may ask someone who knows, and will be informed that the demand is not very exorbitant. So he pays it. Then only 100 copies are printed. The author objects. The other per- son says: "I never said I should produce 10,000 copies. No good publisher ever produces such large editions of new men's work. I said I would 'meet demands' up to that number. I have as yet not been asked for more than I have printed." But the author may say: "It did not cost you ,£50 to produce 100 copies." To which the other person may reply: "I never said it did." Only in one way had Mr. Skimpington-Brown contracted to do something definite. He said he would advertise up to £20. He was asked to pro- duce vouchers for this sum. He then said that he had only advertised to the extent of j£g, and that, of course, the surplus would be refunded. The Society of Authors made an appointment with this honest tradesman to meet their accountant. But the accountant found the office locked up, and received a note stating that his books were at his suburban office! At last, upon threats of legal procedure, Mr. Skimpington-Brown appeared, and, with tears in his eyes, refunded j£io. He said that was all he pos- sessed. This was all the satisfaction that could be possibly obtained for the author. Nothing would have been gained by legal procedure, and the author was advised to take Mr. Skimpington- Brown's little all. * THE CHESTNUT BELL. THE sound of the Chestnut Bell is now be- coming rare in America; heard indeed as seldom as those of the Sunken City, comme- morated by Riickert, which "peal once more their old melodious chime" but once or twice in a century, and then only to the Sunday child who is born to hear what is inaudible to the Philistine. But before the last Ming of this extraordinary instrument dies away, it may be worth while to record its history, and give for the first time what is probably a true clue to its origin. About four years ago Senator Jerome, of New York who, because of his immaculate life, admir- able gravity, and personal resemblance to a famous picture byMurillo, has always been known as Saint Jerome—was one day pouring forth in a speech a grand series of moral axioms, which, however admirable, "had not," as Heine says, "novelty for merit," when all at once Senator Riddleberger, of Virginia, the licensed clown, jester, and mischief maker of the Senate, called to a point of order. And on being asked what it was he replied: "Mr. Speaker, I want the Senator from New York to stop ringing that d -d old Chestnut bell of his." The mot was new and it spread "like wildfire" over the Union. Wherever the Frenchman of 1840 would have cried connu, the American roared Chestnut. If an orator uttered a truism—if any body dared to say " be virtuous and you will be happy"—"Chestnut!"was sure to be heard. Woe to the narrators of old Joes, for the nuts were cast at them, and they were abashed. Ere long the Chestnut Bell itself appeared. It was a small highly resonant apparatus of a tintinnabulistic or campanological nature, worn as an appendage to the button hole—it went with a spring, and its sound became a terror in the land. I am now in posses-  ## p. 43 (#63) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 43 sion of six different kinds of Chestnut Bells—none of them are loud, but all are of piercing, insulting, aggravating, tone. It has happened that even clergymen when using platitudes or dropping into cant, have been called to silence by the dreadful bell. It is usual in the United States whenever a new slang term appears for all the minor literati of the press to at once invent Jts origin. Consequently there were innumerable anecdotes, every one more anthentic than the others, telling how and when the term Chestnut came into existence. Of these I have made a collection, with the result of distrust- ing them all. In such cases it is almost invariably "the oldest which is truest." The oldest in this case is Italian. In Northern Italy, especially in Florence, when a man would discredit or snub another, and intimate that what he says is untrue, or contemptible, or worn out, he puts his thumb between his fore and middle finger, and presents it. This is called making the Chestnut. In Naples they call it la fica, or the fig, but the castagna or Chestnut is the most ancient term. All of the American origins confine themselves to the Chestnut, but say nothing of the bell. For the bell is the real object, "Chestnut" being only the adjective which qualifies it. This part of the problem is specially interesting. There has long been known in Bavaria, possibly in other parts of Germany, but I have only known it in the Bayerisches Land, what is called the Lugnermesser or Liar's Knife. This is a knife of wood exactly resembling those which are used by grocers in England to scoop butter or lard. There is a hole iri it in which hangs a hawk's bell, and on the blade is an inscription of which the following is, though not a translation, a toler- able imitation:— Who liftes thys Knyfe Nor ringes y* Bell, Ne'er in his Lyfe A Lye did tell. The most remarkable of these knives which I have ever seen is in the possession of Miss Mary B. Reath, of Philadelphia. Another was in the great Art Exhibition at Munich in 1888. A third is in the Artists' Club of Munich. Whenever a member tells a doubtful or a worn-out or commonly known story, and tries to pass it off for new, some one rings the bell. All three bore inscriptions in old Bavarian which were, however, so peculiar and requiring so much explanation, that it is hardly worth while to give them here. The ringing of the Liar's Bell is a kind of shut- ting off or condemnation, and as such is manifestly derived from the " bell, book, and candle," the form vol. 1. of excommunication of the Church of Rome, ending by closing the book against the offender, extin- guishing the candle, and ringing the bell. (" Reliq. Antiq., i, 1, Gawaine and Gavin, 3023— Halliwell.") Also to bear the bell, to carry off the prize, to be unsurpassed as a liar. For a bell, a whetstone, a knife, and, in America, a hat have here or there been substituted. It is very strange that Friedrich in his "Symbolik der Natur," says of the chestnut that it is a type of the unchangeable, of the old which ever persists in remaining—which is the very spirit of all that is hackneyed, "the reason for this being that its leaves femain so long unchanged." "And as most races name their national fools from some popular dish, as Jack Pudding, in England; Hanswurst, in Germany; Pickle Herring, in Holland; Jean Potage, in France; so the Italians call a silly, stupid, would-be witty fellow a Marone, which is a large kind of chestnut." But the real ancient meaning of the nut is Beharrlich- keit, obstinate endurance, like that of an old story which holds its own for ever. Therefore the Greeks called it the Euboic acorn, and con- secrated it to Jupiter, he being of all the gods the most unyielding. It is also to be noted that the Greeks and Romans carried little silver bells, the tinkling of which drove away witchcraft and evil spells—which latter certainly include old Joe Millers, so well known to possess a kind of dire and intolerable fascination. I have a fac simile of one of these ancient chestnut bells, with its strange incantation, which I carry in my dressing case as a warning. I trust that the reader will not conclude, from what I have written, that I need it! C. G. Leland. * The Death of a Scholar.—" Come and see the difference there is between the powerful Rabbis of the Land of Israel and the pious Rabbis of Babylon. Resh Lakish made a funeral oration in honour of a certain disciple of the wise, and exclaimed, 'Alas! the I and of Isiael has lost a great man!' Whereas Rabbi Nachman at Babylon declined delivering a funeral oration on a similar occasion; for, said he, 'What can I say more than Alas! a basketful of books is lost'?"—Talmud Megillah. * i) 2  ## p. 44 (#64) ############################################## 44 THE AUTHOR. "THE ART OF AUTHORSHIP." In August, 1888, a well-known English novelist received the following letter :— "Coventry, "Dear Madam, "August 21, '88. "I am wanting to address our young people, in response to their request, by way of a lecture upon the art of composition and the means essential to secure a forcible and interesting style of expression. I have thought that the only way by which I could add any considerable interest and usefulness to an evening's pleasant intercourse upon such a topic would be to secure, if at all possible, a personal testimony of the experience of one or two of our most skilful and honoured authors. "To that end I have taken the very great liberty to write to you and solicit your generous help. May I be permitted to ask whether in early life you pave yourself to any special training with a view to the formation of style, and also whether you can give us any information of your own methods that would aid us to realize, in some degree at least, the secrets of your own great powers in the use of a clear and forcible English. "I write to you because your finely conceived novels are cherished friends of my own, delightful companions which give me more pleasure than I can well say; and also because I feel in asking such a favour, that you must be so accustomed to people getting truly attached to you by reason of your beautiful stories, that you will very readily forgive the request even though you cannot grant it. But if you are able to spare a few minutes to do me this kind service, I can assure you of the gratitude of many beside myself. "Pray excuse this long letter, and if I am giving you any trouble, or ignorantly making an undue demand on your time, do more than forgive me, take no notice of me, and you will be appreciated and understood by "Yours most faithfully and respectfully, "GEORGE BAINTON." "Mrs. Parr. Now this was really a very polite and appreciative letter, and to it she returned a courteous answer. It was nice to be considered among "one or two of the most skilful authors," and kindness of heart prompted her to assist a clergyman in his task of lecturing to his young people upon a subject that, like Ah Sin, "he did not understand." But in May, 1890, she received the following letter from her correspondent:— "Dear Madam, "May 2, '90. "Some time since I wrote to you concerning a lecture I was about to give to a number of young men upon the art of composition, and asked your aid. You most generously responded to my appeal, and gave me the privilege of using your kind words of counsel and experience in the event of my being desirous to put the lecture into printed form. I thought you would like to see the extract from your letter thus incorporated into the lecture—a lecture I have expanded into book form and published through Messrs. Clarke & Co., Fleet St., under the title'The Art of Authorship.' The little volume now issued is simply the lecture amplified—matter growing under my hands until it far exceeded the limits of the pamphlet I at first intended. "For your valued aid I again thank you most heartily, and am "Very faithfully yours, "Mrs. Louisa Parr. "George Bainton." The author gave the Correspondence to this Society. She denies having given Mr. Bainton leave to print her letter, and considers that its appearance in a collection of letters headed "The Art of Authorship," and published as a book by Mr. Bainton, is a breach of faith. On receiving these letters it was decided to in- vestigate the case a little and to appeal to a few of our members, whose names were mentioned both in the book and in public advertisement as "personal contributors," and ascertain if they thought like- wise. It will not be possible to print all the replies in full, but here are a few extracts :— Mr. Alfred Austin says:— "I answered Mr. Bainton's enquiries concerning how I formed my style, from motives of courtesy and good nature, and I hear of the use he has made of what I wrote with surprise and regret." Mr. Hall Caine :— "The man wrote to me to say that he was about to lecture on style to his young men, who were enthusiastic readers of mine, etc., etc., and would take it as an honour, etc., if I would write them a letter on my personal aims and endeavours, early efforts, etc., with much of the same sort. Of course I was drawn by the silly subterfuge, and when, some time later, a second letter asked for permission to print my answer in a pamphlet that was to contain 'the text of the lecture,' I was once more made victim. It was not until the book appeared that I realized that the man had  ## p. 45 (#65) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 45 written to everybody, that his 'young men ' were all fudge, that the book was the thing, and that, thanks to the folly of folks like myself, he had got it cheap." Here it becomes evident that, at any rate to novelists, Mr. Bainton employed an almost in- variable form—the letter, in fact, which we began by quoting. For Mr. Grant Allen, Mr. R. D. Blackroore, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Mr. W. S. Gilbert, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mrs. Kennard, Mr. George Meredith, Miss F. M. Peard, Mr. F. W. Robinson, John Strange Winter, Mr. Edmund Yates, and Miss Charlotte Yonge all were ignorant that Mr. Bainton intended to print their remarks; all believed that their assistance was being asked by a clergyman and a stranger for his young people, and none had an idea that they were being vic- timised by a circular letter. This simplicity is the more excusable that in the specimens before us as we write, Mr. Bainton distinctly says he is applying to "one or two" authors. Unless one knows him personally before- hand, how is the ordinary gentleman, how is the ordinary lady, to have an idea that by this state- ment Mr. Bainton may mean one or two hundred authors? Space will not allow that we should print more than brief extracts from these authors' letters. Mr. Rider Haggard says :— "Some years ago Mr. Bainton, or some person, wrote to me saying he was going to give a lecture, and asked my opinion on certain literary matters. I replied, and, if my memory serves me, stipulated that if he printed anything, I should have a proof. The other day I received a printed slip, which I took for and corrected as a proof. On further examination of covering letter, however, I found it was an exiract from a printed book forwarded for my perusal. "I think it quite unjustifiable that matter obtained for one purpose should be used for another without reference to its author." Mr. Bainton does appear in Mr. Rider Haggard's case to have gone through the form of obtaining permission to print his remarks, although he disre- garded the stipulation that his request evoked. But in some cases he appears to have gone more directly to work. Mr. George Meredith says:— "I received a letter some weeks back from Mr. Bainton, enclosing two printed pages of his book, with his thanks to me for 'my kind permission' that he might make public use of my private remarks to his young men, through him, at his request, upon styles in writing. I am not aware of having even granted the permission. It would not have been in accord with a system I hold to—which is, to spare the public any talk upon my methods and doings. If I wrote the words of the grant, I must have done so heedlessly, and I shall require to see them in my handwriting, before I can attach any belief to the statement made by Mr. Bainton. The one object of my writing, was to be of service to an audience that he, ' a stranger to me, wrote of as being hungry for literary instruction.'" Mr. George Meredith is not singular in his belief that, albeit Mr. Bainton says so, he never received any permission. Miss Charlotte Yonge believes the same. So does Professor Huxley. Miss F. M. Peard writes :— "I am more surprised and annoyed than I can say at hearing of the use Mr. Baintdn has made of my answer. I imagined him to be a clergyman rather at his wits' ends for subjects for parish entertainments or lectures, and that he was merely getting up the subject in the abstract. It did not even occur to me that he would use my name in talking about it, much less that he would drag it into print. You will see that he speaks of 'an e\ening's pleasant intercourse.'" Miss Peard encloses Mr. Bainton's first—and only—letter to her, which is almost the exact counterpart of his letter to Mrs. Parr. Miss Peard, like Mrs. Parr, is one out of "one or two," and she also is appealed to because her books are Mr. Bainton's cherished friends. Mr. Bainton is evidently a man of lively sympathies. Mr. Grant Allen says:— "I was not aware Mr. Bainton meant to publish in book form. Mr. Bainton only mentioned that he wished for the information for an apparently private lecture to young people. I was much annoyed at the use Mr. Bainton made of my letter (which he printed incorrectly). The details I gave were far more personal than I should have dreamt of making them had I expected them to be published. What is perfectly allowable in answer to a private question about one's own methods mayseem like impertinence and bad taste if obtruded on the general public, which never asked to know how one writes one's books or articles." Mr. R. D. Blackmore writes:— "When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request I was not aware that he intended to publish or even print my words. His letter suggested that he wanted aid in a lecture to young people and would use my  ## p. 46 (#66) ############################################## 46 THE AUTHOR. reply for that purpose, and (as I naturally concluded) for that purpose only. Now that I know the nature of Mr. Bainton's book I do object to the use he has made of a reply procured through the goodwill due to a clergyman and for clerical purposes." Mr. W. S. Gilbert writes :— "When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request I was not aware that it was that gentleman's intention to publish my letter in book form. His first letter to me suggested that he wanted aid in compiling a lecture. I consider that he was not justified in publishing my letter without my express permission. His action appears to me to amount to a breach of faith." Mrs. Lovett-Cameron says:— "I certainly had not the smallest idea that he intended to publish the letter which I wrote to him. He informed me that he was about to give a lecture to young people, and I understood most clearly that it was for this purpose alone that my letter would be made use of. I do most strongly object to the use he has made of my letter, and consider that in publishing letters written to him for private use only Mr. Bainton is guilty of a most unwarrantable breach of faith." On the other hand, the Bishop of Carlisle, Mr. Thomas Hardy, and Sir John Lubbock have no objection to the use Mr. Bainton has made of their letters, while Mr. T. Marion Crawford writes as follows : — "Two or three years ago Mr. Bainton wrote requesting me to give him an expression of my opinions in regard to the course to be followed by beginners, who would acquire some practical skill in the use of the English language. I believe that was the substance of his letter. Mr. Bainton stated clearly that he wished to make use of my answer in lecturing to young people. "I complied with his request and wrote at some length. I said that I would prefer my letter not to be printed. Mr. Bainton wrote again to thank me, but added, that if I would not consent to his printing the matter, it could be of little service to him. I then replied that since he so much desired it, he might make any use he pleased of my com- munication. The correspondence ended, and I considered Mr. Bainton at liberty to print the whole, parts, or a part of what I had written. I now learn for the first time that he has published a book, and I infer that something of mine has appeared in it. I do not consider myself in any way aggrieved, as Mr. Bainton's conduct towards me was perfectly frank and consistent throughout." But Mr. Marion Crawford has been better used than many of Mr. Bainton's contributors. It may seem that we have gone into this matter at more length than the circumstances warranted. As long as ladies and gentlemen are so far polite that when they receive a letter, made to bear all thestamp of a private letter in contradistinction to a circular, they answer it, and so far charitable that, when they are told a thing by a person they know nothing of, they accept his statement, so long will ladies and gentlemen be victims. To the Editor of The Author. Sir, When I sent Mr. Bainton the letter published in his book, I was not aware that it would ever be printed. He wrote to me in September last, saying that he wished to address "our young people" upon the art of composition, and he had thought that it would add "considerable interest and use- fulness to an evening's pleasant intercourse" on such a topic, if a few authors would give him their personal experiences in acquiring their respective styles. It will be obvious to anyone, from the compo- sition of my letter, that I had no thought of my words being used verbatim. Some time afterwards he wrote asking if he might make use of some parts of my letter in a pamphlet in which he proposed to preserve his lecture, and I gave him permission to do so. I cannot say that / particularly object to the use he has made of it, though I do not think it was quite fair to issue the opinions of authors in book- form, after winning their confidences for a benevo- lent purpose; but I do most utterly and strongly condemn the great discourtesy of issuing such a book without sending proofs of the matter to each author (and I know one author of high standing whose permission to print Mr. Bainton did not trouble to ask for at all). I think far more of that than I do of his having picked our foolish brains to make profit for himself. In my own case, probably a glance at proof sheets would have caused me to amplify one of my statements—that when I was a very young writer "I found myself slipping into the Rhoda Broughton school"—in such a way as to give a would-be witty reviewer less chance of misrepresenting my meaning and making merry over my comprehensive phrase. For myself I would be the last to discuss criticism, however flippant or unjust; but as Miss Broughton may have seen the much-quoted article, and per- haps have felt some annoyance through reading my meaning with the writer's eyes, may I say here that I meant no disrespect for the strong, vigorous, and fascinating author, whose books have always  ## p. 47 (#67) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 47 charmed me, and whose portrait hangs near me each day as I work—but very much the reverse, Miss Broughton would probably join her con- tempt to mine for the host of imitators of her style, whose work is a weak reflection of her manner without any of her genius or her strength— the "school" to designate which her name is com- monly employed—and entirely agree with me that if, as an inexperienced writer, I felt myself drifting toward this justly despised group, it was well for me—and perhaps for others—that I should re- solutely set myself to work out a style of my own rather than become even a successful imitator of another. It seems to me that cheap sneers at this kind of effort are a little unworthy of a great literary Review. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, John Strange Winter. * NOTES. I. Copyright. UNDER this head, and that of "The First Principles of Literary Property," in the first number of The Author, I find one or two statements which, if not in terms erroneous, are capable of misleading or unduly alarming readers who do not know any law. "Literary property," it is said, "is subject to the laws which protect all other property." That it is recognized and protected by law as something of value is quite true; and probably this is all that the writer meant. But "the laws which protect property" differ greatly according to the kind of property. Land is not protected in exactly the same way as goods, and a trade mark and a copy- right are again protected by means different from those in use for tangible property, and differing in details from one another. Let not the unwary reader therefore imagine that he or she can have a literary pirate dealt with as a thief. Copyright is not, in the legal sense, a thing capable of being stolen. It is asked, "Does anybody take the trouble to secure his copyright in a public lecture?" (meaning, by the process of giving notice to two Justices of the Peace as provided by the Act 5 and 6 Wm. IV, c. 65). The answer is, probably not. But there is an excellent reason for not doing it which the author of "Notes on Copyright" seems to have overlooked. The common law gives a sufficient remedy without the help of the Act, as was decided by the House of Lords in 1887, in Professor Caird's case in Scotland {Caird v. Sime, 12 App. Ca. 326). It is a question of fact whether the delivery of a lecture implies authority to the hearers to republish it. Whatever may have been the opinion of the framers of the Act of William IV (which expressly preserves the general law, only giving the benefit of special new sanctions to lecturers who fulfil the formalities of notice to two justices), no such authority is presumed, as a matter of law, from the mere fact of a lecture being delivered to a more or less numerous audience. If there be any presump- tion it seems to be the other way. In truth the right to restrain the publication of an orally delivered lecture is not copyright at all. It is distinct from and antecedent to copyright, like the right to restrain publication of one's private letters. As that right is unaffected by the original letter having become the property (for all purposes short of publication) of the person to whom it was sent, so the lecturer's right is unaffected by his lecture having been orally delivered to a particular audience or any number of audiences. The commentator goes on to say that "a lecturer is powerless to protect himself against unauthorized re-delivery." I am not aware of any authority for this statement as regards an unpublished lecture, and am not at all disposed to agree with it. As for the exception of university and certain other public lectures and discourses in the Act of William IV, it has, by its express terms, only the effect of leaving them in the same con- dition as if the Act had not passed. Caird v. Sime shows that at least some university lectures are efficiently protected by the general law. Therefore a person acting on the commentator's opinion that sermons "seem to be clearly public property" would be more likely to make practical acquaintance with the nature and operation of an injunction than to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of pulpit eloquence. When the writer adds that "there is seldom any very great demandfor sermons, university or college lectures," he is so far right that in these, as in other kinds of literary production, the suc- cessful and popular authors are a minority. Still, both sermons and lectures are known to become fairly successful books. It is the fact that the greater part of Sir Henry Maine's works (for example) was first delivered in the form of lectures. An uncon- trolled right to print the matter which afterwards became "Village Communities" from notes taken in Maine's lecture room at Oxford would have been a right of no small value. And the fact that no attempt was ever made to exercise such a supposed right is some evidence that no one at the time imagined it to exist. I have made these remarks only for the purpose  ## p. 48 (#68) ############################################## 48 THE A UTHOR. of preventing misapprehension as to the existing law. But I wish to add that I am wholly adverse to the proposal of creating a new kind of performing right in the recitation of verses or prose already printed and published, and therefore already enjoying the protection of ordinary literary copy- right. Where is this kind of thing to stop? Why should not Sydney Smith have had an exclusive "performing right" in his jokes and anecdotes? The author of "recitations" who wants to keep them to himself has only not to publish the text, a pre- caution quite consistent with privately printing any number of copies that may be convenient. He can then make his own terms with anyone who desires to use it. Frederick Pollock. II. Charges for Corrections. I suppose all authors have their grievances against publishers. I have had mine. Yet, taking all in all, I must say that I have been well treated oy my English publisher. My advice to young authors is—find a respectable publisher and stick to him. But I have had a long-standing grievance against printers, and I wonder whether The Author can help me. Is there no means of checking the charges for corrections? I know that in good printing offices there is a man specially appointed to check off charges for corrections. But, in spite of that, there must be something wrong in the system. The estimate one receives from a printer seems at first sight very reasonable. But when the bill comes, there are always high charges for corrections, for extra- small type, for foreign matter, for reading and putting to press, &c, so that one has often to pay twice as much as the original estimate. Much seems to me to depend on the judgment and the good-will of the compositor in making corrections. If a few words are put in by the author, surely, with a little management, they could be squeezed in; some other words might be left out, or two paragraphs might be run into one. But if, instead of that, ten or twenty pages are disturbed, of course the bill is very much swelled. One line too much on any one page is looked upon as high treason in every printing office. But surely it would matter less than twenty shillings for re making twenty pages. I know quite well what compositors will say. Copy your MS., or have it copied and carefully revised, and then the charges for corrections will be next to nothing. My answer is, I am willing to pay what is reasonable for my own careless writing, and for my changing my mind at the last moment. But I do not like to see corrections treated as mere " fat." F. Max Muller. III. American Rights. Before the collaboration of an American citizen can procure copyright, the following conditions must be borne in mind. 1. The American collaborator must not receive a lump sum for his share of the work, but must receive a portion of the royalty, i.e., he must have a continuous interest in the sale of the work. 2. He must be a bond fide collaborator. Some people suppose that it is sufficient for an American citizen to write a paragraph, or even a sentence only, put his name on the title page with that of the author, and that the copyright is secured. It is not so. In case of such a book being " pirated," he might be called to swear what he wrote before a judge, who would order the " pirate " to take out of the book the paragraph or sentence, or whatever the American wrote, and then advise the " pirate" to help himself to the rest. The collaborator must be able to swear that he is the author of the book quite as much as the European one, that there is not in the book a single sentence he did not approve of and sign, whether he actually wrote it or not. 3. The European author must have a contract with his American collaborator, in which the above conditions are set down; and a copy of it must be in the hands of the American publisher. I think that all the good American publishers would tell you that I am right. At any rate, these are the conditions on which I have published my " Jonathan and his Continent" in America; and the "pirates." knowing it, have not touched it—to the comfort of Paul Blouet. IV. The Raising of the Dead. I have received the first number of The Author, and, on lroking through it, it has occurred to me that our members might possibly be interested in the following personal experiences bearing on the question as to whether a book that has practically fallen dead can by any possibility be revived. The work to which I refer was, on its first appearance, absolutely ignored by the London literary organs of opinion, and the sales in con- sequence fell, after the advertisements had ceased to appear, to about ten copies a year. This continued  ## p. 49 (#69) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 49 for three years, during which time I left no stone un- turned in my efforts to bring the book into notice. I sent copies to the number of thirty or more to such of our most eminent thinkers and writers as 1 deemed most likely to give it a favourable reception ; at the same time sending second copies to the editors of the most important literary journals, soliciting a second inspection, and explaining in justification that the work had not been run off at the point of the pen, but had occupied ten years in preparation, and four in actual construction and writing. But the eminent writers, as Was only to be expected in the case of a work sent to them in forma pauperis, replied by courteous acknowledgments merely; while my efforts to get a second hearing fiom the editors completely failed—with the exception of the editor of T/ie Spectator, who, with his usual fair- mindedness, and a generosity which I shall not soon forget, at once gave me a long and complU mentary review, expressing at the same time his surprise that the work had been allowed to fall through. But it was too long after publication to be of any service; the sales fell lower and lower; and it seemed as if the book would now slip quietly into oblivion. Meantime one or two of the well-known writers, to whom I had sent private copies, had evidently glanced into the work, and had become sufficiently interested in it to express the opinion that some- thing further ought to be done to try and revive it. After some consideration, and with the consent of the publishers, I determined on my plan of campaign, which was this: to bring out the unsold copies as a new edition; to reduce the price from 14*. 10 51.; to write a fresh preface; and, most important of all, to concentrate and mass together in large advertise- ments the best extracts I could select from the various scattered notices which in the interim I had succeeded in extorting from more or less un- willing editors! The effect of this new move was immediate and decisive. The whole unsold edition of some 700 or 800 copies went off at the rate of forty or fifty a month until it was exhausted; the demand increas- ing rather than diminishing at the time when the last copies were sold out. The above recital, in view of the common tradition that a book, once practically fallen dead, cannot again be revived, seems to me to have some interest for young authors struggling against adverse fate; and it may perhaps be worth while to ask here to which of the above circumstances the resuscitation of the work was principally due. My own feeling is that it was due not to the reduction of price, for purchasers of that class of work are not much affected by its price, in the first instance at least; nor yet to the press notices taken singly, although these no doubt were exceptionally strong; but rather to their being massed together so as to catch the eye in large and glaring advertisements. At any rate it was on this theory that I acted at the time, and the event, it must be admitted, fully justified my anticipation. Now. that a work of a serious character, on a wide and all-important subject of human interest, and professing at least to add another story to the hitherto existing super- structures of thought on the same subject ; that a book of this kind, I say, should have to save itself from extinction by methods suitable rather to the sale and success of some '" Pears' Soap" or " Hol- loway's Pill," must give rise to considerations on the curious conditions of literary success at the present time well worthy the attention of all thinking minds. J. B. C. * LITERARY PUZZLES. THE Ballad of Bold Turpin is to be found in a volume called "Gaieties and Gravities," written by one of the authors of " Rejected Addresses." The "one," I believe, was Horace Smith. It was published in 1825, when Dickens was a boy of fourteen, by Henry Colburn, of New Burlington Street. It occurs in a sketch called " Harry Halter the Highwayman," in which two other efforts in verse also occur—the volumes, indeed, are crammed with verses, sprightly and jolly, and full of mad rhymes. The song, for instance, called "Bachelor's Fare " follows that of "Bold Turpin." Funny and free are a Bachelor's revelries, Cheerily, merrily passes his life; Nothing knows he of connubial devilries, Troublesome children and clamourous wife, Free from satiety, care, and anxiety, Charms in variety fall to his share, Bacchus's blisses and Venus's kisses, This, boys, this is the Bachelor's Fare. A wife like a canister, chattering, clattering, Tied to a dog for his torment and dread, All bespattering, bumping and battering, Hurries and worries him till he is dead. Old ones are two devils haunted with blue devils, Young ones are new devils raising despair; Doctors and nurses combining their curses, Adieu to full purses and Bachelor's Fare. Through such folly days, once sweet holidays, Soon are embittered by wrangling and strife Wives turn jolly days to melancholy days, All perplexing and vexing one's life.  ## p. 50 (#70) ############################################## 50 THE AUTHOR. Children are riotous, maid-servants fly at us, Mammy to quiet us growls like a bear; Polly is squalling and Molly is bawling, While dad is recalling his Bachelor's Fare. When they are older grown, then they are bolder grown, Turning your temper and spurning your rule, Girls through foolishness, passion or mulishness, Parry your wishes and marry a fool. Boys will anticipate, lavish and dissipate, All that your busy pate hoarded with care; Then tell me what jollity, fun or frivolity, Equals in quality Bachelor's Fare? * QUESTIONS, CASES, AND ANSWERS. Now that authors have a medium to voice their woes and, let us hope, their victories, we may look forward to many questions of interest being thrashed out. And, in order to set the ball rolling ever so little a distance, may I crave space to point out how—as it seems to me—authors can combine and gather strength even in their hours of ease? In short, what is wanted is an "Authors' Club." There are many clubs in existence which are partly intended for literary men and largely patronised by them; but in every instance where the club is accessible to the mass, other interests have been introduced to the prejudice of literature and the literary profession. In one case, it may be the egotistic actor; in another, the aesthetic or impressionistic painter; in a third, that blight on society—the man who wishes you to remember that he is a tenor. These introduce an element which many authors feel to be jarring, if not actually antagonistic. The general desire is for a Lotos Eater's Land where neither jar nor an- tagonism is possible; what is really sighed for is "The Authors'Club." Is not the profession strong enough to support such a club? Cannot the Society of Authors pro- vide the men who will help to make it a success? Who will adopt the idea and give it their personal support and service? The financial details could easily be arranged, if a strong committee were ap- pointed; and if the matter be mooted now, by the time that the evenings draw in and the days grow chill, "The Authors' Club" should be a fait accompli. A. M. Allow me to bring the following facts before the readersof The Author. About two years ago I had printed a mathematical work which I brought to a well-known firm for publication in England in conjunction with my Irish publishers. I paid the former ;£io for advertising, but all that I ever saw were two or three in the Saturday Revieiv. As a result I find they have practically sold no copies in England, and all that they have sold are about 30 copies in America, from which I infer that ad- vertisement money has been spent there. Conse- quently nearly all sales of my book were in Ireland, and these have all been effected without any ad- vertisement expenses. At the time of the publi- cation of my book, the author of a book on the same subject as my own was under an apprehen- sion that the sale of the latter might interfere with that of his, and I have reason to believe exerted pressure on his publishers the same as those of my book, not to push or in any way promote the sale of the latter. All that they have done is to sell it in America, which is but a poor return, as, besides the difficulty of getting it off there, I am only allowed barely 50 per cent, of the published price. A. B. The following case is submitted with the con- viction that it is not by any means an isolated one. A gentleman proposes to the Editor of a Magazine to write a short article on a new book, and the proposal is immediately accepted in writing. The article is sent in, and at the request of the con- tributor (who is leaving England for some months) the Editor shortly afterwards forwards him a proof of the article and a cheque at the current rate of remuneration. A letter of inquiry from the writer some months afterwards as to why the article has not appeared elicits no information, and it turns out that the article is not published. Has the contributor any claim in this case for the loss of that part of the remuneration which, it need hardly be said, may be indirectly of quite as much pecuniary consequence to him as the money- payment? In the case of a daily paper a review- is, as we all know, liable to be crowded out by press of matter. But is the case of a magazine, that does not in a general way review books, on precisely the same footing? As an aggravated instance of the business methods described under "QuestionsandAnswers," No. 3, at page 9, of the May number of The Author, I offer the following personal experience. I sent a short story to the Editor of a fairly reputable and outwardly prosperous London periodical, no doubt regarded by its numerous readers as a marvel 01 enterprise and cheapness, enclosing, as I always  ## p. 51 (#71) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 5* do, a stamped directed envelope for the return of the MS. if not required. I received neither manu- script nor answer of any kind. I wrote repeatedly after waiting some months, when to my surprise I heard quite accidentally through a friend who recognised my nam de plume that my story was then actually being published in the magazine I had sent it to, and which I do not always see. I waited a month or two and wrote for payment. I wrote two or three times more, but from first to last I never had a reply to a single communication. I then got the Secretary of the Society to write, and he very kindly did write a pretty strong letter con- taining a plain threat of the legal proceedings; that produced an interview with the editor, an apology, and a cheque. The whole affair took about a year. Now does anyone believe that if I had not by the merest fluke found that the story had been printed, I should ever have had the money to this day? I do not. I may add that others have had similar experiences in the same quarter, and the periodical in question continues to be a marvel of enterprise and cheapness. M. O. H. What is the true position of affairs in such a case as this? An author (young, struggling, and inexperienced) fires off a composition—say a short story—at the editor of a magazine. He either writes with it to say he "encloses a MS. and hopes it will prove suitable," or writes his name and address on the back of it, and sends postage stamps for its return. The editor "begs to accept it, and encloses a cheque from the proprietors for £5." A few years later, less young, and perhaps less struggling, the author wishes to republish some of his former efforts in a volume, or has a chance of re-selling them, but is confronted with the difficulty that he really does not know whether he has the right to with regard to a story originally disposed of as indicated above. He asks himself and other persons, "Who has the copyright?" Has the writer been employed by the proprietor of the magazine? Have they a joint ownership? Has the author sold the copyright right out? Or has he only sold "serial rights?" Ought not all books to be dated on the title- page with the year and month of publication? Ought not reviewers to state the price of books in reviewing them, and if not, why not? Is a contributor on the staff of more magazines than one justified in proposing an article on the same subject to them all contemporaneously, and if more than one accept, selecting the acceptance which pleases him best? Ought a reviewer to write more than one review of the same book? Ought a publisher's advertisements in his own magazine to be charged to the author? And can a publisher charge such advertisements to the author without first obtaining his consent to an expenditure which goes into the publisher's own pocket? %— In answer to your query I am detailing briefly my own experience, and I understand that many other authors have suffered similar treatment. In 1882 I sent an article to"" (a well-known monthly): it was accepted. It ap- peared 17 months afterwards. I was paid, however, directly it appeared. In 1885 I sent an article to"" (another well-known monthly), and I heard no more of it. It may have appeared, or it may have been lost. I have never seen it in proof, and I have never been paid for it. In this year I sent a short story to a journal with a fair reputation and position. They cut it down, and in so doing cut out a small episode—of itelf unimportant—to which reference happened to be made twice later on in the story. That is, they made nonsense of my work. They did not pay until three months after printing the story. In 1889 I sent a story to a daily paper. They did not accept it or refuse it, or acknowledge it. One day I saw it in print, and three monihs after- wards I received most inadequate payment for it. It appears, however, that I have no remedy. A Scribbler. I sent a story to a weekly journal. They printed it without acknowledgment almost directly after- wards. I wrote a second—not knowing the fortu- nate fate of the first—and sent it to them. Then I heard that the first one had been printed. I wrote to ask for payment. They did not answer. I wrote again. They did not answer, but printed my second story. Months afterwards, with no apology, I received a cheque for both of them. If these people had accepted my first story in the usual manner, I should have looked for it, and if I had been paid for it at the rate I eventually received for the two, I should have never sent them the second story. I can get more from a daily provincial paper and get my money promptly, as well as have proofs sent to me for correction. The paper was" ." A. E.  ## p. 52 (#72) ############################################## 52 THE AUTHOR. AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. R. WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI is at present engaged upon an annotated edition of Shelley's "Adonais" for the Clarendon Press. It will contain a considerable amount of prefatory matter, and a long series of notes. Mr. Rossetti is also engaged u|.on a scries of articles, bearing the title "Portraits of Robert Browning," which are appearing, with copious illustrations, in J he Magazine of Art. Mrs. Brightwen, who is one of the Vice-Presi- dents of the Selborne Society, is issuing a small book, entitled "Wild Nature Won by Kindness." It will be illustrated partly by the author, and partly by Mr. Carruthers Gould, and will be pub- lished by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. Mr. T. Bailey Saunders has in the press "Counsels and Maxims," being the second part of Arthur Schopenhauer's "Aphorismen zur Le- bensweisheit." It is to be uniform with the "Wisdom of Life," the first part of the same work (Swan, Sonnenschein, & Co., 1 vol., 2s. 6d.). His translation of Schopenhauer's "Religion: a Dia- logue," and other Essays, is going into a second edition. Mr. H. G. Keene, CLE., is engaged in editing an Oriental Biographical Dictionary. The work—■ founded on materials collected by the late Mr. Thomas Beale, an assistant of Sir H. Elliot's— was originally brought out in Calcutta undrr the auspices of the Government of the North-West Provinces. As the editor was at a distance from the press, and his time was much forestalled by his official occupation, a good many clerical and typographical errors escaped attention; but the book was found useful by scholars, and is now scarce. Mr. Keene's edition, besides containing corrections of these errors, will also include con- siderable additional matter. It will be published by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., and the price, to subscribers, will be 15J. In the new edition of " Chitty on Contracts," now being issued under the auspices of Mr. J. M. Lely and Mr. Nevill Geary, there will be found (p. 665) a recently settled agreement for publication on com- mission, the author retaining his copyright. The agreement was settled by the Society of Authors. Miss Charlotte M. Yonge has in preparation a story entitled "The Slaves of Sabinus." The scene is laid in the time of Vespasian, and the book will be published in the autumn season. The seventh series of the "Cameos of English History," by the same author, is now appearing. Mr. W. A. Copinger, F.S.A., the author of "The Law of Copyright in Works of Literature and Art," has now in hand a Bibliography of the various editions of the Latin Bible in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with full collations, and fac similes of pages of the principal editions. The life of "Carmen'Sylva," Queen of Rou- mania—a translation from the German (Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co.)—contains numerous extracts from the illustrious lady's poetry, which have been gracefully rendered into English by Sir Edwin Arnold. "Thomas Dain, the Memoirs of an Irish Patriot, 1840-1846," is also announced by the same pub- lisher. The author is Sir Charles Gavan Duffy K.C.M.G. M. Jusserand, author of "English Wayfaring Life," and an honorary foreign member of our Society, has revised and enlarged his work, "Le Roman au temps de Shakespeare," and a translation of it has just been issued (Mr. T. Fisher Unwin). Miss Jane E. Harrison, author of " Myths of the Odyssey, &c," has written an introductory essay, with archaeological comments, to Miss Verrall's work upon Ancient Athens (Messrs. Macmillan & Co.). The Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., of Cheltenham, has just published "A Winter on the Nile" (Hodder and Stoughton, price 6s.), containing the record of a tour up the Nile as far as the Second Cataract, with a sojourn at Luxor and a description of recent discoveries and antiquities at Bubastis and the Fayoum. Marion Crawford's new book, "A Cigarette Maker's Romance," will be published this month (Macmillan). Mr. Edward Clodd's "Story of Creation" will be issued in a cheaper edition next month by Messrs. Longmans. An Italian translation will also be published in Rome shortly. Mr. Edmund Gosse announces the first three volumes of an International Library, under his editorship (William Heineman). Cine is from the French, one from the German, and one from  ## p. 53 (#73) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 53 the Norwegian. A search is to be made on all hands and in all languages for such books as com- bine the greatest literary value with the most curious and amusing qualities of manner and matter. If such a search is only rewarded by a modicum of success a large body of readers should be placed under a great debt to editor and publisher. A new edition of Lamb's "Adventures of Ulysses' will be issued shortly, edited by Mr. Andrew I-arig. The Open Court—a Chicago journal—is at present publishing a series of papers by Mr. T. Bailey Saunders, constituting a short critical re- view of recent theories on the Origin of Reason. Miss Mary Rowsell is engaged upon a biography of Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby (the I^idy of Lathom), (Vizetelly & Co.). The book is to form one of a series of Romantic Biographies. Miss Rowsell is also dramatizing her novel "The Red House." Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G., Her Majesty's Consul at Oporto, author of " Portugal: Old and New," "Beyond the Seas," "Sylvia Arden," is working upon the final revise of "Round the Calendar in Portugal," a book dealing chiefly with rural life and rural themes in that country. The work is copiously illustrated by Miss Dorothy Tennant, Mrs. Arthur Walter, Miss Alice Wood- ward, Miss Winifred Thomson, Mr. Tristram Elles, Mr. Ambrose Lee, and the author. Mr. William Sharp has written a memoir of the great critic to be prefixed to Sainte Beuve's Essays, which are announced by Mr. David Stott, as a volume in a new series, entitled " Masterpieces of Foreign Authors." The latest volume of the Camelat Series, "Northern Studies," is by Mr. Edmund Gosse; the latest volume of the Canterbury Series, "Great Oder," has been selected and edited by Mr. William Sharp (Walter Scott). A new edition of "The Story of a Marriage," by L. Baldwin, will appear immediately (Ward and Downey). "The Roll of the Highland Clans." This is a sheet somewhat similar to "The Roll of Battle Abbey," about 34 inches by 24 inches, on which is an inner scroll bearing the names of the principal cadets, the badge, and coloured specimen of the Tartan of each Clan. It has been prepared by Mrs. Philip Champion de Crespigny, and is sub- scribed in a limited edition by Mr. Bernard Quaritch, at a guinea. Dr. Beattie Crozier, whose book, "Civilization and Progress," met with such success last year, has in hand a book dealing with the Labour Question. The book will be a sequel to "Civilization and Progress," and will be published by Messrs. Long- mans & Co. Mrs. Kennard has begun a new novel in London Society, entitled "A Homburg Beauty." Her story, "That Pretty Little Horse-breaker," will run upon the Syndicate System with Mr. Tillotson, at the end of this year. "John Strange Winter " will also employ the Syn- dicate System over her new novel. This will run as a serial in various newspapers from September to December. Mr. H. J. B. Montgomery, author of "The British Navy in the present Year of Grace," is publishing some reminiscences of the Naval Service in the Naval and Military Argus. These will shortly appear in book form. The names of subscribers to Mr. W. F. Smith's "Rabelais " are rapidly coming in. It is expected that the book will go to press almost immediately. The agent for The Author is Mr. A. P. Watt. Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "A Conference of the Powers," which appeared in The United Services Magazine in this country, was also published simultaneously in America, Australia, and India. Mr. Bret Harte is engaged writing a short story for a syndicate of newspapers. Henry Herman is about to issue shortly "Between the Whiffs" (Arrowsmith). The book is a collection of theatrical anecdotes which have appeared in various journals. William Werlah is writing a fifty thousand word romance for Lippincotfs Magazine, which will probably appear in the August number. The title of it is "Roy the Royalist." It is mainly a romance of adventure, but in part historical. The interest centres round the siege of St. Jean d'Acre (1799), and among the characters introduced are Bonaparte, Sir Sidney Smith, and Ahmed Dgezzar, the famous Pacha of Syria.  ## p. 54 (#74) ############################################## 54 THE AUTHOR. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Allincham, Herbert W., F.R.C.S. Treatment of Internal Diseases of the Knee-joint. J. A. Churchill and Co. i vol. 5s. Archer, William. William Charles Macready. Eminent Actor Series. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co. 1 vol. 2s. 6d. Besant, Walter. Herr Paulus. Chatto and Windus. 1 vol. 2s. "Bickerdyke, John." The Book of the All-round Angler. L. Upcott Gill. 1 vol. 5s. 6d. Large Paper Edition. 25*. Black, William. The Penance of John Logan. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol. 6s. Blackmore, R. D. Mary Annesley. Cheap Edition. Sampson Low. 1 vol. 2^. Springhaven: a Tale of the Great War. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol. 6*. Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bash- kirtseff. Cassell and Co. 1 vol. Bramston, M., and Coleridge, C. R. Truth with Honour. Smith and Innes. 1 vol. 5^. Browning, Oscar. The Life of George Eliot. 1 vol. Walter Scott. Calmour, A. C. Confessions of a Doormat. F. V. White and Co. 1 vol. if. Clifton, Alice. An Unwilling Wife. Reming- ton and Co. 6.?. Collins, Mabel. Ida; An Adventure in Morocco. Smith, Elder and Co. 1 vol. is. Cooke, C. W. Radcliffe, M.P. Four Years in Parliament, with Hard Labour. A reprint, with additions, of articles which have appeared in The Times and National Rwiew. 1 vol. W. H. Allen and Co. Four Years in Parliament with Hard Labour. W. H. Allen. 1 vol. 2s. 6d. Copincer, W. A., F.S.A. A Treatise on Pre- destination, Election, and Grace. Jas. Nisbet. 1 vol. 10s. 6d. Crawford, T. Marion. Sarinesca. New Edition. Messrs. Blackwood and Sons. 1 vol. 6s. With the Immortals. New Edition. 1 vol. Macmillan and Co. Cunningham, Dr. W. Growth of English Indus- try and Commerce, Early and Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. Davies, Helen. For so Little. Swan Sonnen- schein and Co. 1 vol. 6/. Edwardes, Charles. Sardinia and the Sardes. Richard Bentley and Son. 1 vol. Erichsen, J. Eric, F.R.S. The Art of Surgery. 9th Edition. In 2 vols. Longmans and Co. $2S. Esler, E. Rentoul. The Way of Transgressors. Sampson Low 3 vols. 3 if. 6d. Ffoulkes, L. Florence. Sunlight and Shade: Poems. Field and Tuer. 1 vol. 6s. Frazer, J. G. 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The Indian Religion; or, Results of the Mysterious Buddhism: concerning that also which is to be understood in the Divinity of Fire. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co. 1 vol. 1 os. 6d. Jusserand, J. J. (Hon. Member). The English novel in the time of Shakespeare. Translated by Elizabeth Lee. T. Fisher Unwin. 1 vol. 21S. Keary, C. F. A Mariage de Covenance. T. Fisher Unwin. 2 vols. 21s.  ## p. 55 (#75) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 55 Kipling, Rudyard. The Story of the Gadsleys. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. i vol is. Lankester, Prof. E. Ray, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. The Advancement of Science. Macmillan and Co. i vol. io*. 6d. Lawless, Emily. With Essex in Ireland. Smith, Elder and Co. i vol. 7.?. 6d. Lely, J. M., and Geary, Nevill. Chitty on Contracts. 12th Edition. Newly arranged in 27 chapters, with much added matter, and increased facilities for reference. Sweet Max- well, Limited. 1 vol. Lytton, Earl, G.C.B. The Ring of Amasis. Macmillan and Co. 1 vol. 3*. 6d. . McCarthy, Justin H., M.P. The French Revo- lution. Chatto and Windus. Vol. I and II. 12s. each. McCarthy, Justin, M.P., and Praed, Mrs. Campbell. The Ladies' Gallery. 1 vol. 2s. 6d. Mackail, J. W. The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil. Rivingtons. 1 vol. 5-r. Martineau, Dr. James. The Seat of Authority in Religion. Longmans and Co. Middlemore, S. G. C. Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. A Translation of Buck- hardt's work. 1 vol. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. Montgomery, H. J. B. The British Navy in the present year of Grace. Hamilton, Adams and Co. 3 vols. Price 6.r. each vol. Morrison, W. D. The Jews under Roman Rule. 1 vol. 5s. Murray, D. Christie, and Herman, Henry. The Bishops' Bible. Chatto and Windus. 3 vols. 31s. 6d. Nicoll, Dr. W. Robertson, and Macnicoll, A. N. Prof. W. G. Elmslie, D.D., Memoirs and Sermons. Hodder and Stoughton. Oliphant, Mrs. The Duke's Daughter, and the Fugitives. W. Blackwood and Sons. 3 vols. 31 s. 6d. Payn, James. 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M. M. Oxford: its Life and Schools. Methuen and Co. 1 vol. 5J. Toynbee, William. Lays of Common Life. Remington and Co. 1 vol. 35. 6d. Traill, H. D. Saturday Songs. W. H. Allen and Co. 1 vol. $s. 6d. Tytler, Sarah. French Janet. Smith, Elder and Co. 1 vol. 2s. Vallings, Harkold. The Quality of Mercy. Gardner and Co. 2 vols. 21s. Vaughan, Very Rev. C. J., Master of the Temple, The Epistle to the Hebrews. Macmillan and Co. 1 vol. Walford, Edward, M.A. Tales of our Great Families. Chatto and Windus. 1 vol. y. 6d. Westall, William. Strange Crimes. 5*. "Winter, John Strange." Ferrers Court. F. V. White and Co. 1 vol. is. Dinna Forget. Trischler and Co. 1 vol. is. 6d. Mrs. Bob. New Edition. F. V. White and Co. 1 vol. 2s. 6d. Yonge, Miss Charlotte. The Reputed Change- ling: a Story of the period of James II, and William III. Macmillan and Co. 2 vols. 12s.  ## p. 56 (#76) ############################################## 56 A D VER TISEMENTS. "THE LITERARY HAJYDJWAID OF THE CHURCH." HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING. NOW READY. This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation' issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of England throughout the world." The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps. THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION, BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A. NEARLY READY. This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.  ## p. 57 (#77) ############################################## A D VER TISEMEN IS. 57 MESSRS. WHITTAKER'S BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Large post Zvot doth js. 6d.; half bound, 9*. SOBRIQUETS AND NICKNAMES. By Albert Krey. With an Index arranged by True Names. '• The first work that has been devoted to the explanation and derivation of the numberless witty and sometimes abusive appellations ... it deserves the heartiest praise."—Glasgow Herald. "More than five thousand subjects are given, and the information supplied is trustworthy and often extensive; a close scrutiny of the book shows the work to be thoroughly done."—Notes and Queries. "Offers an ample fund of information and amusement—deserves a place in every well-chosen library."—Morning Post. A Dictionary 0/Parisisms and French Slang. Large Post Bcw, ior. &/. ARGOT AND SLANG. A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris. By A. Bakkere, Officierde PInstruction Publique, Professor R. M. Academy, Woolwich. The work treats of the cant of thieves; the jargon rf Parisian roughs; the military-, naval, parliamentary, academical, legal, and freemasons' slang, of that of the workshop, the studio, the stage, the boulevards, the demimonde. A Companion to the Works op Allan Ramsay, R. Burns, Sir W. Scott and all the Scottish Poets. Just published* large post Bvo, cloth, 71. 6d., or half bound 8*. 6t£. a dictionary of lowland scotch, with an Introductory chapter on the Literary History and the Poetry and Humour of the Scottish language, and an appendix of Scottish Proverbs. By Charles Mack ay, LL.D. Also a large paper edition, limited to 125 copies, each numbei ed and signed by the Author, of which a few are still on sale, in Vellum, at £1 5*., and in Roxburgh, at £1 10s. I-ondon: WHITTAKER & Co., Paternoster Square. THE SURVEY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Only 17 sets of this magnificent work nmv remain. It will never be reprinted, with the exception of the two volumes "Flora and Fauna " and "Jerusalem." The price of the set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven uniform and handsomely bound volumes, i/to. THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field by Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E., and Colonel Kitchener C. M.G., A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after their return. 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(Only 12 Copies left). Palmer's Folk Etymology. (Only8ocopies left.) Scrivener's Codex Bezae. Smith's Synonyms Discriminated. London: GEORGE BELL & SONS, York St., Covent Garden.  ## p. 58 (#78) ############################################## 5S AD VER TISEMENTS. TYPE-WRITING! TO AUTHORS! AUTHORS' MSS., LECTURES, SPEECHES, ESSAYS, and REPORTS Copied at 1/3 per 1,000 Words. MS. Type-written at ij- per 1,000. Duplicate Copies 6d. per 1,000 (for over 10,000 words). Plays from 5/- per act. Shorthand Writers and Type-writers sent out to Hotels. For further particulars write or call at— TYPE-WRITING HEADQUARTERS, Type-Writers Sold and Let on Hire. 38, KING WILLIAM STREET, E-C. Booh and Jobbing Printers, and Lithographers. THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL OF SHORTHAND, Ltd., 27, Chancery Lane, W.C. Estimates given for all kinds ok Printing. TELEPHONE NO. 2801. TELEGRAMS "SHORTHAND." LONDON. MRS. OXXiIi, Misses GILL & CARPENTER, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, EX. TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, Authors' MSS. carefully copied from i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy (carbon) supplied free of charge. 6, ADAM STREET, References kindly permitted to many well-known Authors and Publishers. Further particulars on application. STRAND, W.C. OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property. 2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright. 3. The promotion of International Copyright. The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as follows:— a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing. ft. It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are injurious to their interests. 7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands of unscrupulous traders. f.. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province. 6. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the pecuniary interest of their works. WARNINGS. Authors are most earnestly warned— (1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them. (2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society. (3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of publishers. (4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society. (5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society. (6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice. (7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known houses, to pay small houses for the production of the work.  ## p. 58 (#79) ############################################## A D VER riSEMEN TS. iii. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders. THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on. The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the cost of a Bar-Lock. Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System. CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED. W. J. RICHARDSON k Co, 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C. 40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building, Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance oi Literary Property. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer^. 2.?. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4s. 6d. S The History of the Socidte" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society. is. 6. The Cost Of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession willfollow.  ## p. 58 (#80) ############################################## IV. AD VER TISEMENTS. CHEAP PRINTING, A NECESSITY OF THE AGE!!! Attention U called to the following important features of this Company:— There is no Promotion Money to be paid. There is no Payment for Goodwill or Old and Worn-out Machinery and Plant. There are no Founders' Shares, all the Profits belonging to tin Shareholders without preference or distinction The ECONOMIC PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY, Limited. Incorporated under the Companies Acts, 1862 io 18S6. O^.X*XT^.Z. - - - £100,000. 100,000 SHARES OK £1 EACH UPON WHICH IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT NOT MORE THAN ioj. PER SHARE WILL BE CALLED UP AT PRESENT. ISSUE OF 100,000 SHARES, payable as follows:-2s. Bd. per SHARE on APPLICATION, 2s. 6d. per SHARE on ALLOTMENT Two Months' notice will be given oj subsequent Cells, -which are not Co excxfJ 3s. M. each. DIRECTORS. JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Esq., M.P., 20, Cheyne Gardens, S.W., Chairman. JOSEPH HOULTON, Esq. (Messrs. Joseph Houlton & Co., Limited), Printers and Publishers, Worship Street, E.C. A. MONTAGUE HAINES, Esq. (Messrs. Haines & Co.), 155, Fenchurch Street, E.C, and Lloyd's. CAMPBELL PRAED, Esq., 30, Norfolk Square. HENRY P. WELCH, Esq. (Messrs. Welch, Perrin, & Co.), 7, Mark Lane, E.C. And one or two Directors to be chosen by the Board from the first Shareholders. Bankers.—Messrs. WILLIAMS, DEACON & Co., 20, Birchin Lane, E C.; Messrs. PRAED & Co., 189, Fleet Street, E.C. Solicitors.—Messrs. SAUNDERS, HAWK.SFORD, BENNETT, & Co., 68, Coleman Street, London, E.C. Broker.—TAMES GILLISPIE, Esq., 11, Copthall Court, E.C, and Stock Exchange. Auditors.—Messrs. PiXLEY it Co., Chartered Accountants, 24, Moorgate Street, E.C. Architect.—WILLIAM DAWES, Esq., Manchester and London. Secretary {pro />/».).—A. G. SYMONDS, Esq., M.A. Oxon. Registered Offices (pro tern.).—68, Coleman Street, London, E.C. 1' I;, PROSPECTUS. The Company is formed for the purpose of engaging in the business of cheap printing and publishing on a large scale. The demand for cheaper books, magazines, and newspapers, is rapidly on the increase owing to the spread of education and the growth of population. Hundreds of the best serial publications and standard works are beyond the reach of the masses by reason of their virtually prohibitive prices ; whilst the works of specialists in the various scientific and learned professions find but a limited field amongst those for whom they are intended, because the purchasing of books, varying in price from six shillings to thirty shi lings a volume, constitutes a severe tax on the fixed incomes of many pro- fessional men. Recent developments in printing machinery prove that cheap and good books, magazines, and general literature is certainly attainable, especially if modern plant and appliances be combined under one administration and under one roof. A Printing Establishment combining all the aforesaid requisites in one set of hands, with abundance of the newest plant, and placed in the position of a ready cash purchaser of paper, will be enabled to produce printed literature—the greatest necessity of the age—cheaply and on a large scale, and in a quarter of the time it would otherwise take to turn out work. Good printing or publishing houses, even in the worst times, are hardly ever idle ; and the continuous high dividends declared by them attest the solid and profitable nature of the printing and publishing industry generally. The following are the only firms whose Shares are quoted in the Stock Exchange Official List, &c. :— Ord. Share Capital. £363,890 j£toO|Coo ... 10 ... 10 ... 21 The Shares in these and other similar Companies are held in high repute, and are difficult to obtain, the concerns being in some cases little more than private family partnerships, from participation in the profits of which both author*, customers, and the general public are shut out. Accordingly, the Company will erect entirely new workshops on an eligible site near London which the Directors have in view. Some of the best modern printing works are now situated at Guildford, Aylesbury, Redhill, Kingston, and other places outside I,ondon. The Company's workshops will have good railway and cartage facilities. They will be erected from the designs of Mr. William Dawes, Architect, of Manchester and London. Their estimated cost is moderate, and the buildings are designed on such a scale as will admit of gradual expansion in sections as business grows. The first sec.ion can be open for business, already promised, within a few monthi of the allotment of shares. They will be fitted throughout with the electric li.-;ht, a great boon in itself to compositors. As they will be new, great expenses for repairs will be avoided; and, being practically fireproof, their insurance will be at low rates. No payments have been or will be mad-i for ' ooodvill' or promotion money, or, in fact, initiatory charges of any kind other than the pre- liminary expenses incident to the fonnatioq and successful establishment of the Company. The Directors believe that the value of the shares will at least equal CasseU & Co., Limited , Waterlow Bros. & Lay ton Limited , Num. value uf Shares. I*3iu* up. 9 •• Market Price. those of the Companies mentioned above, and that there is every probability of substantial dividends. In the selection of the printing plant the Directors have taken into consideration the fact that, whereas in all but one of the branches connected with the printing of books and newspapers enormous economies have in the past fifty years been effected, mainly through the increased productive power of various machines, in -the one central and essential branch, viz., the composing room, not only have the expenses increased, but the modus operandi is almost as primitive as in the days of Guthenberg and Caxton. The Directors believe that the machine known as the Linotype Com- posing Machine is capable of effecting the largest nett economies over the present cost of type-setting by hand, and that by adopting it they save a large capital outlay for type. They have accordingly contracted for a supply of Linotype Machines under special conditions, of which the following are among the most important: The rate of wages paid to ordinary compositors in London varies m piece work from 8d. to tod. per 1,000ens of typeset up, corrected, and distributed ; but the Linotype Company (Limited), agrees to hire to the Economic Printing and Publishing Company Linotype Composing Machines, and to charge a Royalty equal to only 2d. per 1,000 ens of matter set up, corrected, and automatically distributed. When machines are unemployed, a small sum only is charged for each working hour. The Linotype Company also gives to this Company a monopoly as regards the use of their machines for London and ten miles round, subject only to certain exceptions. To make the Company's operations partake as largely as possible of a co-operative character, a percentage rebate off the ordinary printing tariff" will be allowed to all authors who are shareholders in the Company, and all employes will, as far as possible, be chosen first from amongst the shareholders. It is intended to apply to the Stock Exchange for a quotation. The following contract has been entered into: Contract dated the 3rd day of June, 1890, made between the Linotype Company (Limited) of the one part, and A. G. Symonds, as trustee for the Company, of the other part, being the contract referred to above. The above is the only contract to which the Company is a party, but arrangements have been made with other persons relating to the pre- liminary expenses of formation of the Company, and procuring .capital which may constitute contracts within the meaning of section 38 of the Companies Acts, 1867; but applicants for shares shall be deemed to waive their rights to specification of any particulars of such arrange- ments or contracts, and to accept the above statements as sufficient compliance with Section 38 of the Companies Acts, 1867. The Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Contract men- tioned above can be inspected by applicants for Shares at the Offices of the Company's Solicitors. Applications for Shares may he made by letter or on the prescribed form, and forwarded, with a remittance for the amount of the deposit payable on application, to the Bankers of the Company, or to the Secretary, at the Office of the Company. If the whole amount applied for by any applicant is not allotted, the surplus paid on deposits will be credited to the sum due on allotment, and where no allotment U made the deposit will be returned in full. PROSPECTUSES AND FORMS OF APPLICATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE OFFICES OF THE COMPANY, OR OF EITHER OF THE BANKERS, BROKER, OR SOLICITORS OF THE COMPANY. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster. 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. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-06-16-The-Author-1-2 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/239/1890-05-19-The-Author-1-1.pdf ae892ea373becd69c31163f89cd21da5 PDF Text Text ���������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1890-05-19 Volume 1 Issue 1 Pages Page range in volume 1–24 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18900519 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Vol. I.--No. 1.] MAY 15, 1890. [Price, Sixpence. The Author. THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED). CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Published for the Societe by ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1890.  ## p. (#12) ################################################# The Society of Authors (Jncorporated). PRESIDENT. THE RIGHT Hon. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. . SIR EDWIN ARNOLN, K.C.S.I. ROBERT BATEMAX. WALTER BESANT. - Rev. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S. T. COMyxS CARK. EDWARD CLODD). ThĚ EARL OF DESART. A. W. DUBOURG. PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R:S. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D. EDMUND GOSSE. II. RIDER HAGGARD. THOMAS HARDY. PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S. COUNCIL. Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A. GEORGE MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. J. C. PARKINSON, The EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY, SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D. WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. W. BAPTISTE Scoones, J. J. STEVENSON. JAS. SULLY. WILLIAM MOY THOMAS. H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.. Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. : Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S. COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. Robert BATEMAN. EDMUND Gosse.. Chairman-WALTER BESANT. H. RIDER HAGGARD. J. M. Lely. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. A. G. Ross. Solicitors. Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES. 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.  ## p. (#13) ################################################# (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. A/onth/v.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vol. I.—No. i.] MAY 15, 1890. [Price Sixpence. CONTENTS. The Author Something like a Publisher The First Principles of Literary Property Notes on Copyright A Hard C The Helpable Author On Committee Literary Queries, No. 1 1 Dinner—To p Editions : Advice PAGE ... 13 ... 14 ... 15 ... 15 ... 18 .. 18 A copy of this paper will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 65. 6d. including postage, to be sent to the Society, 4, Portugal Street, W.C. representative gathering, ana uie uu^u have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few, and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to be considered th?t no discussions can have any real value which are not founded on knowledge of the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost; then, even if they are read and preserved, there is no place for discussion, for questions, or for suggestions. The private member of the Society would feel that he was taking no real part in its will intorni thought the he right, too •e would be by writing a d before the many points to have our De the organ ds—the one .nd ventilate ofession of rill be the our Society heir doings, and it will become a public record 01 transactions conducted in the interests of literature, which have hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want of such an organ. The chief aim of the Society—this has been advanced again and again—is to promote the recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly understood, that literary property is as real a thing as property in every other kind of business: that it should be safeguarded in the same manner, and regarded with the same jealousy. Hitherto the mere existence of literary property  ## p. (#14) ################################################# The Society of Authors (Jncorporated). PRESIDENT. THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L. SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I. ROBERT BATEMAN. WALTER BESANT. Rev. PROF. Bonnev, F.R.S. T. COMyxS CARK. EDWARD CLODD. THE EARL OF DESART COUNCIL. Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A. GEORGE MEREDITH. HERMAN C. MERIVALE. T. C. PARKINSON, THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D. G. ROSS. Solicitors, Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. OFFICES 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.  ## p. 1 (#15) ############################################### The Author. (The Orgon of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. VOL. I.—No. 1.] MAY 15; 1890. [Price SIXPENCE. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE ... 13 ... 14 ... The Author ... Something like a Publisher ... The First Principles of Literary Property Notes on Copyright ... A Hard Case, No. I.... Questions and Answers Leaflet No. I.-On Syndicating The Press and the Society ... ... 6 The Helpable Author On Committee... Literary Queries, No. 1 ... At Work ... ... Notes.-The Annual Dinner-To those who seek Advice New Books and New Editions ... Advertisements ... 8 ... 10 THE AUTHOR. management and government. If he thought the Committee was moving too slowly in the right, too THE Report of the Society of Authors for the quickly in the wrong, direction—there would be year 1890 spoke of the great importance no opportunity for saying so, except by writing a of keeping members more fully and more letter to the Secretary, to be by him laid before the regularly supplied with information, not only on the Committee. work of the Executive Committee, but also on the Considering the question from its many points various matters which concern the author in the of view, it has seemed most desirable to have our safeguarding of his interests and the preservation own organ for our own purposes. of his property. The simplest method of effecting The Author is therefore founded to be the organ this, it was thought, would be to hold frequent meel- of literary men and women of all kinds—the one ings for the purpose of conference and discussion. paper which will fully review, discuss, and ventilate As, however, a large number of our members live in all questions connected with the profession of the country, we could seldom hope to obtain a really literature in all its branches. It will be the representative gathering, and the discussions would medium by which the Committee of our Society have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few, will inform its members generally of their doings, and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to and it will become a public record of transactions be considered that no discussions can have any real conducted in the interests of literature, which have value which are not founded on knowledge of hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little of such an organ. of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that The chief aim of the Society—this has been occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the advanced again and again-is to promote the facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost; understood, that literary property is as real a thing then, even if they are read and preserved, there as property in every other kind of business : that it is no place for discussion, for questions, or for should be safeguarded in the same manner, and suggestions. The private member of the Society regarded with the same jealousy. would feel that he was taking no real part in its Hitherto the mere existence of literary property  ## p. 2 (#16) ############################################### 2 THE AUTHOR. even in the face of such patent facts as the enrich- ment of publishers, has been carefully concealed and even denied. Risks of publishing, costs of publishing, have been dangled before the eyes of authors, so that they should regard the subject as one of extreme peril and pure speculation. One can never even now read a leading article about publishing without being solemnly assured that the trade is one in which frightful risks are constantly run, and that the success of any book is pure speculation. Now, as a matter of fact, there is very little speculation indeed in publishing, and there are very, very few publishers—only the leading houses —who ever run any risks at all, either by buying books or by bringing out books at a risk. Risks are run when a House starts a magazine, or when it embarks on illustrated editions of an expensive kind, or when educational books are published. The ordinary risk run in the production of books is, as a rule, next to nothing. For, first, the author is seldom paid except by results; next, the author, when a house consents to "take the risk," is, for the most part, one who commands a certain sale. With the smaller houses books about which there is the slightest risk are always paid for by the authors in advance, either wholly or in part. And very, very seldom indeed, do the ill-advised authors who advance their money ever see it back again. Again, as to the actual cost of production. By carefully keeping this a profound secret, interested persons have succeeded in establishing a kind of taboo, as of some holy, sacred thing which must not be so much as touched. We have, however, thoroughly investigated the whole question, and are now in a position to throw complete light upon the cost of producing any kind of book that can be named, in any type and in any form. This is a very important step. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. It enables the author, for the very first time in the history of literature, to know what it is he is asked to concede to the publisher, and what it is he reserves for himself. We have also done more: we have collected together a vast amount of information as to pub- lishers' agreements: especially as to what, in reality, is the meaning of the clauses contained in them: we have ascertained what it is they ask the author to surrender and for what consideration. And we have acquired a knowledge of various frauds, made possible by the terms of these agreements, in the different methods of publishing. This knowledge is so beneficial to the author that its existence ought to be widely spread and made known to every person who is engaged in the production of literature of any kind. Again, the Society is constantly engaged in answering questions connected with every branch of literature and its practice. Many of these ques- tions are answered by letter over and over again, taking up a great deal of the Secretary's time. They would be answered much more effectively in a journal. It follows from these clauses that we may have a good deal to say about the seamy side of the pub- lishing trade. It must, however, be borne in mind very carefully that the Society has not and never has had, any quarrel with honourable publishers. It has always asked for one thing only—''ustand honest treatment, fair and of en agreements, and honourable observance of those agreements. It has therefore been determined to establish this journal as an organ for the especial use of the Society. At first we shall bring out The Author on the fifteenth of every month. The journal will contain papers, notes, letters, questions, and in- formation on all subjects connected with literature and its profession. The members of the Society will be kept informed of all that part of our work which is not confidential. Among other features of novelty and interest will be an account in each number of some one case that has been brought before the Society—of course without the names. The consideration of these cases will, we are certain, show the world the absolute necessity for some such organisation as our own, though the widespread ignorance which we have unfolded was hardly guessed by our founders at our first institution. Each number will also contain an article or leaflet on some topic be- longing to our own interests. There will be notes on the various branches of our work. Our columns will be open to suggestions, letters, and questions.  ## p. 3 (#17) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 6 We shall send out this journal to all our members as their own organ. We shall continue it for one year at least. We shall be very glad to hear from members who may be willing to assist us by original contri- butions, which should be short, and on some subject belonging to our special field, which is the safeguarding of literary property for the producer of literature. Members are invited to send in notices of the books which they are about to produce, and copies of their books when they appear. It is intended to give a short notice of the purpose and contents of these works when this is possible. In the case of fiction a very brief account, but not a review, will be attempted. * SOMETHING LIKE A PUBLISHER. —•— I. HE was a young man, and he was from the country. He stood in the bar of a Camden Town public-house, and he turned abouta glass ofstout in his hand with anxious countenance. Many young men of anxious coun- tenance may be seen in London bars all day long. He had the customary cigarette of vile paper and bad tobacco between his lips. Beside him, also with a glass of stout in his hand, stoodanolder man,upon whom fifty springs, at least, had smiled in sunshine and in shower. His face showed the soft influences of the former, but in patches, as one on the right cheek, one on the end of the nose, and one on the forehead. Thus will flowers grow in my lady's garden, here a few and there more, for Nature loves not regularity. His coat also showed by its appearance that many springs had distilled upon it many showers. The habits of the man could be easily inferred from his appear- ance : he was one of those who look upon wine when they can get it, but not for long, because they make haste to swallow it; when there is no wine, such a man looks upon, and swallows, any other kind of drink that is ardent and intoxicating; such anonealso loves tobacco, the society of men, and the flare of gas lamps. As for his profession, that was more difficult to discuss. Not exactly a sporting man, though probably ready to get a "bit upon a cert."—hiseyes lacked the shrewdness of thesporting man, and he was too shabby: not a journalist—he was too slow in his movements, and his speech; journalists, even if they loaf about the bar, always possess a certain smartness: not a clerk, that is, not a clerk in a berth: not a tradesman, or a working man, or an artist of any kind. A certain cunning, of the kind harshly called low, lurked in his eyes and on his lips. He might certainly be set down as one who lived by his wits, and that in spite of his character and reputation. Now when you have lost your character it is a good thing to have some wits to fall back upon. "Seems to me," said the young man, "that there is not a single berth left in the whole of London." "Not without a hundred fighting for it," said the elder. "I've stumped round every place of business in London and I can find nothing." "What might be your line, young man?" "Why, when I came up to town I thought that something in the publishing line" "Publishing?" echoed the other. "Ah! that is a line and no mistake—if you're fly to the dodges. Publishing? Ah !" he heaved a deep sigh. "If I only had the capital—ever so little capital—I say —ever so little capital," he repeated meaningly, "there is a fortune in it—for self and partner—a fortune, I say. Easy living after the first fortnit, and a fortune afterwards." "Why? Are you a publisher, then?" "Do I look like it in this get up? No. But I wish I was. Young man, there isn't a trick on the cards but I know it. There isn't a dodge in the trade that I ain't up to." "Where did you learn it?" "Never mind that. Perhaps I had a berth in a publisher's house. Perhaps I hadn't. That's my business. Young man, have you got any capital?" "Mighty little." "Let's go partners. I'll find the business and you shall find the money. How much have you got?" The young man emptied his waistcoat pocket, There was a small heap of silver. "Thai's all I've got," he said. He counted it. "Comes to thirty- four shillings and thruppence." He put back the money in his pocket. "Capital? I wish I had any." The eyes of the other man twinkled with greed. "Thirty-four shillings?" he cried. "Why there's enough and more than enough. Keep the four and thruppence for yourself. Miss, two fours of Scotch—I'll stand. Good Lord! man, your for- tune's made. Hands upon it, partner." "Why" "Hands upon it, I say. I'll land the first Juggins in a week. Then the way they'll come in will astonish you. It will indeed. Here's success to the firm."  ## p. 4 (#18) ############################################### 4 THE AUTHOR. In this way, and on a capital of thirty shillings, was founded the Imperial and Colonial Publishing Company, Limited. You may, however, look in vain for the registration of the Company, because it never was registered. II. The advertised offices of the Company were in a small street leading out of a main thoroughfare. Those who called upon the manager, if they worked their way up the stairs, found that the offices con- sisted of one room at the back of the second floor; there was no brass plate; publicity was not courted in any way; and the manager was out. Two girls rang the bell. A woman came up from the depths below. "He's out, Miss," she said to their enquiry. "We have called every day at different times and he is always out." "He is generally out, Miss. Business takes him out. But he comes for his letters. There's lots of letters and parcels "At that moment a red cart stopped at the door and delivered three bulky parcels. "They're always coming. You write to him and you'll get an answer. Better write than call." The girls turned away. They were gentlewomen, but not rich. One glance at their gloves showed so much. Another at their jackets confirmed the first impressions. They were, however, gentle- women, and they were sisters. "Nell," said one, "the man is a rogue, I am sure of it. No one but a rogue would hide himself away. He is a rogue." The other one sighed heavily. "Oh!" she said, "who is to keep ignorant girls like us from the hands of rogues? What shall I do? What shall I do?" "Have you sent him all he wanted, dear?" "All. He asked first for ^45. He said if I would give him ^45 that would be the whole of my risk, and he would take the rest. He said that I should have three-fourths of all the money that the book produced. He said that his reader reported so favourably that its success was certain. You know how I got the money, dear." "You sold everything, your watch and chain, your two rings, your bracelet, and the silver spoons that had been grandmother's. Oh! I know." "Then he wrote again and said that he had made a mistake, and must have ten pounds more, and I found that and sent it him, and since then I can get nothing—no answer to my letters—no proofs—nothing!" "Nell, he is a rogue. And oh! to think of the months and months of work you have given to the story. Nell, it was a beautiful story. Oh 1 we will, we must, do something to the man." "Yes, dear. But who is to pay the lawyer?" "Can you write it all over again?" "What's the use when the man has got the right of publishing it?" "Nell, sit down and write another." "No," she answered, " I have no heart to write another. Let us go home, dear. I will take that place of cashier in the draper's shop—fifteen hours a day and eight shillings a week; that will be better—anythingwill be better than meeting another McAndrew. Oh! I have no heart," her voice choked, " I have no heart to try again." III. "My name is Trencher, and if you'll give me only five minutes, I should take it kindly." "I will give you those five minutes," said the Secretary, with affability. "Now, Mr. Trencher, what is your business?" Mr. Trencher was a young man of fashionable get up, yet, as nasty particular persons would say, not quite. In fact, certainly nowhere near. His manner, however, at this moment betrayed anxiety. He was jumpy: in certain circles, it would be whispered that it looked like "having 'em again." He produced, with trembling fingers, a card on which was written this legend "Imperial and Colonial Publishing Company, Limited. Manager, Mr. A. McAndrew." "A., Christian name. Stands for Ananias?" asked the Secretary. "I don't know. It's about him" he said mysteriously. "It's about A. McAndrew. If you can run him in I don't care what happens." "I know a good deal about this gentleman already," said the Secretary. "I'll tell you all about him. He got my money first—thirty shillings he had off o' me. That's how we began. We were to go partners and he was to manage. First he put an advertisement in the papers." "It is here," said the Secretary, laying his hand on a book. "Country papers at first—saying that all MSS. would be carefully considered, and that the Com- pany were prepared to offer most liberal terms. We had a dozen replies to that first batch of advertisements. Lucky we had, because there was no more money for a second batch. Out of the dozen we got ten MSS. sent up. Out of the ten three stood in with our terms. In a week we divided a hundred and five pounds between us." "Your terms," said the Secretary, "were con- tained in this letter. He opened the book and read. 'Our reader has reported so favourably on your MSS. that we are prepared to offer you the following liberal terms. You will send us the sum  ## p. 5 (#19) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 5 of £$0 or '—or whatever it was—' and we will publish your book at no risk or expense to your- self, and we agree to meet all demands up to 10,000 copies. All proceeds to be divided into two por- tions: one of two-thirds for yourself, the other of one-third for the Company. You will kindly reply at your earliest convenience, because in the present enormous press of work the Company cannot keep such an offer open. 'Your obedient servant, 'A. (meaning Ananias) McAndrew, 'Manager. 'P.S.—The present is the best time of year for publishing.'" "That's the letter," said Mr. Trencher ; "always the same letter. No occasion ever to alter that letter, except the figures, sometimes." "And with that single letter you bagged your prey?" "Yes. Oh! He knew what he was about. No Juggins like a liter'y Juggins, he used to say, and I'm sure he was right. Believe all you tell 'em, they will—anything you tell 'em. You can't pile it up too high. Well, sir, three year ago that game begun." "I see. And how many works did you actually have sent you?" "First and last there was more than a hundred." "And how many did you publish?" The fellow grinned. "Well, what with putting off and telling lies, and not answering letters, he didn't actually print more than three. Sometimes a first sheet would be struck off just to keep 'em amused, but not if he could help it, because it runs into money. The printers wouldn't set it up without being paid beforehand." "Shameful want of confidence." "Mostly they gave up writing, when they found they got no reply." "And those you did print?" "Well; we printed a hundred copies and gave the author a dozen, and there was an end of that." "Where are the MSS.?" "He's got'em. They're no use, though. He won't make anything out of them. There's a hundred and more lying there. All paid fcr." "I judge, therefore, from your coming here to make a clean breast of it, that you and your partner have quarrelled?" "It's like this, mister. He says to me, three months ago, he says, 'Pardner,' he says, 'the game's getting much too hot for us. Time for us to separate. Time for us to go divers ways, as wide apart as we can. Now we'll value the business and I'll buy. you out.' That's what he says. Well, I, thinking that sooner or later there must be a shindy, and that he'd get run in—not me—because, you know, this kind of business after all, is" "It certainly is," said the Secretary. "And some time or other somebody who'd been kidded on to stump up would go before a magis- trate" "Which would be awkward," said the Secretary. "Jes' so. I says, then, 'Give me my share,' I says, 'and lemme go.' So we valued the business and agreed. I was to have four hundred quid for my share—that was agreed—and I took it in a three months bill, and went away and started on my own account. The Royal Britannic Federated Publishing Company, mine was. J. Trencher, Manager." "J. standing for Judas, probably," said the Secre- tary. "Excuse me. You have done pretty well?" "No, I haven't done at all well yet. And I don't know what you mean about Judas, neither." "Never mind. Pray go on," said the Secretary. "We are coming apparently to the most interesting part." "I hadn't been started a week before the letters began to come in." "What letters? More MSS.?" "No. Letters from the people he'd done out of their money. What does he do? Oh! the villain! Directly after I was out of the office, he tells every- body who threatened or complained that his case belonged to me, and he must write to me and that I was no longer his partner. There are fifty of 'em at this moment wanting their money and their MSS. back. Well, I could have stood that, because you can't give people what you haven't got. But yester- day—yesterday—" Here his emotion got almost too much for him—" the bill fell due. You'd hardly believe it, but it's true. His bill fell due—the bill for that four hundred, my share of the business, it fell due, and I presented it and—and—no one would believe that such a villain could be living" "It was not met, I suppose ?" said the Secretary. "No—it wasn't met. He's done me out of my share and he's got the business still, and he's turning over all the people that are going to bring actions on to me. And now I'm ruined, and I come to you to make a clean breast of it, if you can run him in.' Mr. Ananias McAndrewis, however, still at large, and when last we heard he was beginning the game again under another name and with a new company. Note by the Editor.—This story is literally and exactly true. The man, we have just learned, is really beginning the game over again. Moral.— Never answer an advertisement of a so-called pub- lisher without first writing to the Society for advice.  ## p. 6 (#20) ############################################### 6 7 HE AUTHOR. THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF LITERARY PROPERTY. THE following considerations and maxims may appear to some readers elementary. The cases which constantly arise before the Society prove, however, that like the Ten Com- mandments, it is wise to have them exposed to view, and to be frequently reminded of them. 1. Literary property is a very real thing. It is as real as property in land, houses, mines, or any other kind of property. Hundreds of people live upon its proceeds in great luxury, plenty, and comfort. Thousands of people live upon it by thrift and carefulness. 2. When a man has made a book lie has increased the wealth of the country, provided it be a book serviceable to the community and saleable. 3. He has created this wealth; it is his own; he must be as careful not to part with it, except for a just consideration, as if it were a mine or a quarry, or an estate. 4. Literary property is subject to the laws which protect all other property; the simplest and the mostcomprehensive of these laws is the Eighth Com- mandment, "Thou shalt not steal." Applied to literature and to the persons whose business it is to buy and sell various forms of literature, the Commandment is thus to be inter- preted, "Thou shalt not cheat the author in buying his work from him; thou shalt not write or speak lies concerning the cost of preparing his work for the press; thou shalt not agree with him on terms such as will give to thyself the profits on his labour. The work is his, not thine at all; his the design of it, the invention,the fancy, the imagination,the learning, the brain and the hand of it—all is his. If it be- comes thine, it must be by an equitable agreement, which shall give thee a fair reward for labour done, and leave to him all the rest." In no other way can the Eighth Commandment be interpreted by those who deal with authors. 5. What is the commercial value of a book? Clearly it depends upon the number of copies which the public will take. So the value of a field depends upon its fertility; of a ship upon her carrying power and seaworthy qualities; of a horse upon his strength and youth. Some fields are sterile—they are sold for a small sum—some are worthless. So with books. An author's income from a book must depend upon the copies bought by the public. 6. Most books published have no commercial value at all—a very large number have no literary value at all. How, then, do they get published? They are published at the expense of tlie author. 7. The book which does succeed may have a nominal success, or it may have an enormous sue cess. If a MS. has any literary value, a thing which may be easily ascertained by having it examined at the Society of Authors, its success is always possible. And so often of late years has a book unexpectedly taken the world by storm that the author must always consider his MS. as a pos- sible great success. 8. It must be remembered that publishers live by publishing. They therefore look to make money by every book which they issue. It is a great mistake to suppose, as some authors do, that the publisher does not first consider the commer- cial prospects of a book. In many cases it is the only thing he does consider. 9. Therefore the publisher must be paid. He must be paid for the time and trouble he, through his servants, gives to the preparation of the work for the press; for the publicity which he gives to it; and, in a very few cases, for the prestige of his name. 10. It is self-evident that every book must stand or fall by its own merits. That is to say, that it is idle to talk of the failure of one book being a reason for giving the author of another book less than his due. With these considerations, which are indisput- able and elementary, before him, let every author read carefully over any agreement offered to him, and before signing it, ascertain what it gives the author, and what it gives or reserves for the pub- lisher, (1) for the first edition, (2) for the second and following editions. Next let the same author take any of his agreements in the past, and with the light of the accounts which were afterwards rendered to him, and the information which we now give him, let him draw his own conclusions. * NOTES ON COPYRIGHT. I. Copyright in Lectures. DOES anybody ever take the trouble to secure his copyright in a public lecture? It is a curious and amusing process which the law in its wisdom requires him to go through. There is, perhaps, nothing objectionable in his having to give two days' notice of his intentions to two justices of the peace, both of whom must live within five miles of the locus in quo. But, beyond the presumption that the aforesaid justices might, if the notice were civilly worded, take tickets for, if  ## p. 7 (#21) ############################################### THE AUTHOR. 7 not attend, the lecture, it is not easy to understand the object of the interesting proviso. There is cer- tainly no necessity to make it public that on this occasion only "all rights are reserved." It is no business either of the author's or of the magistrates to warn reporters off the premises. Nevertheless, the former would, on giving the statutory notice, be entitled to confiscate any printed and published reports (or, for that matter, the whole edition of every newspaper in the Kingdom which published the lecture without leave), and, moreover, to re- cover a penny for every sheet in their custody. What a fortune Mark Twain would realise if he went on tour in the silly season! But, to further illustrate the beautiful simplicity of the law, a lecturer is powerless to protect himself against unauthorised re-delivery. It is only publication that is prohibited by statute. Anybody who likes is entitled to take down a lecture verbatim and can re-deliver it with perfect impunity, or, in other words, while there is copyright there is no such thing as performing right in a species of literary production in which this may be really valuable. Sermons, on the other hand, seem to be clearly public property, that is, if delivered "by any person in virtue of or according to any gift, endow- ment, or foundation." In other words, Noncon- formist ministers, unless they, too, come within the category, enjoy an advantage denied to the Clergy of the Established Church. For it would, we imagine, be open to them to give the statutory notice of the intended delivery and so secure the copyright, if not the performing right (if we may use the expression), in the production in question. The Clergy of the Church of England cannot, however, under any circumstances reserve their rights. The only remedy open to them if their pulpit eloquence is reproduced is, like the Bishop of Peterborough, to take a leaf out of the book of the "old Parlia- mentary hand," and deny that they have been "correctly reported." In the same way, too, no lecture delivered in any university, public school, or college, or on any public foundation can under any conditions be protected. But there is seldom any very great demand for sermons, university or college lectures, so that their authors enjoy rather more protection, independent of statute, than most of them desire. II. Copyright in Recitations. Should the recitation ot popular pieces be pro- hibited by law? The relative advantage or disadvan- tage accruing to an author is, of course, wholly beside the question. It is quite possible that in many cases an author might regard himself as quite sufficiently recompensed by probable sales. It is notorious that more than one well-known firm of musical publishers not only do not reserve their rights in their songs, but announce to all whom it may concern that they can be sung anywhere. But now that recitations are once more becoming popular, there is no doubt whatever that the right of delivery of favourite verse will become valuable, and the question of its protection acquires an added import- ance. There is no more reason why an author should have no control over and derive no profit from the recitation of his work than that a novelist should have to submit to be dramatized whether he likes it or not. The results of protection would, of course, be that royalties would have to be paid if the author chose to reserve and enforce his rights. It would perhaps be necessary that some analogous conditions to those required by the Copyright (Musical Compositions) Act, 1882, should be devised to prevent people being " Walled." III. Anglo-American Copyright. It is always risky to prophesy, and Anglo- American Copyright is a subject on which even a sporting prophet would hesitate to hazard a forecast. It is, however, not impossible that the Bill before Congress should, in the words of its sixth section, "go into effect" on the 1st July, 1890. Committees of both Houses have reported in favour of the measure: not that that counts for much! We are not likely to forget that in 1889 it was thrown out at the last moment by a single member who had no views on the subject, and was really opposing another measure. But, still, it is satisfactory to know that .the tariff men, the petty pirates, and the moneyed ignoramuses— the three classes of which the opposition con- sists—have so far made a very poor show. During the sittings of the House Committee on Judiciary Mr. Roger Sherman, formerly a Phila- delphia publisher, declared that "the outcry for the passage of the Bill was simply the clamour of 200 authors against the interests of 50,000,000 people." There is a truly delicious naivete about this confession of a preference for stealing litera- ture instead of buying it. As for the Bill itself it will undoubtedly confer valuable rights upon those English writers who can conform to its conditions. These require the books to be printed from type set up in the States, and two copies to be delivered to the Librarian of Con- gress "on or before the day of publication." If the Bill becomes law in this form considerable diffi- culty, it may be remarked, will arise in securing copyright in serial stories, for, as it now stands, each number would have to be delivered as an independent publication, a matter obviously of  ## p. 8 (#22) ############################################### 8 THE AUTHOR. great practical difficulty. But in view of the multifarious exigencies which have compelled modifications innumerable, and hampered the efforts of the American (Authors) Copyright League, it is idle to criticise the measure as a final settlement of the difficulty. It is enough, for the present, if it makes Anglo-American Copy- right ultimately possible. IV. The securing of American Rights. Since the above was written, the International Copyright Bill has been brought before the House of Representatives and has been defeated by 126 votes to 98. The conscience of the great Re- public therefore remains unawakened, that is to say, five-ninths of the American conscience is un- moved. The other four-ninths may be trusted to keep moving. Perhaps our grandchildren may reap the fruits of their agitation. What is now to be done? There seems to be but one way for an English author to hold at bay the piratical publishers of the United States: it is to enter into collaboration with an American writer. By this arrangement a perfect copyright is obtainable; one which will defy the devil—the printer's devil—and all his works. One American member of the Incorporated Society of Authors has already written to offer an honourable partnership of this kind with British authors who desire to protect their literary property. Enquiries relating to the subject should be addressed to the Secretary of the Society of Authors, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, W.C. * A HARD CASE. No. 1. IT is now some five years ago since a young lady wrote a volume of poems and sent them to a certain advertising society for publication. The so-called managing director told her in reply that, although her work was of indubitable merit, it required to be revised by some one who understood the "rules of Poetical Composition." Such an article he had on hand, and he begged to recommend that she should apply to a per- son in Fleet Street, posing as the editor of a non-existent journal, for advice. This gentleman expressed himself willing to teach her poetry for the comparatively moderate fee of jQt, 14J. 6d. As his grammar was not, however, without blemish he would seem to have been only duly modest. For three months the young lady received instruction in poetry from him, and then again applied to the advertising society to have her verses published. Apparently her tutor had proved of service, for the managing director now agreed to issue her book for her, on her advancing the sum of ,£50. For this sum he was prepared to produce the MS. in volume form and " to meet all demands for sales up to 3,000 copies." The volume was to be published at 6*., Cr. 8vo., good toned paper, and to be bound in cloth boards, and gilt lettered. The payment was to be made in the following manner: £20 at once; £20 on seeing the last proofs; and the balance within three months. The only agreement made between author and publisher was the interchange of letters ratifying the above proposition. The lady's friends lent her the money, evidently having no idea of the true commercial value of poetry, and the book went to press. The phrase, "to meet all demands," will receive full consideration in our next number. Now it would seem that the publisher's first opinion as to the value of the author's work was nearly a correct one, when he recommended that she should learn verse, but that he rather over-rated the improvement that had been effected by his friend, the instructor in poesy. For there was no sale. But, on the other hand, there were, in addition to the ^50, several small items to pay for. There was advertisement in the publisher's own lists, £2 2S. There was the "time of the traveller" in offering the work to the trade, £1 1js. There was £2 for warehousing, £2 2s. for the privilege of membership of the Literary Association, of which the publisher was managing director. These sums, with others for postage, &c, brought the author's account on the whole transaction into the following position. (1) She had paid for three months' poetical instruction. (Exactly what she paid is not quite clear—over ,£10, however.) (2) She had paid £50 for the production of her work. (3) She still owed j£g odd to the publisher. (4) There were no sales at all: so that she had received nothing. Then the publisher began to write in a threatening way for this £9. He expressed himself as not surprised at the ill- success of her book (though on previous occasions he had spoken well of her work), and attributed this to the lack of advertisements. He badgered her to advertise through himself to the extent of j£$ or jQio, assuring her that she would then get good  ## p. 9 (#23) ############################################### THE A UTHOR. 9 reviews. But her means would nol allow her to take his advice. Then he suggested that she should contribute at the rate of is. a line to a column of advertisement that he proposed to insert in the Standard of a good many other books he was bringing out. Here, again, she was obdurate. Then he sent her a lawyer's letter. She applied to the Society of Authors, and escaped further payment; but it would have been useless to attempt to extract from the publisher the money he had already received on grossly false re- presentation, for about this period he became a bankrupt. Of the numerous letters two are appended. 1. The first received by the author from the "Secretary." 2. The second received by the author from the "Editor." I. Date.—March 6th, 1884. Name.—Miss C. D. Address.—16, High St. . Title and No.—Poems. Length.— Opinion.—" Requires revision by an expert, who understands the rules of poetical composition. "Author should write Mr. L., Street, London, forhis instructions topoetical students. Writer has ability, and if she only studied the rules of poetical composition she would do well. "One poem could be set to music. Charge, including composition of music, would be Ss. for 250 copies." A. B. C, Secretary. II. Re MSS.from the Metropolitan Publishing and Literary Society. "We have received your MSS. and beg to say we cannot accept same, as they are unprepared for press. You write them as though poetry, but they are prose. If you write out the Penalty as though prose, no capital letters, &c, you will find it reads better. If you do this and send again we can finish revising for half a guinea, and print. "Yours faithfully, "The Editor." It seems almost incredible that even an inex- perienced girl should not have guessed that these people were common sharpers. But she did not. "The Managing Director " advertised largely and the number of his victims is proportionally large. Yet he has never got into prison. His victims were generally helpless, and generally sensitive to ridicule, while it always seems an unsatisfactory thing to spend ^50 in bringing a criminal action against a person who has robbed you of .£50. It should be observed that this case has nothing to do with the story on pp. 3-5. * QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 1. Is it right for editors to keep a book sent to them for review when they give no notice of the book ?—It is right because it is impossible for every book that is published to receive a review, and every book is sent for review on the chance of getting it. 2. How long should an editor be free to keep a MS. without reply?—If the article is one of immediate interest he should return it at once if he cannot find time to consider it. A contributor in such a case should state the urgency of the sub- ject. Under ordinary circumstances no one who knows the labours of an editor or the piles of MSS. into which he must look should grumble at waiting for three or four months. 3. How long should a contributor be expected to wait before payment?—All the honourably conducted magazines pay on publication, or a few days afterwards. It has, however, been proved to the Society that there are certain journals— happily only a few—who make a point of never paying unless they are compelled by threats of law. It seems incredible that a magazine proprietor or editor should thus make as many enemies as he has contributors. It is unhappily, quite true. 4. What payment should be made for a magazine article?—This question is often asked. There is no answer possible, because the practice necessarily differs. A magazine of limited circulation obviously cannot afford to pay its contributors much. Then if payment is made by the page, that too varies; some magazines, such as Blackwood's or Mac- millan's, have a page double that of Longmans'. The best advice to be given is this. In the high- class magazines contributors are paid by a regular scale, unless special terms are made. Therefore, the contributor may rely on the usual treatment according to the scale of that journal. In maga- zines of inferior kind the contributor would do well to ask beforehand what payment will be made if the paper be accepted. Suppose the Editor refuses to name his scale and sends back the MS., that will be better than to have it taken and pub- lished, and then not paid for.  ## p. 10 (#24) ############################################## IO THE AUTHOR. LEAFLET No. I. On Syndicating. IT was in the Report issued at the beginning of last year that we first made an announce- ment concerning our attempt at forming for ourselves a syndicate of our own members. We guarded ourselves at that time by a warning which we hoped would be sufficient to prevent the raising of hopes doomed to disappointment. We were wrong. There has been a good deal of dis- appointment among some of our members who thought that in this way their own work might be disposed of. It was found at the outset, first, that the news- papers among which we at first proposed to place the works of our members were engaged to the various syndicates in existence for a year, a year and a half, or even longer. It was next found, what had been expected, that no writers have any chance at all of getting their work taken in country and colonial newspapers except those who have already achieved a certain reputation. So that both the time of commencing operations was postponed, and the writers for whom the syndicate was to work were limited in number. After a great deal of consideration and experi- menting, it has been found that the best and fairest way of working is, as regards short tales, to arrange for one batch at a time covering a whole quarter. Each writer of this batch takes, first of all, his market value; that is to say, the price he can command in magazines, or that which other syndicates—trade syndicates—are willing to pay him: he sells to our syndicate, not, as in all other syndicates, the story outright, but the right to its appearance once, and only once, in a certain quarter. This done, the work becomes again his own property. Next, when all the writers have been paid, the balance, if any, is equally divided among the writers in proportion to the length of their work. That is to say, for a tale running over three weeks, a writer would receive three times that accorded to one of a single week. About twenty-five per cent, of the whole is required for agency printing and postage. This may seem a large amount, but the trouble involved is very great, and there is no way of avoiding such charges except by keeping a special clerk for the purpose in the offices of the Society. The services of such a clerk, properly qualified and experienced, would amount to quite as much as the commission of an agent. After a little there must be a further charge for the work of editing, which hitherto has been done for nothing. Then comes, next, the question—Where to place these stories? At first it was thought that the provincial press would be the best medium. It has, however, been found that, though the pro- vincial press may sometimes be useful, it cannot always be depended upon, and that it may in some cases be best to sell the work to some one pro- prietor or editor. This has, in fact, been done in the case of the first quarter's collection. One pro- prietor has bought the right for Great Britain and Ireland. They have also been sold in America— also to one man; in Australia and New Zealand to another; and in India to another. The amount to be divided among the writers of this batch will rule far higher than anything they could obtain from ordinary syndicates. The next quarter's batch is now in course of preparation. If members think they already possess the kind of name that popular journals desire to place in their columns, they may communicate with the Editor at the Society's office. The Editor's busi- ness is very simple: it is merely to provide such a collection of stories as will be vouched for by the names of their writers. He is not, in fact, the judge: he has only to record the judgment of purchasers, and to cater for them. It is not so much the quality of his wares that he has to con- sider, as their fashion and popularity. Therefore, the Editor must not be blamed if he has to tell a member that he cannot offer to syndicate his work. There is, however, another branch of syndicating work—that of longer stories. Here, again, though names come first, there may be special reasons why a work by a less known hand might be syndi- cated with a certain measure of success.  ## p. 11 (#25) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. If any member, therefore, would like to try this method, he should send, first of all, his name, his list of previous work, and a complete scenario of the work, showing its length, number of chapters, the story, the place and time, and anything that may recommend it. This scenario should be type-written, which would not cost more than two or three shillings. He can then learn whether he may hope for any success in this way. But, again, let him not blame the Editor should failure follmv. He would like to oblige all the members of the Society if he could. This syndicating is intended, of course, as a first step in the action of authors for themselves and by themselves. When we consider all the difficulties in the way: first, the profound distrust of anything to do with publishing that is spread over a des- pondent world; next, the suspicion and jealousy with which authors too often regard each other; thirdly, their colossal ignorance of all matters con- nected with their own business; and, fourthly, the danger of awakening extravagant hopes of a millen- nium to come the day after to-morrow—we might be excused if we desisted from the attempt. But when we consider how much the Society has done already, and is now doing, when we remember that we are the pioneers, and when we remember that in such a cause progress must be slow, we are resolved to persevere. All the steps that we have taken, all that we are going to take, are based upon one proposition: that literature belongs to the Poet—the Maker—not to the Trader—not to him who only sells. Editor. * THE PRESS AND THE SOCIETY. ONE reason, and that not the least, for the existence of such a journal as this is the necessity for keeping the Society and its objects from misrepresentation—wilful or through ignorance—in the newspaper press and in the magazines. We have read from time to time articles, both generous and appreciative, presenting our aims truthfully. We have also been misrepresented by numerous paragraphs, written either by persons totally unacquainted with this Society, or wholly ignorant of the subject, or maliciously inspired by our enemies. For instance, it has been the constant habit of these gentlemen to represent the Society as inspired by a blind hatred of all pub- lishers, thus attempting to identify themselves and their own frauds with the honourable houses. Or they find occasion to gird at the Society as talking against "the wicked publisher," implying that we are not defending ourselves against dishonest people, but attacking the whole trade. It has, however, been reserved for the Con- temporary Review, of all magazines in the world, to produce an article on the Society, and its work which is indeed amazing. One would not take notice of this production but for the fact that it suggests certain questions which should not only be administered to the author, but to all those persons who are contemplating such articles on this subject. If before sitting down to write, they will kindly read and consider these questions, they may possibly save themselves the subsequent affliction of discovering that they have been writing on a subject of which they know nothing. It is not necessary that we should reply in detail to the article; and, indeed, very much of it is exactly what we have always ourselves advocated. As for the rest—but the questions will themselves indicate the nature of the reply which might be made. They are these :— "Have you ever studied the different methods of publishing? If so, when and where? Under whose guidance, and with what advantages? "What steps have you taken to ascertain the cost of producing books, the money spent on advertising, the trade price of selling, the demand for different kinds of books, the risk in producing books, what and of what kind? In fact, what special knowledge do you possess of the publishing trade? "Whit have you learned, before writing this precious article, concerning the various kinds of agreement presented to authors by publishers? "Do you know, by personal examination and ex- perience, what these agreements represent, namely, can you tell, by reading an agreement, what the publisher offers to the author, and what he reserves for himself? "Do you know, by experience of your own, the treatment of authors by their publishers? In the case you quote, where you received twelve guineas, have you ascertained what amount was made by the publisher? "Are you aware that the body of men, whom you take upon yourself to assail, have been engaged  ## p. 12 (#26) ############################################## 12 THE AUTHOR. for five years in a most careful and painstaking examination of the whole of the publishing business in every branch? "Are you aware that this body of men, the Committee of the Society of Authors, in all their publications have made, and are making, but one demand, namely, for just and honourable deal- ing? "Are you also aware that they have demanded, and are still demanding, not only equitable agree- ments, but the keeping of those agreements to the letter? "Have you read their reports and their circu- lars?" If you cannot answer these questions, we would submit another. "What right have you to be heard on the questions at all?" We would also ask you to select those adjectives in the English lan- guage which apply to one who ventures to talk in public on a subject concerning which he is pro- foundly ignorant. If you can answer these questions; if you have really made a study of a very difficult and obscure subject, kept purposely in obscurity by interested persons; if you have really read the reports and papers of the Society, and have duly considered and meditated on them, you have, perhaps, a right to speak. Supposing this to be the case, let us ask the writer what he means by the following :— "The bargain between author and publisher is one perfectly well understood." Is it? Then, we will ask him another question. It is this. "Will you, who so perfectly well understand the bargain between author and publisher, kindly ex- plain the following agreement?" A. B. publishes covenants with C. D. the author, as follows :— He is to have the sole copyright of a MS. on the following conditions. He is to publish it at his sole risk and expense: he is to sell it at 6s. each copy: after 500 copies are sold he is to give the author a royalty of 15 per cent, on the trade price, not the published price. He is to decide if any cheaper editions are to be issued: he is to have the power of selling off remainder of stock: he is, in fact, to have the complete control of the book. The book is printed in small pica, crown 8vo, and contains 21^ sheets. The question for you who understand so clearly the bargain between author and publisher is this. When 3,000 copies of the book have been sold, allowing ^30 for advertising, what profit the author has made and what the publisher? We will answer this question for you in our next number. Again, the author of this paper says, "The royalty system is so obviously fair that there is no need to say much about it." Quite so. Then we will put to him the follow- ing questions. "Will you kindly explain what you mean by the royalty system? What, if you please, is the royalty system? What percentage should be given on an equitable royalty? And why? What does that leave the publisher? You had, probably, something in your mind when you wrote the passage. What, we repeat, is the royalty system? Is it ten, twenty, thirty, forty per cent.? And, in any case, why do you fix upon that proportion, and what does it leave for the publisher?" Again, seeing that if our Society is strong on any point at all, it is upon the point of equitable agree- ments, seeing that from the outset it has never ceased to argue in favour of such agreements, and seeing that it has always insisted on such agree- ments being carried out honestly and to the letter, what does the writer of the paper mean by the following solemn peroration? "Are our contracts to be binding upon us only so long as we find it profitable to ourselves to keep them? "Are our moral instincts getting feebler? Are we losing our sense of honour? "Is our respect for the sacredness of plighted troth on the wane? "If they who ought to be the trainers of the national constitution are helping to improve it, and helping others to believe that literary workers are only workers for hire and determined on getting it, even at the price of broken faith and broken pledges, then there can be but a gloomy outlook for us all— the days of shame are at hand!" Really! This is indeed terrible. But this critic now has our questions before him and will perhaps answer them. Let us remind him, lastly, of certain lines, written a hundred and fifty years ago, and still, unhappily, applicable. Look thro' the world, in every other trade, The same employment's cause of kindness made; At least, appearance of goodwill creates, And every fool puffs off the fool he hates. Cobblers with cobblers smoke away the night, And in the common cause ev'n players unite. Authors alone, with more than savage rage, Unnatural war with brother authors wage. *  ## p. 13 (#27) ############################################## the author. THE HELPABLE AUTHOR. From an Address by Edmund Gosse.* GRUB STREET is with us to-day. It is mitigated to some degree, no doubt— greatly mitigated—by the blessed institu- tion of journalism, which has opened the sluice and, to a great extent, let out the waters. With journalism in particular we have nothing to do here. But when we put aside the relief now afforded by journalism we find things much in the same condition as they were in the last century, or even in many cases worse, since, if journalism now exists, the patron does not exist. You have perhaps some idea, but I think it very possible that you have but little idea, of how much suffer- ing and miserj' is going on among what are called "people of letters" in the present day; how many men there are'that are struggling, loafing about the British Museum, and walking idly up and down Fleet Street—men who might perhaps be the Otways and Chattertons of the age if they had a little more encouragement given to them. But these people-—for again we must face the matter not with sentimentality but with common-sense— these men are divided into two great classes, the helpable and the unhelpable. Permit me for a moment to deal with the unhelpable. In the last century the unhelpable was typically exemplified by a certain Samuel Boyse, the author of a poem on the Deity. Samuel Boyse seems to have started in life with as many advantages as ever befel a man of letters. The number of Earls and Countesses that filed through bis career is enough to make the modern unpatroned author envious; but it was impossible for them to help Boyse. His whole life was a long continuation of his being picked up out of the gutter by some noble patron, put on his legs, and seen to fall again the moment he was left. He is the person who spent six weeks in his bed with his arm thrust through a blanket, because he had pawned every- thing which he possessed in the world, and who, when a subscription was made for him, spent the first money that came in, still in bed, with his hand still through the blanket, in a feast of truffles. The same Samuel Boyse opened a subscription for his poems, and, marvellous as it may seem, that was responded to. As the contributions came in they were, with slow regularity, expended upon a delightful potation called "Twopenny" — hot "Twopenny." Samuel Boyse had a commission given to him by a publisher, to translate Fenelon "On the Existence of the Deity," and he celebrated that event by immediately marrying. There was no help whatever for Samuel Boyse, and at last, * "Grievances of Authors." Field and Tuer. 2s. (xl. when he had gone through every possible phase of beggary and misery, he died. Do you suppose that there are no Samuel Boyses nowadays? Pardon me for insisting that there are. I will mention one instance which it is impossible can wound anyone now, an instance of a man who has been for some years past dead' and who I believe was known, or known of, by some of my friends on this platform. He was a man who came up from one of the Universities with some amount of knowledge, for he said he had taken a First, although it must be confessed that his name never could be found in the lists. This man had the highest ambition to excel in literature, yet all that he managed to make was 35*. a week from the editor of a weekly paper, to keep himself in board and lodging. Well, if this man had had the slightest power of helping himself, there is no doubt that he might have risen to better things; but he was in a much worse position than Boyse, for there was no interest taken in him by the aristocracy, and no curiosity felt about his poems. He was left to his unaided efforts. His unaided efforts plunged him lower and lower in the tide of things, till at last, at the office where he got his only salary, a meerschaum pipe was missed by the editor. There was some mystery about it for a little while, when there came a letter from the contributor, saying that the Rubicon was now crossed, and that he wished to resign his position on the paper; he enclosed a ticket from a pawn- broker. After this unfortunate incident, he sank lower and lower, till he hung all day about the British Musuem. At last he became a super at a theatre, and then he faded out altogether. Now, those two persons, whom I take as types, belong to the unhelpable class, with which we can do nothing. What, then, of the helpable author? The helpable author is not the fashionable novelist, the fashionable essayist, the successful man who has many other strings to his bow, who has a salary here, who has private means there. No! The person whom we wish, if possible, to do some- thing to help is the half-successful writer, the person who has a right to exist, and who yet cannot force himself, or herself, strongly upon the public. And there are two classes of the helpable to whom I would specially draw attention. One of those consists of women. Here again I speak of the smaller, yet legitimately successful, lady-writers. My own impression is that most ladies of this class claim rather less than more of what they have a right to; they have their small circle of readers, a circle for whom they prepare innocent and delightful recreation. They have a right to be protected for the sake of these readers, as well as for their own sake. They have  ## p. 14 (#28) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. a right to demand that there should be some body, some society, ready to see that they do not fall into traps, that they.do not become the prey of sharpers, and, in short, to protect their legitimate interests. And there is, again, another class of the helpable; that is the beginner, the new man of genius. I know nothing that strikes one more in observing literary life than the fact that the new man, the man who comes forward with a book for the first time, unless he is exceedingly lucky, makes a mistake. He forms a disadvantageous bargain, he does something or other which cripples him at the outset, and this he has to wipe out and forget before he can make a proper start. The beginner, therefore, forms another class whom we desire, by this Society, to have the privilege of protecting and helping. * ON COMMITTEE. DURING the present year, up to May the first, forty-eight new members have joined the Society. This is a very gratifying increase. At the same time it cannot be denied that there are a large number of persons engaged in the profession of literature who look coldly on without joining the Society, while we are working in their interests. That our efforts have not been fruitless is shown by many facts. For instance, before we began, every publisher would have felt himself insulted at the mere proposal to audit his accounts. No publisher would now refuse. Again, while four or five years ago authors were meekly accepting a ten per cent, royalty, they are getting almost everywhere two- pence in the shilling, which is a sixteen per cent, royalty, and in some cases twenty and twenty-five per cent, royalty. The influence of the Society is also shown by the eagerness of certain houses to offer guarantees of good faith. The policy of the Committee has always been the same: to ascertain carefully and to set forth the truth as to cost of pro- duction, trade returns and profits, methods of pub lication and what they mean—agreements and what they mean—in short, to supply their members with the means of ascertaining what it is that a prof- fered agreement gives the author and what it reserves to the publisher. To learn these things has taken the Committee five years of unremitting labour. Nor are they quite certain, yet, that they have learned the whole truth. Those who looked for a sudden revolution in the business relations of literature, as well as those who looked for no prac- tical results at all, are equally disappointed. The Society, however, has pursued and is pursuing the even tenor of its way. The "Cost of Production" is out of print— another edition, after correcting a few errors of no great importance, will be issued as soon as it can be got ready. The Committeehave carefully considered theques- tion of the proposed "leaflets," the result of these deliberations being the appearance of "The Author." The Chairman was fortunate enough to secure at a second-hand book shop, Wilkie Collins's large collection of tracts and papers connected with International Copyright. He has presented them to the Society. A memorial has been drawn up addressed to the First Lord of the Treasury on the subject of the Civil Pensions List. Next month, perhaps, we may have more to say on the subject. At the beginning of last year the Chairman addressed to the Guardian a series of letters on the management of the Literary Department of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, with no other apparent effect than to call forth a good deal of private correspondence from authors who have been in the hands of this Department. Early this year he again addressed the Publication Committee on a special case, with the expected result. He has now written a pamphlet on the whole question, which, together with the previous correspondence, will be published immediately. The points at issue are confidently left to the decision of the public. A case of extensive fraud—so extensive that the man chiefly concerned is found to have a hundred unpublished MSS. in his possession—was taken up by the Committee, but broke down owing to the refusal of the victims to give evidence! This is an interesting illustration of the black ignorance which prevails as to literary property. Not one of these men or women, had he or she been robbed of a watch, a purse, a mantle, or an umbrella, but would have gone straight to the nearest magistrate and gave evidence fearlessly. But it was only a manuscript—only a thing which might have been worth many thousand pounds! In such a case as this, we can only hope to instruct the world and gradually to create as great a jealousy over literary property as prevails for every other kind. In another case, however, when the victim was willing and ready to come forward, we recovered for him the money of which he had been plundered and the unsold copies of his work. A case was recently brought before us in which a country newspaper had republished, without permission, a paper from a magazine. We obtained compensation for the author. Mr. Sprigge's book on the "Methods of Publica- tion," with the frauds, tricks, and dangers to which the author is exposed in every one, is very nearly ready. It will be issued as soon as possible.  ## p. 15 (#29) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 15 A circular letter has been issued by the Copy- right Committee addressed to colonial libraries and booksellers asking for information on the sale of pirated editions in the various colonies, and how far such editions damage the sale of the authorised English editions. The draft of the Copyright Bill has been placed in the hands of Mr. James Rolt, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, for revision up to the date of the latest legislation. The question of copyright in pieces for recitation has been brought before the Committee. It was suggested that perhaps authors might not feel themselves injured by a recitation which could not fail to increase their popularity. It was decided to ask the opinion of two gentlemen, well known pro-' ducers of such pieces. It was recently stated in a morning paper that any person, author or not, may become a member of this Society. The statement was publicly denied by the Chairman. As, however, there existed no bye-law on the subject, but only the practice of the Committee, and the implied understanding that members should be authors, three have been passed, viz.:— 1. No one shall be eligible for membership or fellowship of the Society who is not actually an author of some published literary or artistic work. 2. Should anyone desire to consult the Society as to literary work, without having as yet qualified for membership, the Secretary may then and there— reporting the case at the next Committee Meeting — admit him as an Associate only, on payment of one guinea, his privileges to consist only of the right to ask advice from the office, this right to terminate at the end of the current year. Such an Associate can have no part in the administration. 3. Any donor of ten guineas shall be admitted by the Secretary then and there, reporting the case at the next Committee, to be an Honorary Associate of the Society. Such Associate can take no part in the administration. * LITERARY QUERIES. I. Who Wrote This Ballad? BOLD TURPIN upon Hounslow Heath His black mare Bess bestrode, When he saw a Bishop's coach and four Sweeping along the road: He bade the coachman stop, but he, Suspecting of the job, His horses lashed—but soon rolled off With a brace of slugs in his nob. Galloping to the carriage door, He thrust his face within, When the Chaplain cried—" Sure as eggs is eggs That is the bold Turpin." Quoth Turpin, "You shall eat your words With sauce of leaden bullet:" So clapped his pistol to his mouth, And fired it down his gullet. The Bishop fell upon his knees, When Turpin bade him stand: And gave him his watch, a bag of gold, And six bright rings from his hand. Rolling with laughter Turpin plucked The Bishop's wig from his head, And popp'd it on the Chaplain's poll As he sat in the corner dead. Upon the box he tied him then, With the reins behind his back, Put a pipe in his mouth, the whip in his hand, And set off the horses smack! Then whispered in the black mare's ear, Who luckily wasn't fagg'd, "You must gallop fast and far, my dear, Or I shall be surely scragg'd." He never drew bit, nor stopped to bait, Nor walked up hill or down, Until he came to Gloucester Gate, Which is the Assizes town. Full eighty miles in one dark night He made his black mare fly, And walk'd into court at nine o'clock, To swear an alibi. A hue and cry the Bishop raised, And so did Sheriff Forster, But stared to hear that Turpin was By nine o'clock at Gloucester. So all agreed it couldn't be him Neither by hook nor crook: And said that the Bishop and Chaplain was Most certainly mistook. * AT WORK. This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society, wlio are invited to keep tlie Editor acquainted with their work and engagements. PROFESSOR MAX MULLER is engaged in preparing for the press his second volume of Gifford Lectures, delivered last year at Glasgow. The title will be Physical Religion. The next courses, which will be delivered at Glasgow in 1891 and 1892, will treat of Anthropological and Psychological Religion. Professor Max Muller's new edition of the "Rig- Veda," with Sayana's Commentary, is progressing.  ## p. 16 (#30) ############################################## i6 THE A UTHOR. Two volumes of 800 pages 4to. are finished. The third volume is passing through the press, and it is hoped that the whole work, in four volumes, will be ready for the ninth meeting of the International Con- gress of Orientalists, to be held at Oxford in 1892. Mr. Edmund Gosse will publish this month a reprint of his early poems, under the title of " On Viol and Flute" (Messrs. Kcgan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co.), with illustrations by Mr. Alma Tadema and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft. The June volume of the "Camelot Classics" will be the Scandinavian portion of Mr. Gosse's "Northern Studies," originally issued in 1879. Mr. Gosse is also engaged on a collected edition of the poetical works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, founded on the papers placed in his hands by the late Mr. Robert Browning. Mr. Alfred Austin is engaged upon a poem, in form more or less like "Prince Lucifer," which will exhibit the influence and operation of Pessimism on a richly endowed nature. Messrs. Macmillan will publish early in the autumn a collected edition of his poetical works in six volumes. The collected verses of Mr. Walter Herries Pollock will shortly appear in one of the volumes called the "Rosslyn Series" (Remington and Co.). A story, entitled "A Blind Musician," adapted from the Russian of Korolenko by Stepniak and William Westall, has just been published by Ward and Downey. In the course of a few days the same publishers will issue by the same author a collection of strange crimes put into narrative form and told in tales. Mr. James Payn's "The Burnt Million," 3 vols., has just been published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. "London City." Those who appreciated Mr. Loftie's " Kensington," will be glad to hear that he has completed a similar work for the same publishers —Messrs. Field and Tuer. It will be illustrated by Mr. W. Luker, junior. The published price will be 42J.; but subscribers who pay in advance can have it for 2 if. Mr. Stanley Little is engaged upon a novel dealing with Sussex life and scenes. His new play will probably see the light in the autumn. Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "Plain Tales from the Hills " will form one of the next volumes of Baron Tauchnitz's Continental Series of English Authors. Mr. Henry Hermann's "Scarlet Fortune" is to be issued in shilling form by Messrs. Trischler and Co. His "Eagle Joe" will shortly appear as a special number of the Illustrated London News. Mr. David Christie Murray has completed his lecture engagements in Australia, and is now lecturing in New Zealand. Mr. G. G. Chisholm's "Handbook of Com- mercial Geography" has recently been published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. (515 pp., 29 maps, and index, price \(ss.) This work is an attempt to give interest to the leading facts of commerce by setting forth the natural conditions that account for the magnitude and direction of international com- merce all over the globe. The work is divided into two main sections, one dealing with com- modities, the other with countries. There is also a statistical appendix which shows by five years' averages the absolute and relative amount of foreign trade in the more important articles of the chief commercial countries of the world. Mrs. Alec Tweedie, author of "A Girl's Ride in Iceland" (Griffith, Farran, and Co., 5*.), has pub- lished (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 2s. 6d.) a little book on the "Oberammergau Passion Play." It contains historical notes, an account of the origin of Passion Plays, a full account of the Play itself, and of the country (how to reach it, &c), with a chapter on Church Plays specially written for this work by the Rev. Canon Shuttleworth. Mr. John W. Lovell, of New York, has effected a publishing combination which may prove of great importance to English authors. Under the system of unlicensed competition in the sale of English books, which has been developing in the United States for the past five years or more, the works of popular English writers, and especially of English novelists, have been reproduced in half a dozen ditferent editions within a week of the appearance of the authorised American edition. This has resulted in a war of prices which has left little or no profit out of which the recognised editor can pay the English writer. At the same time the quality of the books produced under this suicidal system has grown steadily worse. Mr. Lovell has purchased the plates and stock of no less than twenty of the principal American firms engaged in the business of issuing reprints of English books. This reduction of twenty competing houses to one will certainly tend to bring order out of the chaos which has been so destructive alike to the interests of the English author and the American publisher. Mr. Lovell has a large opportunity and should he, as there is reason to hope, use it responsibly, the amalgamation of trade interests which he has accomplished will be likely to bring about beneficent results for English writers. Mr. James Baker, F.R.G.S., has recently brought out "By the Southern Sea, a Summer Idyll" (Longmans, 6s.). The work has been well received, not only here, but in America. The same author's  ## p. 17 (#31) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. *7 "Papers on Forgotten Great Englishmen," which appeared in the Leisure Hour, have had the effect of reviving the memory of one Englishman at least, who was for nearly fifty years a leader of the Wyclyfites in Bohemia. The papers have been translated into Czech, and will appear as a feuilleton in the Silve Slivo, a Bohemian paper. Mr. T. Bailey Saunders has in the Press "Coun- sels and Maxims," being the second part of Arthur Schopenhauser's "Aphorismen zur Leibesweis- heit." It is to be uniform with his "Wisdom of Life," the first part of the same work (Sonnenschein and Co., 2s. 6d.). His translation of Schopen- hauser's "Religious Dialogues, and other Essays," is going into a second edition. The Rev. E. Gough has brought out (Kegan Paul, and Co., price i6x. each volume) the third volume of his work, entitled, "The Bible True from the Beginning." He proposes to complete it in seven volumes. The author writes, "The two chief principles of the work are the following. First, that there is in Scripture a system of grades and grade words which proves the Bible to be verbally inspired. Second, that far beyond what is usually supposed, the histories contained in the Bible are moral and not literal." Mr. Rider Haggard's "Beatrice," now running, is published by a syndicate of papers. The "World's Desire," in which he has collaborated with Mr. Andrew Lang, is running in the New Review. The first quarter's collection of stories syndicated for the Society has been sold for serial right—one appearance only, after which each becomes again the property of the owner—in Great Britain, America, India, Australia, and New Zealand. The Editor is now preparing the second quarter's col- lection. Will members who desire to belong kindly read the leaflet on "Syndicating " in this number? Mrs. Oliphant will next year contribute a novel to the Sun. At present she is in the Holy Land, and writes that the change of air and scenery has greatly invigorated her. Dr. George Macdonald has written the Christmas Number for the Sunday Magazine. Mr. W. F. Smith, Fellow and Lecturer of St. John's College, Cambridge, has finished a new translation of Rabelais. The text will be illustrated by copious notes, giving among other things the sources whence this great Master drew. A limited edition only will be published, signed and numbered. No cheaper edition will be produced. The trade will not sell it at a lower than the subscription price. The agent for the work is Mr. A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square. The editor of Lippincott's Magazine has secured Mr. Clarke Russell and Mr. Rudyard Kipling for an early date. The many admirers of "Owen Meredith " will make a note that his "Ring of Amasis" has just been published (Macmillan, 3*. 6d.). Mr. Grant Allen has completed a new three- volume novel. Sir George Douglas is compiling the volume of "Scottish Minor Poets" for the Canterbury Series. Starting with Ramsay's publication of the "Tea Table Miscellany" in the year 1724 (in which a few original contributions were included), the collection will comprise selections from Tannahill, Mother- well, Lady Nairne, and a whole host of minor writers, and will terminate probably with a specimen of the song-writer's art by the late Dr. Charles Mackay. The volume will be prefaced by a critical and historical introduction, and will be inscribed to the Lady John Scott, the foremost living writer of Scottish Song. The new weekly called Short Cuts begins with a novel by Mr. George Sims. The conductors seem to have secured as fine a collection of contributors as can be found in the lists of any magazine in the world. Presumably, taste in popular reading has been developed as well as the number of readers. Almost every writer of note seems included in the list. The Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., of Cheltenham, has just published "A Winter on the Nile" (Hodder and Stoughton, price 6d.), containing the record of a tour up the Nile as far as the Second Cataract, with a sojourn at Luxor and a description of recent discoveries and antiquities at Bubastis and the Fayoum. The same author has recently issued " Reminiscences of a Boyhood in the Early Part of the Century" (Sampson, Low, and Co., price bd.). "Church and Creed" (William Blackwood and Sons, price 4s. 6d.), by Professor Momerie, which appeared in December last, has gone into a second edition. His "Origin of Evil" is in its sixth edition, and his "Agnosticism " in the third. Mr. Edward Walford, his long connection with Messrs. Hurst and Blackett being severed after a period of twenty-seven years, has commenced a new Peerage, called the "Royal Windsor Peerage," at a cost of one-third the price of Lodge. He has added lists of an order of knighthood, that of St. John of Jerusalem, of which the Queen has become Patron and Head, and the Prince of Wales Grand Prior.  ## p. 18 (#32) ############################################## i8 THE AUTHOR. Mr. Walford is also bringing out at, he requests us to say, his own cost, a "Life of William Pitt," in which he advances new and striking views of that statesman. The title of Mr. C. F. Keary's newly-published novel is "A Mariage dc Convenance" (Fisher Unwin, 2 vols., price 21s.). Mr. McGrigor Allan, author of "Women's Suffrage Wrong in Principle and Practice," has in hand two treatises, one called "The Tobacco Scourge," the other, "Advantages of a Channel Tunnel to our Enemies. A second edition is just ready of Mr. F. Howard Collins's " Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy" (Williams and Norgate, 1 vol., 8vo, 15s.). The work has been favourably received in America, and has been translated at the present time into French, German, and Russian. Professor A. H. Church, F.R.S., has just issued his "Chemistry of Paints and Painting" (Seeley and Co., 8vo, pp. 312). Mr. Geo. Williamson, editor of Boyne's "Seven- teenth Century Tokens," has in hand a book on "Coins of the Bible." Mr. Egmont Hake's work, "Free Trade in Capital," which has greatly interested the Emperor of Germany, is being translated into German. * NOTES. HE date of the Annual Dinner has not yet been fixed, but it will be held rather earlier in the year than formerly. Circulars will be sent out as soon as the date has been definitely decided upon. The Secretary earnestly begs that in all cases where a member can do so, he will give notice at the office early of his intention to be present. Last year the dinner suffered from the fact that the tables were over-crowded. As, however, one quarter of those present signified their intention within the last day or two, the discomfort, if any, was unavoid- able. The tickets for the dinner will be, as last year, 10s. 6d. This sum will include claret. Payment should be made to "Society of Authors (Dinner Account)," and all Cheques and Postal Orders should be crossed, "Imperial Bank, Westminster Branch." Much letter writing would be saved—a serious consideration to an office whose clerical staff is very small—if members would enclose the money when ordering the tickets. The Committee hope that as many members as possibly can, will be present. In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript, the author should send with it a table of contents and a type-written scenario. This latter can always be done at the expense of two or three shillings. It must be clearly understood that a prac- tised reader does not require to read the whole of an author's work before being perfectly able to give a just opinion on its merits. If by the help of a scenario the reader can grasp at once the story, he is so much the more able readily to point out any errors of construction, and to devote more time to examination of style and other technical points. If he know the author's design, it is possible to say if he has succeeded or failed. With the honestest intent in the world to thoroughly peruse a manu- script, it is difficult not to get weary when the work is badly written, and wrongly paged, and when much time has to be idly spent in finding out what the author's story is before a decision can be arrived at concerning its merits. The more the reader is helped, the better he can discharge his duties. It has been brought to our notice that certain people are advertising that they publish "on terms approved by the Society of Authors," or words to that effect. It is pleasing to receive this acknowledgment of our labours, but we are compelled to warn readers that the Society is wholly unconnected with any firm of publishers whatever. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. This list includes books by members published since the beginning of the year. In future issues the list will be monthly. If omissions are dis- covered the Editor will be glad to receive them. Religious. Gough, Edward. The Bible true from the Beginning. Vols. II and III. Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. 165. each. Harper, Henry A. The Bible and Modern Discoveries. 8vo, pp. 536. A. P. Watt. ids. Lightfoot (Late Bishop of Durham). The Apostolic Fathers. Part II. 3 vols. Mac- millan. 48.C Art, Fiction, and Belles Lettres. Allen, Grant. The Tents of Shem. A Novel. Chatto and Windus. 6d. The Tents of Shem. 3 vols. Chatto and Windus. 3if. 6d.  ## p. 19 (#33) ############################################## THE AUTHOR. 19 Besant, Walter. The Holy Rose. Chatto and Windus. 6s. Black, William. The New Prince Fortunatus. 3 vols. Sampson Low. 31J. 6d. Blackmore, R. D. Kit and Kitty: A Story of West Middlesex. 3 vols. Sampson Low. 3is. 6d. Bramston, M. Apples of Sodom. A Novel. 2 vols. Smith and Innes. 12s. Caird, Mona. The Wing of Azrael. 3 vols. Triibner and Co. 3 if. 6d. The Wing of Azrael. Kegan Paul and Triib- ner and Co. 6s. Cameron, Mrs. H. Lovett. The Cost of a Lie. A Novel. 2nd Edition. F. V. White, is. Crawford, F. Marion. Sant I'lario. New Edition. Macmillan. 6,r. Marzio's Crucifix. New Edition. Macmillan. 3*. 6d. Zoroaster. Macmillan. 3^. 6d. Coleman, John. The White Ladye of Rosemount: A Story of the Modern Stage. Hutchinson. 2S. Collins, Wilkie (The late). A Rogue's Life from his Birth to his Marriage. Chatto and Windus. 2s.; y. 6d. Blind Love. A Novel. 3 vols. Chatto and Windus. 315. 6d. Croker, Mrs. Some One Else. Low. 2s.; 2s. 6d. Crommelin, May. Cross Roads. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett. Crommelin, May, and Brown, John Moray. Violet Vyvian, M.F.H. A Novel. F. V. White. 2s. 6d. Desart, Earl of. The Little Chatelaine. 3 vols. Swan Sonnenschein. 315. 6d. Goodchili>, J. A. A Fairy Godfather. Reming- ton. 6s. Hoey, Mrs. Cashel. The Question of Cain. New and Revised Edition. Ward and Downey. 6*. Kennard, Mrs. Edward. Landing a Prize. A Novel. F. V. White. 2S. 6d. Kipling, Rudyard. Departmental Ditties, and other Verses. Thaclter and Co. Soldiers Three: Stories of Barrack Room Life. Sampson Low. Lang, Andrew. Old Friends. Longmans. 6s. 6d. Lyall, Edna. The Hardy Norseman. New Edition. Hurst and Blackett. 6s. Lytton, Lord. The Ring of Amasis. Macmillan and Co. Mackay, Charles (The late). A Thousand and One Gems of English Prose. New Edition. Routledge. 3*. 6d. Middlemore, S. C. C. The Great Age of Italian Painting. Simpkin. 5*. Mitford, Bertram. The Fire Trumpet. A Romance of the Frontier. 3 vols. Spencer Blackett. 315. 6d. Monkhouse, Cosmo. The Earlier English Water Colour Painters. Seeley. 21*. Murray, D. Christie. John Vale's Guardian. 3 vols. Macmillan. 31J. 6d. A Dangerous Catspaw. Longmans. 2s. 6d. Aunt Rachel: A Rustic Sentimental Journey. Macmillan. .3*. 6d. Nomad. A Railway Foundling. 3 vols. Trischler and Co. Oliphant, Mrs. Lady Car: The Sequel of a Life. New Edition. Longmans. 2s. 6d. Payn, James. A Prince of the Blood. 4th Edition. Ward and Downey. 2s. ■ The Burnt Million. 3 vols. Chatto and Windus. Praed, Mrs. Campbell. The Romance of a Station. 2 vols. Trischler. 2ij-. Price, Eleanor C. A Loyal Mind. A Novel. Remington. 6s. Ross, Ronald. The Child of Ocean. A Romance. Remington. 6s. Robinson, S. W. A Very Strange Family. Heeneman. Sala, G. A. Not a Friend in the World, and other Stories. Dicks, is. Speight, S. W. The Sandycroft Mystery. Chatto and Windus. is. Tytler, Sarah. Duchess Frances. 3 vols. Low. 21s. Vredenburg, Edric. Her Secret: A Short Account of Some Extraordinary Episodes in the Life of a London Beauty. Eglington and Co. is. Wills, C. J. The Great Doremi. Wells Gard- ner, is. Winter, John Strange. Beautiful Jim of the Blankshire Regiment. 5th Edition. F. V. White. 2s. Yonge, Charlotte M. Womankind. Smith and Innes. 3*. 6d. Politics and Questions of the Day. Hake, A. Egmont and Wesslau, O. E. Free Trade in Capital. Remington. 15^. Linton, E. Lynn. About Ireland. Methuen. is. Children's Books. Holland, Clive. Raymi; or, The Children of the Sun. Illustrated by Percy E. Ebbutt. Henry and Co. 5*.  ## p. 20 (#34) ############################################## 20 THE AUTHOR. Lyall, Edna. Their Happiest Christmas. Chambers, is. Wilde, Oscar. The Happy Prince, and other Tales. Nutt. 3s. 6d. Local History. Kitchen, G. W. Winchester (Historic Towns). Longmans. 31. 6d. Classics. Lang, A. Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. Ren- dered into English Prose, with Introductory Essay. Macmillan. gs. MacKail, J. W. Virgil: the Eclogues and Georgics. Translated from the Latin. Rivingtons. 5s. Stedman, A. M. M. Greek Vocabularies for Repetition. Arranged according to Subjects. Methuen. is. 6d. Biography and History. Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. 2 vols. Macmillan. 25J. Garnett, Richard. Life of John Milton. (Great Writers.) Walter Scott. is.; l.p. 2s. 6d. Govett, L. A. The King's Book of Sports. Elliot Stock. 4s. 6d. Haggard, H. Rider. Cetywayo and his White Neighbours; or, Remarks on Recent Events in Zululand, Natal, and the Transvaal. Triibner. 6s. Meiklejohn, J. (M.D.) A New History of Eng- land and Great Britain. With Maps and Tables. Holden (St. Andrew's) Simpkin. 2s. 6d. Nicoll, W. Robertson. James Macdonnell, Journalist. With Etched Portrait by H. Manesse. Hodder and Stoughton. 1 is. Poetry and the Drama. Blind, Mathilde. The Ascent of Man. Poems. Chatto and Windus. 5*. Jerome, Jerome K. Stage Land. 5th Edition. Chatto and Windus. 3.1. 6d. Tennyson, Lord. Demeter, and other Poems. Macmilian. 6s. Poems, Songs from. J. M. Dent and Co. Gilt, is. 6d.; Six Illustrations, 2s. 6d. Music. Stanford, C. V., Prof. Suite for Violin Solo, with Orchestral Accompaniments (Op. 32). Full Score. Novello. 21*. European Languages. Stedman, A. M. M. French Vocabularies for Repetition. Arranged according to Subjects. Methuen. is. Medical and Surgical. Squire, Balmanno. On the Treatment of Diabetes. Churchill. 2s. 6d. Law and Parliamentary. Lely, J. M., and Peck, W. A. Precedents of I.eases for Years and other Contracts of Tenancy. Sweet and Maxwell. 10s. 6d. Pollock (Sir Frederick). Principles of Contract. 5th Edition. With a New Chapter. Stevens and Sons. 285. Philosophy. Nevill, F. Retrogression or Development. Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. 3s. 6d. Directories and Guide Books. Walford (Edward). The County Families of the United Kingdom. New Edition. Chatto and Windus. 505. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, VV.C.) 8vo. 4*. 6d. Opinions of the Press. "An instructive inquiry."—Daily News. "Contains abundance of interesting material."— Saturday Review. "A review of the Pension List is not calculated to make us more content with the way in which the Grant is administered."—Spectator. "The volume contains a complete list of all those who have received Civil List Pensions during the present reign, and an investigation into the principles upon which the Grant has been based, and those upon which it should have been based." —Athena; urn. "Full of curious literary interest."—Pali Mall Gazette. "Since it deals only with officially authenticated facts, there can be no doubt about the evidence on which its conclusions are based."— World. "An interesting work."—Truth. "The lesson it conveys is, that some alteration in the law is essential."—Liverpool Daily Courier. "One can only hope that the book, interesting and trustworthy as it is, will effect its purpose."— Yorkshire Daily Post.  ## p. 21 (#35) ############################################## AD VER TISEMENTS. 21 CHATTO & WINDUS, Publishers. NOVELS BY WALTER BESANT AND JAMES RICE. Crown ivo., cloth extra, 3/. 61/. each ; post 8ro., illustrated, boards, 2s. each ; cloth limp, 2s. 6d. each. The Golden Butterfly. The Monks of Thelema. By Celia's Arbour. The Chaplain of the Fleet. Also a New Library Edition of the above 12 vols., printed from new type on a large crown 8vo. page, and handsomely bound in cloth. Price 6s. each. Ready-Money Mortiboy. My Little Girl. With Harp and Crown. This Son of Vulcan. The Seamy Side. The Case of Mr. Lucraft, &c. 'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay, &c. The Ten Years' Tenant, &c. NOVELS BY WALTER BESANT. Crtnvn &ro., cloth extra, p. 6rf. each ; post %vo., illustrated boards, 2.r. each; cloth limp, 2s. 6d. each. All Sorts and Conditions of Men. Illustrated by Fred. Barnard. The Captains' Room, &c. With Frontispiece by E. J. Whbelkr. All in a Garden Fair. With 6 Illustrations by Harry FlTRNISS. Dorothy Forster. With Frontispiece by Charles Green. Uncle Jack, and other Stories. Children of Gibeon. The World Went Very Well Then. Illustrated by A- FoRESTlER. Heir Paulus: his Rise, his Greatness, and his Fall. For Faith and Freedom. Illustrated by A. Forestier and F. Waddv. Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 3J. 6d. To Call Her Mine, &c. With nine Illustrations by A. Fcrestier. Crown 8vo., cloth extra, dr. The Holy Rose, &c. With a Frontispiece by F. Barnard. Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 6x. The Bell of St. Paul's. Crown 8vo., 3/. 6d. Shortly. Fifty Years Ago. With 137 full-page Plates and Wood- cuts. Demy 8vo., cloth extra, 16s. The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies. With Photograph Portrait. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 6s. The Art of Fiction. Demy 8vo., is. NEW LIBRARY NOVELS. The Burnt Million. Proxy," &c. 3 Vols. By James Payn, Author of "By Syrlin. By Ouida. 3 Vols., crown 8vo. Without Love or Licence. By Hawley Smart. 3 Vols. The Bishops' Bible. By D. Christie Murray and Henry Hkrman. 3 Vols. A Waif of the Plains. By Bret IIarte, Author of "The Luck of Roaring Camp.' With Sixty Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3*. 6d. NEW SIX-SHILLING BOOKS. Paul Jones's Alias, &c. By D. Christie Murray and Hf.nry Herman. With Thirteen Illustrations by A. Forestier and G Nicolet. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6*. The Lawton Girl. By Harold Frederic, Author of "Scth's Brother's Wife. With Frontispiece by F. Barnard. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. The Firm of Girdlestone: A Romance of the Unromantic. By A. Conam Doyle, Author of " Micah Clarke," Szc. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6s. The Man from Manchester. By Dick Donovan. With Twenty-three Illustrations by J. H. Russell. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s History of the Four Georges. By Justin McCakthy, M.P., Author of "A History of Our Own Times," &c. 4 Vols., demy 8vo, cl. ex., i2i. eact». [Voir. I. &* II. retniy.] Short History of our own Times. By Justin McCarthy, M.P. Popular Edition. Post 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. HISTORY, &c. The French Revolution. By Justin H. McCarthy, M.P., Author of " Ireland since the Union," &c. 4 Vols., demy 8vo, 12*. each. [Vols I. cV //. ready.] Tales of our Great Families. By Edward Walford, M.A. Revised Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3*. 6d. NEW "PICCADILLY NOVELS. Croivn Svo., cloth extra, p. 6d. each. An Ocean Tragedy. By \V. Clark Russell. I Sowing the Wind. A Rogue's Life. By Wilkie Collins. [ "Patrica Kemball," &c. By E. Lynn Linton, Author of {Shortly.} A Social Departure. How Orthodocia and I went Round the World by Ourselves. By Sara Jeannette Duncan. With 112 Illustrations by F. H. Townsend. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7J. 6*1. [Shortly]. TRAVEL AND SPORT. The Blue Ribbon of the Turf. Cuhzon. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6s. By Louis Henry HENRY BLACKBURN'S ART HANDBOOKS. Academy Notes, 1890. Grosvenor Notes, 1890. With Sketches, is. With Sketches, is. New Gallery Notes, 1890. With Sketches, is. The Paris Salon, 1890. With Sketches, 3s. London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 214, Piccadilly, W.  ## p. 22 (#36) ############################################## 22 A D VER TISEMENTS. MESSRS. WHITTAKER'S BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Large post 8w, cloth js. 6d.; half bound, 94-. SOBRIQUETS AND NICKNAMES. By Albert Frey. With an Index arranged by True Names. "The first work that li;is twen iU;voted to the cxpl.in.ition and derivation of the numberless witty and sonmiinabus ve npptMl.itions ... it dcserres the heartiest praise."—Glasgow Herald. "More than five thousand subjects are given, and the information supplied is trustworthy and often extensive; a' close scrutiny of the book show* the work to l»e thoroughly done."—Notts and Queries. "Oilers an ample fund of informal ion and amusement—deserves a place in every well-chosen library."—Meriting Post. A Dictionary 0/Parisisms and French Slang. Large Post Zro, ioj. 6dt ARGOT AND SLANG. A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms, and Flash Phrases used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris. By A. Bakrkke, Officier de l'lnstruction Publique, Professor R. M. Academy, Woolwich. The work treats of the cant of thieves; the jargon rf Parisian roughs; the military, naval, parliamentary, academical, legal, and freemasons' slang, of that of the workshop, the studio, the stage, the boulevards, the demimonde. A Companion to the Works of Allan Ramsay, R. Burns, Sir W. Scott and all the Scottish Poets. Just fiublishtd, large Post Zvo, cloth, ys. 6d.t or half bound Ss. 6d. A dictionary of lowland scotch, with an Introductory chapter on the Literary* History and the Poetry and Humour of the Scottish language, and an appendix of Scottish Proveros. 'By Charles Mack ay, LL.D. Also a large paper edition, limited to 125 copies, each numbeied and signed by the Author, of which a few arc still on sale, in Vellum, at j£i 5J., and in Roxburgh, at £1 10s. London: WHITTAKER & Co., Paternoster Square. MR. ELKIN MATHEWS'S LIST. Noiv ready, crown Svo., brotiw buckram, gilt to*>, js. 6Vf*. ROBERT BROWNING: Essays and Thoughts. By JOHN T. NETTLESIIII'. Also Edition de Luxe, limited to 75 copies, Whatman L. P., numbered and signed, price 21s. net. Just Published, finely printed l>y Claris, of Edinburgh, on hand-made paper, in an edition 0/ 350 copies, foo.'scap fc'O., at 6s, net, and 50 copies, crtni'ft Ato. (for sale), numbered and signed, at 15*. net. CORN AND POPPIES. By COSMO MONKHOUSE. The L.P. copies contain as Frontispiece, proofs of an Etching by William Strang. Ncnv ready, criKv/t 8i'0., buckram, gilt top, 6s. THE POETRY OF TENNYSON. By the Rev. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D. eady early in June, printed on hand-made Paper at the Chisivich Press, in an edition of 350 copies, at 55. net, and 50 copies large Paper, numbered and signed, at :cr. 6d. net, CHAMBERS TWAIN. By ERNEST RADFORD. With a Frontispiece by Walter Crane. Ready shortly, post 8ro., cloth, 2S. DANTE: Six Sermons. By the Rev. PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A., Author of "The Alphabet of Economic Science," &c. Realty shortly, post St'O. cloth ys. 6tl., luith portrait, &c. GEORGE MEREDITH, Novelist and Poet. Some Characteristics. By RICHARD LE GALLIENNE. With a Bibliography by John Lane. London: Elkin Mathews, Vigo Street, London, W. Sent, post free, upon application. A Complete Catalogue of Works published by MESSRS. BELL, Containing the following Standard Works, which they think will be found peculiarly suitable to Authors as Works of Reference. Bibliotheca Classica. 26 vols. (Onlyfewsetsleft). Bohn's Dictionary of Poetical Quotations. Fourth Edition. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. 2 volumes. New Edition, Revised. By Walter Armstrong and others. Cooper's Biographical Dictionary. 2 volumes. Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century. Dodd's Epigrammatists. The most complete work on Epigrams yet issued. Gasc's Concise Dictionary of the French and English Languages. Fourth Edition, Revised. Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. 4 Volumes. Guest's History of English Rhythms. Lewin's Life and Epistles of St. Paul. Illustrated. 2 volumes. Long's Decline of the Roman Republic. 5 volumes. Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature. In n parts or 4 volumes. Lupton's Life of Dean Colet. Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School. Smith's Synonyms and Antonyms. Sowerby's English Botany. 12 volumes. Cloth, Half Morocco, and Whole Morocco. Stevenson's Dictionary of Roman Coins. (Republican and Imperial). Strickland's Lives of the Queensof England. 8 volumes. Webster's English Dictionary. In Cloih, Half Calf, Calf or Half Russia, and Russia. Webster's English Dictionary with Appen- dices. Cloth, Half Calf, Calf or Half Russia, or Russia. Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction. Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Pro- vincial English. 2 volumes. The following Works are offered at Reduced Prices. Archer's British Army. Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Architecture. 3 vols. Burn's Rome and the Campagna. Burn's Old Rome. Castle's Schools and Masters of Fence. Davies's Supplementary English Glossary. Dyer's Ancient Athens. Palmer's Desert of the Exodus. 2 Volumes. (Only 12 Copies left). Palmer's Folk Etymology. (Only 8ocopies left.) Scrivener's Codex Bezae. Smith's Synonyms Discriminated. London: GEORGE BELL & SONS, York St., Covent Garden.  ## p. 23 (#37) ############################################## AD VER TISEMENTS. NEW BOOKS A New Translation. By W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge, Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750 copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for this country and 250 for America. In two hand- some 8vo. vols. Price 25.1. the set The aim of the above translation has been to render more accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which has exercised a wide influence on the French language as well as on European literature. A system of marginal reference has been introduced. Great attention has been paid RABELAIS } to t'le mst0"ca' aspect of the book, and points bearing on the political and religous affairs of the times have been carefully noticed. As the work must be presented as a whole, and as certain passages and parts can no longer be presented in English, these have been left in the original old French, where they can be read by such as desire it. The work will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of the environs of Chinon, the part of France where Ralielais was brought up, notes on the language and style, and on other points. It will be, in fact, an entirely new and complete presentation of the great French master. Prospectus giving/nil details ami ail information to be luul on application from the Publisher. A BOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR. SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and Present. B^jr John S. Farmer, Author of "Americanisms—Old and New," &c. A new and absolutely unique Slang Dictionary. In three volumes, foolscap 4to, printed antique style, on thick paper, large margin, to the number of 500 copies for England and 250 for America, each copy being numbered and signed, to Subscril>ers : The" . . .- The price will be mis Americanisms—Old and New." A Dictionary, Historical and xtu*—i \ only as follows : The Set (3 vols.) £5 5s. net. In half-calf, parch- ment sides. The price will be raised on completion as in the case of Comparative (on the lines of Dr. Murray's New English Dictionary) of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than 300 years; the whole presenting a Curious Pictuie of Social Life and Manners of the English People. A'aUs and Queries says—* For the first time in a dictionary the subject of English slang is seriously treated. Recent works have been catchpennies, and Mr. Farmer is the first to treat the subject of sl;imj in .1 manner com- mensurate with its importance. . . . Very full is Mr. Farmer's list, the first volume extending to over four luindred double columned pages. . . . II is book commends itself warmly to our readers, and its progress cannot be otherwise than interesting. As it is issued in a limited edition It can scarcely fail of becoming a prized possession." Prospectus and all information to be hadfrom the Publisher. AMERICANISMS: OLD AND NEW. By John S. Farmer. In 1 vol. Foolscap 410. printed in antique style, and bound in vellum. £2 as. A booli for the library, desk, or general reading: for journalists, Members of Parliament, public speakers, and all professional men. It is a dictionary of words, phrases, and colloquialism:, peculiar to the United States, British America, the West Indies, &c, &c, together with their derivation, meaning, and application. "Certainly the r>est and completes! dictionary of Americanisms at present existing."—Athenaum. THREE NEW BOOKS ON THE HOLY LAND. PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS. By Guv lf. Strange. With Map, and numerous Plans and Drawings specially executed for this work. Handsome post 8vo, pp. 604. Cloth extra, 12s. (yl. "A work intended to render the mass of interesting Information about Palestine, which lies buried in the Arabic texts of the Moslem geographers and travellers of the middle ages, available to the Fnglish reader,' ** .... is written throughout with a sort of loving care which proves how thoroughly the author has felt the fascination of his subject."— Saturday Review. Third Edition, now ready. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. By Henrv A. H \rper. With an Introduction by Walter Besant. Coloured Map and numerous Illustrations, demy 8vo, i&r. "Instructive, interesting, and in many ways admirable . . . cnablos the reader s* to revise his impressions of Scripture typography as in many cases to throw quite a flood of new light upon a hitherto obscure narrative. —Manchester hxamitter. "Supplies a long-felt want by connecting in a popular and vivid manner the work which has been done by the Society with the Bible narrative."— Christian Leader. NORTHERN AJLUN, "Within the Decapolis.' By Herr Schumacher, Author of "Across the Jordan,"' &c- With Maps, Plans, and over 60 Illustrations, crown 8vo, 3^. 6J. "Altogether we have to thank Mr. Schumacher for an Important addition to our knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita."— Saturday Review. THE SURVEY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. Only 17 sets of this magnificent work now remain. It will never be reprintedi with the exception of the two volumes "Flora anil Fauna " and "Jerusalem." The price of I he set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven uniform and handsomely bound volumes. 4/0. THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field by Major Cornier, D.C.L., R.E., and Colonel Kitchener C.M.G., A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after (heir return. With thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, etc., drawn expressly for these volumes, aud not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols. THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor E. H. Palmer, x vol* THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS. Con- sisting mostly of reprints of important papers from the "Quarto ly Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.O , F.R.S., D.C.L., I.L.D., R.E. ; Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S., R.E.: Major Condor, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont- Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, &c. i vol. THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE. With many Illustrations (hand-painted). By Canon Tristram , LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol. THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio of 50 Plates. Iiy Co!. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol. THE MAPS. An Illustrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be lent, post free, on application. Published for the Palestine Exploration Fund by London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.  ## p. 24 (#38) ############################################## 24 AD VERTISEMENTS. OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. i 1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property. 2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright. 3. The promotion of International Copyright. The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as follows :— a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing. f). It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are injurious to their interests. 7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands of unscrupulous traders. 8. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province. e. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the pecuniary interest of their works. WARNINGS, Authors are most earnestly warned— (1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them. (2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society. (3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of publishers. (4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society. (5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society. (6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice. (7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known houses, to pay small houses for the production of the work.  ## p. 24 (#39) ############################################## AD VER TISEMENTS. iii. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal, devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. 3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer). 2^. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister- at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) \s. 6d. 5. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the Society, is. 6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. 7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigce. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible. Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.  ## p. 24 (#40) ############################################## ADVERTISEMENTS. Furthers hairless paper, (60) Pada Pad holders (One Shilling: - The LeadenhaltPress.E.C. “With Bad Paper, one's Best is impossible.” THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD (Issued by the Proprietors of The Leadenhall Press). Contains, in block form, fifty sheets of strong hairless paper, over which-being of unusual but not painful smoothness—the pen slips with perfect freedom. Easily detachable, the size of the sheets is about 71 by 8 inches, and the price is only that charged for common scribbling paper. THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS Paper-Pad may be comfortably used, whether at the desk, held in the hand, or resting on the knee. As being most convenient for both author and compositor, the paper is ruled the narrow way, and, of course, on one side only. Sixpence each ; 5/- per dozen, ruled or plain. * . THE LEADENHALL Press, E.C. THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD HOLDER, Suggested by Punch, is equally useful to the busy few who write when travelling, and to stay-at-homes who dislike the restraint of desk or table. It is intended that the wooden rim at the side of the Author's HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD HOLDER should be grasped by the left hand, the right being free to travel over the whole surface of the paper from top to bottoin. The height of Pad and Holder will be kept uniform if each written sheet is placed as torn off underneath the Pad, the base of which is now thick blotting paper instead of the old and useless cardboard. - The ordinary sloped position when in use keeps Pad and Holder together. One Shilling. * * If to be forwarded by post, send 2a. extra for postage of single Pad, and 10ld. for postage of one dosen Pads. The postage on one Pad-Holder is 3d., and one Pad-Holder and one Pad together, 44d. THE LEADENHALL Press, 50, LEADENHALL STREET, E.C. Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City of Westminster.  Text A transcription of the document <button class="toggle">The Author, pp. 1–3</button> <div class="content"> <p>The Report of the Society of Authors for the year 1890 spoke of the great importance of keeping members more fully and more regularly supplied with information, not only on the work of the Executive Committee, but also on the various matters which concern the author in the safeguarding of his interests and the preservation of his property. The simplest method of effecting this, it was thought, would be to hold frequent meetings for the purpose of conference and discussion. As, however, a large number of our members live in the country, we could seldom hope to obtain a really representative gathering, and the discussions would have a tendency to drop into the hands of a few, and so be robbed of half their value. It is also to be considered that no discussions can have any real value which are not founded on knowledge of the facts. Now, the ordinary member knows little of the facts. It was, therefore, then thought that occasional leaflets might be issued conveying the facts. To this plan, however, there appeared many obstacles. First, leaflets are tossed aside and lost; then, even if they are read and preserved, there is no place for discussion, for questions, or for suggestions. The private member of the Society would feel that he was taking no real part in its management and government. If he thought the committee was moving too slowly in the right, too quickly in the wrong, direction – there would be no opportunity for saying so, except by writing a letter to the Secretary, to be by him laid before the Committee.</p> <p>Considering the question from its many points of view, it has seemed most desirable to have our own organ for our own purposes.</p> <p><i>The Author</i> is therefore founded to be the organ of literary men and women of all kinds – the one paper which will fully review, discuss, and ventilate all questions connected with the profession of literature in all its branches. It will be the medium by which the Committee of our Society will inform its members generally of their doings, and it will become a public record of transactions conducted in the interests of literature, which have hitherto been secret, lost, and hidden for the want of such an organ.</p> <p>The chief aim of the Society – this has been advanced again and again – is to promote the recognition of the fact, hitherto most imperfectly understood, that literary property is as real a thing as property in every other kind of business: that it should be safeguarded in the same manner, and regarded with the same jealousy.</p> <p>Hitherto the mere existence of literary property even in the face of such patent facts as the enrichment of publishers, has been carefully concealed and even denied. Risks of publishing, costs of publishing, have been dangled before the eyes of authors, so that they should regard the subject as one of extreme peril and pure speculation. One can never even now read a leading article about publishing without being solemnly assured that the trade is one in which frightful risks are constantly run, and that the success of any book is pure speculation.</p> <p>Now, as a matter of act, there is very little speculation indeed in publishing, and there are very, very few publishers – only the leading houses – who ever run any risks at all, either by buying books or by bringing out books at a risk. Risks are run when a House starts a magazine, or when it embarks on illustrated editions of an expensive kind, or when educational books are published. The ordinary risk run in the production of books is, as a rule, next to nothing. For, first, the author is seldom paid except by results; next, the author, when a house consents to "take the risk," is, for the most part, one who commands a certain sale. With the smaller houses books about which there is the slightest risk are always paid for by the authors in advance, either wholly or in part. And very, very seldomn indeed, do the ill-advised authors who advance their money ever see it back again.</p> <p>Again, as to the actual cost of production. By carefully keeping this a profound secret, interested persons have succeeded in establishing a kind of <i>taboo</i>, as of some holy, sacred thing which must not be so much as touched. We have, however, thoroughly investigated the whole question, and are now in a position to throw complete light upon the cost of producing any kind of book that can be named, in any type and in any form.</p> <p>This is a very important step. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. <i>It enables the author, for the very first time in the history of literature, to know what it is he is asked to concede to the publisher, and what it is he reserves for himself.</i></p> <p>We have also done more: we have collected together a vast amount of information as to publishers' agreements: especially as to what, in reality, is the meaning of the clauses contained in them: we have ascertained what it is they ask the author to surrender and for what consideration. And we have acquired a knowledge of various frauds, made possible by the terms of these agreements, in the different methods of publishing.</p> <p>This knowledge is so beneficial to the author that its existence ought to be widely spread and made known to every person who is engaged in the production of literature of any kind.</p> <p>Again, the Society is constantly engaged in answering questions connected with every branch of literature and its practice. Many of these questions are answered by letter over and over again, taking up a great deal of the Secretary's time. They would be answered more effectively in a journal.</p> <p>It follows from these clauses that we may have a good deal to say about the seamy side of the publishing trade.</p> <p>It must, however, be borne in mind very carefully that the Society has not and never has had, any quarrel with honourable publishers. It has always asked for one thing only – <i>just and honest treatment, fair and open agreements, and honourable observance of those agreements.</i></p> <p>It has therefore been determined to establish this journal as an organ for the especial use of the Society. At first we shall bring out <i>The Author</i> on the fifteenth of every month. The journal will contain papers, notes, letters, questions, and information on all subjects connected with literature and its profession.</p> <p>The members of the Society will be kept informed of all that part of our work which is not confidential. Among other features of novelty and interest will be an account in each number of some one case that has been brought before the Society – of course without the names. The consideration of these cases will, we are certain, show the world the absolute necessity for some such organisation as our own, though the widespread ignorance which we have unfolded was hardly guessed by our founders at our first institution. Each number will also contain an article or leaflet on some topic belonging to our own interests. There will be notes on the various branches of our work. Our columns will be open to suggestions, letters, and questions.</p> <p>We shall send out this journal to all our members as their own organ. We shall continue it for one year at least.</p> <p>We shall be very glad to hear from members who may be willing to assist us by original contributions, which should be short, and on some subject belonging to our special field, which is the <i>safeguarding of literary property for the producer of literature.</i></p> <p>Members are invited to send in notices of the books which they are about to produce, and copies of their books when they appear. It is intended to give a short notice of the purpose and contents of these works when this is possible. In the case of fiction a very brief account, <i>but not a review</i>, will be attempted.</p> </div> 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. 01 Issue 01 (May 1890) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 01 (May 1890) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1890-05-19-The-Author-1-1 publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/238/1891-The-Author-1-index.pdf 51629cd8925bd25b1a78082b7e954517 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) 1891 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 Alexander P. Watt Location The location of the event or organisation London Volume 1 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. 01 (1891) Subject The topic of the resource Index to <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 (1891) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Index Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1891-The-Author-1-index publications The Author https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/237/1896-Lunge-Contract-of-Publication-in-Germany-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland.pdf 38831cc8a09fa5f98d2204c0f4704d44 PDF Text Text || sº | THE - CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN GERMANY, AND Austria, HUNGARY, SWITZERLAND. By ERNST LUNGE, J.U.D. 2s. 6d. ��º º THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLANI). By ERNST LUNGE, J.U.D. Published for the Society of Authors. | ??- -- s �º Q, e 5. º ‘IBRARS PRINTED BY HORACECOX, WINDSORHOUSE, BREAM's BUILDINGS, E.0. �THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY AND SWITZERLAND, BY ERNST LUNGE, J.U.D. or in be no in of in it its THE following synopsis of the leading principles of law governing the Contract of Publication refers to those European States that have either adopted the German original form closely followed Code of Commerce in corresponding codes; the former being the case with the German Empire and Austria, the latter with Hungary legal thinking thereby and Switzerland. The affinity widely differing many other respects evinced countries in ” a of to of of of or in as in by or in of of to as for the States under our notice may comprising “greater Germany regard Unfortunately, the Contract the evolution the law. Publication has found no place the German com mercial code, and the more less pronounced uniformity statutes, practice, and doctrine secured that great legislative work for commercial law throughout central Europe has been seriously obstructed regards the legal publisher; relations between author and even the German Empire has, apart from one two accidental provisions the Copyright Bill 1870 and elsewhere, no common law the Contract Publication with the authority an imperial enactment. No doubt that omission was mainly improve, the caused by, but certainly has not helped is accident, described B �2 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN unsatisfactory state of all doctrine connected with Authors’ Rights. For this is by far the most disputed ground of all civil law in Germany, and whoever is aware of the enormous influence wielded by pure doctrine and theory on the practical issues—i.e., legislation and practice, of German law, will readily understand that the matter can never be settled until Jurisprudentia Docens has made up her mind; of which there is not much of a prospect at the present moment. I Like every self-respecting student of German law, am, of course, provided with notions of my own upon the subject, and am prepared to part, at a great sacrifice, with a brand new theory of Authors’ Rights, dissenting, in every particular, from anything said before. But here should like to leave abstractions and classifications out of I court and merely to show the most important issues raised and identically or similarly decided within the provinces of German law. Now, in spite of all said above, the Contract of Publication will be found, when descending from the theory and appearing in cothurnus of semi-metaphysical real life, to be, in all main respects, the same all over the States under our cognizance. The institutions of the trade and (unfortunately) the conditions of literary production are the same; this ensures similar sets of conflicting interests, and they in their turn can meet with no great variety of legal conception and treatment, where the cast of the judicial mind is the same. If, then, theoretical squabbles have prevented uniform legislation, the exigencies of life have called for, and the German lawyers, trained in the stern school of Roman Law, were able to provide, a set of rules covering the whole ground of the Contract of Publication and insuring a tolerable uniformity of practice for the German speaking nations. But for a few fragments and occasional utterances, we should know nothing at all about publishing and the manu �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 3 script trade of ancient Greece, and we cannot hope for any addition to those scanty sources of information. Yet we are safe in assuming that author and publisher had no occasion for a legal understanding as to the publication of the works of the former. Fees were as unknown as the principle of copyright; no learned Greek would have stooped to make money by work for the book market. No doubt authors sold their manuscripts, but to wealthy gentlemen, and not to the trade. All trade profits publisher managed went to the who to obtain a new work. considerable This is little enough, but we do not know even as much as that about prosperous Alexandria. The influx of learned Greeks after the subjection of their own country gave the lagging book trade of Rome a mighty spurt, and caused it to rise to a noble height.* The wholesale business of an important Roman publisher was equal to the production of enormous numbers of cheap copies; it was by no means so far behind our modern achievements as might be imagined, and certainly superior to the efforts of the primitive printing press. The methods of the Roman trade anticipated modern publishing on more than one line. As Birt remarks, the Roman author could address the masses and write for the wide world. Horace might have lived in our days, to have written: Hic meret aera liber Sosiis, hic et mare transit, Et longum noto scriptori prorogat aevum. The highly evolved trade of Rome cannot have dispensed with some sort of real agreement between author and * Prof. Kohler has appended a brilliant review of the social conditions production and of the publishing trade of Rome to his “Autorrecht.” Valuable historical notes will also be found in Birt’s “Das antike Bucherwesen; ” Kapp’s “Geschichte des deutschen Buch handels,” and Schuermann’s “Rechtsverhaltnisse der Autoren und Verleger,” cover the age of printing up to this century. I am indebted to these works for many of the following data. of literary B 2 �4 THE CONTRACT OF IN PUBLICATION publisher; but, clearly defined as they were even then, the peculiar interests of the parties to the Contract of Publication do not appear ever to have called for special juridical consideration anyhow, and construction; the records of Civil Law are absolutely silent on the subject. This evident absence of litigation is easily explained. Authorship was no recognised profession; social economics had no cognisance of the writer as bread-winner; the dignity of free labour as a factor of production is a modern notion. And then publicity was by no means, as a rule, the main object of a Roman author's work. This in itself barred the evolution of typical author's interests which, must otherwise, in the course of time, have engaged the attention of lawyers and found some legal formulation. It was rather to the court, to magnates and rich grandees, than to publishers, that authors in quest of reward might look for remuneration, and we have sufficient evidence of extraordinary prices realised by the sale of MSS. to that class of patrons. This had, of course, no direct connection with the success of any one publication; but manifestly the market value of those dedications and sales depended, on the whole, upon the appreciation of poet or author by the public, and this appreciation was contingent on the dispersion of their works. Yet the author's more or less noble, but readily discerned, interest in the success of his publication does not seem to have been recognised as sufficiently substantial to lead to a claim on the publisher to force the sale. in is at It of to an it, At that period copyright and piracy were terms as yet unknown. The notion of “intellectual property” would have been unintelligible to those times. It was a general custom to copy manuscripts for one's own use; special copyists were kept by such as could afford and some rich bibliophiles kept organised staff writers work bringing their private libraries up date. not im ~ �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUN GARY, AND SWITZERLANI). probable that the etiquette of the trade held wholesale competition in check; friendly understandings, if not 5 illicit bind ing agreements, may have led to some sort of protection of a publisher's new enterprises; but they cannot have been very effectual or far-reaching. Birt's hypothesis, according to which collegia librariorum or bibliopolarum enforced respect for publishers’ rights, is entirely unsupported by evidence, and Kohler himself must disclaim the existence of any proof for his belief in protective privileges or monopolies supposed by him to have been granted to publishers. Nor can the absence of complaints about competition be taken as evidence of any of those restraints on special competi tion. It is rather the other way; measures against piracy must remain a dead letter, where the detection of spurious copies, easy enough since uniform editions are printed, was a technical impossibility; apart from other considerations, no system of legal protection could have suggested itself to the Roman publisher, who had his editions produced by troops of slaves writing to dictation. For all this, the trade flourished; publishers were on the look-out for new writings, and an author prepared to do with private libraries could see no objection to selling a copy of his latest work to a bibliopole who made it worth his while. But the transaction in question thing and nothing comprised the sale of a corporeal beyond, and even its frequent occurrence does not substan tiate the hypothesis of a type of contract ensuring other valuable rights to the author than that to the purchase They never came to distinguish the value of the price. author's production apart from its material substratum, the manuscript; the disposal of the latter invariably included the former—they sold manuscripts, but made no Contracts of Publication. We shall see later on that the business same confusion own century. obtained in the age of printing, up to our �THE 6 CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN There may have been isolated cases in which writers made a regular income by the sale of their manuscripts to publishers, as was very probably done by Martial; on the whole, however, there was no money in it; that class of transactions was never important enough to receive specific legal treatment or an independent economic status. Quinctilian's letter to his publisher Tryphon does not as much as allude to the question of remuneration. Juvenal's satire, seventh whilst enumerating the most trifling sources of income of rhetoricians, advocates, and other professions, As has not a word to say about authors’ fees. rights” were there to be assigned, the no “authors’ publisher of a new work had to rely on turning to profit the advantage gained by his priority in the market, by getting the start of his competitors with his new publica tion. Even the highly problematical restriction of the forms of illicit competition by conventions or would not have made much difference in this respect. On the other hand, it was a matter of common decency for the author to warrant that priority, grossest trade-usage, perhaps even to refrain from competing later on with copies prepared for his own account; some trace of such a rule may be found in Martial's testimony: Exigis ut donem nostro tibi, Quinte, libellos. Non habeo, sed habet bibliopola Tryphon. Martial IW., 72. . . et faciet lucrum bibliopola Trypho, Martial XIII., 3. At any time would copies produced by, or under the control of, the author himself have got the better of a publisher's edition which, at its best, was a perfunc torily manufactured article. Simple, then, as were their business dealings, yet authors and publishers were often intimately associated. The personal correspondence seller's weighty of Cicero with Atticus discloses the book influence on the great writer's publications, �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 7 and amply illustrates the attention paid by Cicero to his publisher's opinion on the daily progress of his labours. Many a Roman publication was due to publishers' incitation, to their appeals for new works, or their encouragement of hesitating authors. As remarked above, the term of author was far from being identical with that of writer for the public. Style and form were far more important in those times than nowadays, and all those works that had been composed for ephemeral purposes, or for certain circles only, would but reluctantly be yielded to publicity, to be for ever attached in a definite shape to the author's name and fame. That sort of scruple had to be Then, overcome by the publisher's powers of persuasion. purely very a serious obstacle of a technical nature encountered every author aspiring to publicity, in the exigencies of the materials from which the editions were manufactured: in the limited size of the rolls, each of which was supposed complete to contain an independent work or section, and the limits of which the writer was bound to observe, not only when arranging and rigidly distributing subject-matter, but throughout the Thucydides or Plato knew of no procrustean restrictions, but now a work intended for publication was of necessity the result of a compromise between the impulse to free, unfettered production and the hampering conditions of the book market. the composition. Publishing enterprises were commonly carried through at the risk and expense of the publishers, some of whom were wholesale tradesmen on a grand scale. In some cases, however, the author was his own publisher, as Cicero in the beginning of his career as a writer. Again, in others we find a stage of transition from the latter (the earlier), system into the former, the author taking part of the expense upon himself; so Cicero shared the consider able cost of the paper with his publisher. On the other �THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION 8 hand, nothing to prove that the author had a we have pecuniary IN interest in the sale. If Cicero decided to let have all his future works, because that clever Atticus publisher had brought about an extensive sale of the speech pro Q. Ligario, we need not look beyond the orator's notorious vanity and craving for popularity for an explanation. Birt has arbitrarily interpreted that deter mination of Cicero's as emanating from satisfaction at his share in the profits, and believes this hypothetical partnership to prove a common system of remuneration. letters, whilst All that is mere guess work. Cicero's referring to the least important details, never allude to any of in In to an and, when finished copies also highly probable that copies free charge, which of by to a was allowed number he would dispose his best advantage. of of is were revised and corrected. he necessary, the It was recognised, a ; to of a by to in by if by to or of a in of of, financial benefit derived from his connection with Atticus. Publications by, or on behalf the writer himself probably originated the production small copies for exchange with other authors number for patrons, under the author's immediate control, sale not his own hand; but we are left doubt about the disposing methods employed him his work where real edition was offered the public. return for the pecuniary sacrifice made author contributing the cost the edition, his literary interests met with some consideration his claim careful reproduction Italy its in of to of of of of The fall the Roman Empire was not survived the vigorous literary life and the grand book trade days affluence. All learning, the entire production and reading matter were banished consumption the higher civilisation monasteries, until the resurrection in of a awakened considerable demand for manuscripts, calling into life new systems organised copying that had, however, nothing common with the Roman trade �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 9 Above all, there was no occasion for dealings between authors and publishers. It remained for the printing press to bring contemporary scholars again together with literary enterprisers. The production of printed books was originally a purely undertaking. industrial When the publishers first ap methods. men of letters, it was in quest of services that were to be entirely subsidiary to their own trade purposes. proached It did not occur to the publisher of the German-speaking nations to look for works by living authors until the 16th century was well advanced; certainly any original works that may have appeared before then have been lost amidst the reproduction of mediaeval manuscripts; the demand for books was well met by Fathers of the Church, Bibles, classics, and school-books. The main conditions of a satisfactory reproduction were possession of a correct manuscript, and the control of the printers by a literary expert. Not a few of the early continental publishers were qualified for editing the manu the scripts themselves, being men of considerable learned This was no mere coincidence, for a pub lisher's success in business was often dependent on the taste he displayed in selecting the treasures of the classic ages. Publishers like Aldus and Froben were supported by alike their enthusiasm and by their knowledge. But technical skill was not always paired with literary ability; those printers who knew their own trade but could not dare to undertake the recension of ancient texts themselves, turned to specialists for this part of the work, at first to clergymen, later on with a preference for young humanists. The progress of printing and publishing made this division of labour the rule. The office of the correctors, attainments. or castigators, as they came to be called, was of no mean importance; they were responsible, not only for the pre paration of the copy, but also for correct composition, as �10 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN yet by no means a matter of course. The choice of suitable recensors and castigators was always of much concern to the great printers of Strasburg, Nuremberg, and of Basle, and they managed to secure the ser especially vices of a number of the most important savants of the Brandt, age of the Reformation ; men like Sebastian Melanchthon, Beatus Rhenanus, Erasmus, were retained as castigators literary experts. The times had changed of letters was openly paid for services rendered. Erasmus tells us, that Froben spent enormous sums for the recension of his publications. We have, however, no record of specific amounts paid to casti or Now the indeed. man gators. The legal the contracts relations in question were simply those of for services, for doing work on materials, or for doing a specific piece of work. But the association embraced, from the very first, the nucleus of interests of which the pure types of contracts named would have no literary interest of the editor in the work cognisance—the under his care. Even the earliest humanists, to whom the recension of classics was intrusted, wrote intro produced ductory notes, verses of praise or appendices, never omit ting to advance their own claims to be known as editors This was no innovation. Up to the last, the Romans were at the greatest pains to carefully preserve and transmit the true text of the classics. The subscriptions added to the manuscripts, with their legi, distinati, ememdavi, bear witness of that in an unmistakable way. Those who charged themselves with the labour were not of the clergy, but laymen, and were often enough of the highest secular standing. Even a Roman emperor, Theodosius II., prided himself in his capacity as recensor. The great humanists of the Reformation could never have under rated the classics, importance and a lofty of their work as trustees view did they take of of the their �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 11 Their dignity was not thought to be fact that they stood under a contract for services; often enough the publisher himself was prompted as much by his enthusiasm for letters as by the functions as editors. impaired by the love of gain. And then, the office of the mere corrector or proof-reader was soon differentiated from that of the learned editor, when once the first professors of the age had stepped into the ranks of castigators. No less a man than Erasmus objected strongly to being confounded with the common proof-reader. These facts of history go far to explain the peculiarities of the German Contract of Publication. To instance one, every and any sort of fee paid to authors is called, up to the present day, “honorarium,” in unconscious imitation of those early contracts for professional services, though the transaction in question may be a sale pure and simple. But the reason of that affinity lies deeper than in superficial traditions. Had the Romans known a special Contract of Publication, it would have been adopted as a matter of course, at least for original contemporary works when they once began to be published, for the Civil Law was then on its triumphal march through the civilised But, in the absence of Roman enactments, and, of world. course, of anything of the kind among the old Teutonic institutes, they did not trouble themselves about finding some other suitable type of contract, e.g. partnership, as legal adjustment of their dealings; and the publication of original productions was regarded, as far as the relations between authors and publishers went, in much the same light as that of revised classics. The a deliberate occupation of castigators, performed under the contract services, for had become too dignified an office to let that contract quite improper in the case of original Then, as said before, the publisher might be of a savant himself as a mere tradesman, and seem production. as much �IN THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION 12 his profession was not yet so clearly differentiated from that of the author's as it became later on. The man of letters was rather his collaborator, than a quite inde pendent factor of production, and would not feel called publisher with the immense upon impress to the superiority of original work, or to seek for a fundamental re-adjustment of their relations. But the conditions of original production were vastly different from those of the castigator, the learned employé, and could not but make themselves felt by raising many complications and conflicts of interests for which the pure contract for services, the locatio conductio operis or operarum, could not provide. However, they were as little by the age of the Reformation as they had understood been by the Romans: and the result was a confusion which retarded, not only the evolution of a definite type of Contract of Publication, but probably also the general recognition of Authors' Rights for centuries to come. The contract for services has managed to obtain in some important details, up to the present day, where its real basis, the relation of author to publisher as that of he it, employé to employer is but rarely met with. Thence the modern legal presumptions, that a publisher who invites the production of a work tacitly agrees to pay for and at to a a ab on of he it he a to it a to of may have that bear the risk locator operis. On the other hand, was quite the exception for an author receive fee for original work produced his publisher with own instance, when had offered whom had not had previous dealings under contract initio, services, which now would have placed them, in at it by to in of is, a to kindred material basis when coming terms. tracing the absence beyond doubt, right Schuermann remuneration this case the opposite arrangement, under which the author had his book printed the printer-publisher, and then published his own risk �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND swiTZERLAND. 13 and expense, having, as a rule, none but pure literary interests in view. The same authority assures us that the comparatively high fees known to have been paid for original work must be referred exclusively to those cases in which the publisher occasioned its production, and where his professional point of view was of dominant on the composition. The works of the many popular authors and compilers that swamped the market of the 16th century, were one and all written as mere industrial enterprises to comply with the publishers' influence speculative interests. The profession of an author was, on the whole, a poorly paid one, and was not supposed to offer a living. Payments in cash remained the exception up to the 18th century, and they were never considerable, but often humiliating ; and the more erudition, the less pay. The celebrated Elzevirs enjoy the unenvied distinction of exceptionally Now, the same men who were ready mean shabbiness. enough serve for a good fee as castigators did not recognise as gentlemanly payment for original works quite contrary to the practice of the Roman authors. But in Rome the author's fee was the price of an article to immediately sold, whereas the business relations of authors and the early printers originated in the contract for services, and though not the slightest ignominy was now attached to that contract, yet to take money for one's own original thoughts as another's employé, seemed at first as hiring out one's freedom of thought. The rapid growth of the importance difference of original works for the market soon made the between the original writer and the hired labour of the proof reader too palpable able comparisons, vanished. and the to admit of any disagree sensibility regarding fees - The contract for the services of scholars was, then, the first of the institutions from which the German Contract of �14 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION Publication was evolved. IN The other source of the modern is to be found in the contract for the production of books at the author's expense, which has been mentioned contract above. When a modest market for new writings first managed to establish itself amidst the masses of new editions of old books, the authors had to bear, not only the expense of their production, but also, to a large extent, the labour of disposing of them to the public. There were only a few isolated exceptions to this rule during the first and second decades of the 16th century. The next of at as by its step was taken when the authors began to charge their pro printers with the sale of the book in addition to duction, was done Martin Luther the outset his literary career. Luther's later dealings mark another on of to in if of to of important stage the contract's progress. The printer allowed the amount due stand over and paid himself pro they fell short from the sales effected; the cost duction, Luther paid the difference, relinquishing, the other hand, any profits derived the printer, return an of a or to of at to for his trouble and for his crediting the expense. Of course this arrangement could give satisfaction those authors only who aimed nothing but the dissemination their works; but then Luther never looked his publications for profit, claimed fee. From agreements this type, to it easy step the contract under which the not only credited the expense, but charged himself with the risk the enterprise, still appearing, principle, the author's agent, far was bound produce and properly publish the book. To these types contract we may trace the origin modern rule, according which the author may control the production and claim proof sheets, but must bear the cost unreason was he as a so of to of of to in as of on publisher The only regular material authors was the free copies supply; those his work which the publisher engaged to of to ably numerous alterations. benefit commonly granted �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 15 he either sold outright, bartered for other books (which again were not unfrequently sold) or presented to patrons. Patronage had to eke out the poor scholar’s scanty income; towards the end of the 17th century, the system of public dedications to rich and influential men, to corporations and cities, had attained a magnitude, grand in its baseness. The right of dedication was a property concerning which special agreements were made. The dealings of authors and publishers had outgrown the clearly defined but narrow boundaries of the pure contracts for services, but not to be dealt with and conceived with legal precision or to be classified as a type of contract. new specific Untold modifications and loose agreements stood in the place of any institution exactly describing the mutual rights and duties of the parties, and the confusion was still enhanced by the rarity of written agreements (which did not come into common use before the 18th century) and by the motley systems, under which the innumerable autono mous states issued copyright privileges. These privileges were the only protection afforded to the author's, or rather the publisher's interests, and their very name implies the inability of the times to conceive of Authors' Rights as a Up to the last the manuscript embodied all rights in contents, and its reprint it—a legal possession was copy title conception undoubtedly derived from the common practice printing. This the age the castigators, the infancy implied the right publisher who had once acquired an print liked, the many editions author's work purchase being its or of absolute unconditional. their own licence and he as as to a of of of a to species of real immaterial property. Conversely, or to of to publish the authors vindicated competing editions elsewhere, subject, course, the publishers' claims from public privileges special arrangements. All this may explain how Goethe could �16 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN write in 1824–“Fifty years ago, a contract for the future was unimaginable.” The author's right of altering new editions and claiming a fee for them was highly problematic till this century. It is true, that the eighteenth century had somewhat consolidated the conception and crystalised the types of publishing arrangements. But the develop furthered one, stating explicitly that even the Prussian Code of 1794 omits primary obligation publisher, viz., the of the to actually produce a work once accepted for publication, whilst some ment was so little a conscious or deliberately of the code's provisions take that obligation—highly con Though originating troversial up to then—for granted. in the earliest institutions of the age of printing, the Contract of Publication, as a deliberately developed institute, is thus a product of our century—of the age of general recognition of Authors' Rights, Prussia was the first state to codify the law of the Contract of Publication, and most of the provisions of the Civil code of 1794 are still in force. Since then, the most important statutes passed were those of Austria (1811), of the Canton of Zurich (1853-56), of Saxony (1865), of Hungary (1875), and of Switzerland (1883). Then, occa sional remarks are to be found in the copyright bills or ordinances of the minor German states, as well as in those of the states named above, and in the Imperial German copyright bill of 1870. The “Dresdener Entwurf,” the project of a code of obligations prepared for the federated German states, but deprived of its raison d'être through the events of 1866, has been of marked influence on the subsequent development of the law. all content themselves with establishing a limited number of leading propositions, and it has been left to the high courts and the unofficial work of specialists to set up rules for their application to practice. The most important book on the subject is These statutes one and �AUsTRIA, HUNGARY, GERMANY, AND swITZERLAND. 17 Waechter’s“ Verlagsrecht,” published 1857-58, up to the by is, present day the standard work on the Contract of Publica tion, in spite of many antiquated opinions. A long list of authority greater writers of or minor will be found in Dr. Osterrieth's “Altes und Neues zur Lehre vom Urhe of statutes in of G. in very complete copy and legislative projects, the most the law Leipzig, the pertinent besides other by sections (1870) of has published a of B. of Osterrieth the way, one original and influential reformers the realm copyright and publication. Tuebner, berrecht.” A F. in of in be or to in set is of by “ to be authoritative utterances, compiled W. Petsch. similar compilation, far less complete, but more convenient date, will and brought up found Streissler's Urheber, Recht für Buchhandel und Presse" (published 1890 Baron Biedermann). The publishers' view the Voigtlaender's“ Verlags subject forcibly forth every recht" (1893). Short digests are found modern compendium Teutonic Commercial law. The following abbreviations are used below: Bes. Beseler, System des gemeinen deutschen Privat Blu. I. rechts (1866). Blu. II. Bluntschli, Deutsches Privatrecht, Vol.I. (1851). Bluntschli, Kommentar zum Zürcher Privat Gesetzbuche. Dernburg, Preussisches Privatrecht. Eisenlohr, Das literarisch-artistische Eigentum und Verlagsrecht (1855). End. I. rechtlichen Der. Eis. End. II. Endemann, Das deutsche Handelsrecht (1865) Gesetz, &c., vom 11. (1871). Gengler, Lehrbuch des deutschen (1854). Gerber, System des deutschen Juni, 1870. Privatrechts Privatrechts (1853). C Ger. I. Geng. Endemann, �Ger. IN THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION 18 II. Gerber, Gesammelte Juristische Abhandlungen Klo. I. Klo. II. (1872). Klostermann, Das Urheberrecht (1876). Klostermann, in Vol. III. of Endemann's Handels-, See-, Handbuch des deutschen Kohler. Schneider. und Wechselrechtes (1881-85). Kohler, Das Autorrecht (1880). Schneider & Fick, Das Schweiz. Obligationen Stobbe. recht (1892). Stobbe, Handbuch des deutschen Privatrechts, Vol. III. (1878). Wii. Wächter, Das Verlagsrecht (1857-58). German C.R.B German copyright bill of June 11, 1870. Austrian C.R.B. Austrian copyright bill of Oct. 19, 1846. Hungarian C.R.B. Hungarian copyright bill of May 1, 1884. Swiss C.R.B. R.O.BI. Swiss copyright bill of April 23, 1883. Entscheidungen des Reichsoberhan delsgerichtes. Prussia: : Saxony: Baden: Austria Allgemeines Landrecht, Part Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. Landrecht. I., Where the number of an article or section is appended to the name of a state, the following laws must be under stood as cited : Title 11. Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. 1875, Title II. Code (Article 37) Switzerland: Schweizerisches Obligationenrecht. Zurich Zuercher Privatrechtliches Gesetzbuch. : of Hungary: by as Anomalous statutes and such contain special limita tions, &c., are enclosed square brackets. �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 19 I.—DEFINITION. The Contract of Publication from an author exclusive right to copy a work engages to procure and publish 1. a person acquires is the agreement whereby or his legal successors an of literature or art, and the copies at his own expense and risk. 2. Legal successors: Any person or persons who have acquired by legal means all Authors’ Rights in a work. 3. Every work falls under the Contract of Publication that is qualified both for protection from piracy and for sale. 4. The transferee need not be a professional publisher. 5. The work concerning which the contract is made may which he is 145) until bound to do. the author has completed it, (Klo. effects I., be ready for reproduction, unfinished, or merely projected; is not ready, the contract has none but obligatory if it (c) is to essential Publication risk. Publication; publish; the publisher's own expense and the transferee to of of of the Right at (a) Transfer (b) Obligation It as is generally regarded The following Publication: the Contract of 1. II.-EssBNTIALs. not essential: a of that the transfer 2 But few authorities deny c 2. of at of of a (a) That the author should stipulate remuneration; (b) That the transfer the Right Publication should involve an unlimited use; (c) Or that the publication should take place the expense and risk the publisher alone. �THE 20 CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN “Right endorsed adopted question has been nearly all jurists. statutes practice, and have of for the purposes this com pilation. Contracts concerning works without copyright— generally e.g., old inedita, text revisions classics—are devoid most those features that mark our matter, but must, the whole, treated analogically the typical contract: (Hungary, The authorities agree that the contract implies not obligation merely the right, but the transferee publish the work his own risk and expense. “This publisher criterion excludes those agreements whereby 5.) to pay for orders work and undertakes engagement no about publication”: Both parties presumed it, a at to of an 3. § to be of on of of it unreservedly the I their view by in the affirmative is answered Anyhow, by opinion. dominant As of of a of I., of Publication” is of necessity involved in Con tracts of Publication : (See Kohler, 291; Stobbe, 285; Dern., 640; Gerber II.) Their objections are set aside by that view of the matter which has ultimately gained 144; Wii., 219, the ascendancy (See Klo. II., 717; Klo. &c.), although they are based upon truer conception the real nature the contract than that the pre but enters into (Klo. II., 717.) a contract a in in be to 5. to a as a to of no 4. at a of of to for valuable consideration. “The Right Publication derives all its importance from the value the manifold reproduction”: (Eisen., 85.) The publisher expects profit from the sale, whereas the author sees his work propagated the publisher's risk and expense. The writer may share risk and expense with the publisher, but Contract Publication exists where publisher undertakes publish work the author's agent, without any risk himself, though his own name, and though share the profit may allotted him: (R.O.H. XVI, 251.) are These legal presumptions have determined the �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, 21 AND switzERLAND. evolution of the Contract of Publication and still determine its operation, even where other considerations step in, as where the publisher is prompted by ideal purposes or where the author writes for pecuniary profit. Even where they agree to share loss and profit, an ordinary Contract of Publication exists between them in addition to the partner ship, and defines their mutual relations and obligations; their partnership acts upon nothing but the ultimate II. 719; Blu. II. 514.) (Klo. 6. One of the most important consequences of this conception of the Contract of Publication is the universal financial settlement: opinion that remuneration to, nor even presumable of the author is neither essential from, a bare Contract of it. Publication in itself. If a fee has not been expressly stipulated, it is only then regarded as implied, when special circumstances point to III.-NATURE RIGHT OF PUBLICATION. OF THE or of to to a as by 1. of Complete agreement about the legal nature the right transferred has not yet been arrived at. Literary proprietorship was conceived the earlier authorities property, and they believed the contract mere species partly transfer the original Authors' Rights entirely re, in in is 3. is of re in a re in a a a no 2. be I, 61; Blu. II. 509.) the publisher: (Wä., 111, 219; Blu. “There can doubt that the publisher cannot jus claim the entire ‘Authors’ Rights,” but only jus immateriali, use, not real but use an immateriali, that immaterial property—a singular jus indissolubly connected with the personal performance an obligation”: (Kohler, 289, 291.) The conception predominant among modern jurists is by or to a of to of to of similar that von Daniels who says (in his Preussisches Privatrecht): “The Right Publication the authority literary reproduce any means artistic production multiplication and sell the copies without competition. �22 THE The Right dependent CONTRACT IN PUBLICATION OF right that is of Publication is a derivative upon that original right of the author's to debar, within certain limits marked copying his work.” its 4. Endemann has given possible forms of transfer. out by statute, others from the following summary of the “The author may transfer his in it he on to be in of to of a an so jus), no (quoad of totality with the substance his rights entirely parts that with them and right whatever; e.g. when retains author sells manuscript finally and disposes his right control the publication, and pecuniary his interest the work. An author may found have yielded up his work in he of a of in be of an of the remodelling his work for future editions by agreement this kind. Then, again, the Authors' Rights may disposed way that such does not assign his seignory and the substance his rights, but only their exercise and produce (exercitium). This influence he of is he in of can take place under manifold modifications and limita tions, but every case the essence Authors' Rights parts with remains with the author. All the printing and publishing pecuniary use, i.e., the right work. And retains not only the intellectual command over the future shaping his work for new disposal peculiar authorship. editions, but every form This not even precluded transfer for all editions, is by a to of of the be to i.e., the perpetual exclusive use. The use and the spiritual fathership appear very different things. And most a in is It . . quoad jus, the other quoad exercitium. And the right of is be .” of . is of of by is if certainly does the author (or his successor) continue Now, dominus the transfer was made with limitations. generally brought this the state affairs that about only the Contract Publication. exceptional cases that transfer all Author's Rights Under the common will found presumable. contract “there are two claimants: the one entitled �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, one, but latter is no absolute the AND switzERLAND. is derivative and 23 is of of or by in no it to the publisher abandons his right reverts the author. statutory law, This theory meets with obstacle 6. If of of 5. of I., founded on the ‘Authors' Rights,” the substance of which remains with the author. . . .”: (End. II., 11-13.) says: Right And Klostermann “The of Publication is not to be confounded with Authors' Rights”; (Klo. 153.) The Right Publication for any number editions does not include the Right Translation (in case dramatical works being published) Public Performance; nor does the author lose the control over future editions. a of Switzerland, Art. 375: and has explicitly been received special understanding, the Contract “In the absence PLANNED BY to it as of IV.-WoRK so so in to of Publication makes over the exercise Author's Rights publisher far, long, the and for serves secure the publication.” ANOTHER. of a 3. in of by 2. of in no of an of a to to of to of ; , of 1. of be joint authorship need not The question dealt with here but there are similar relations that are copyright and publication has interest us. The law supply, and no cognizance the amanuensis who intends actually supplies, contribution subservient the pro work, vitally determining duction the author's but not the substance the whole (Wä., 184); such assistant has Authors' Rights whatever the resulting work. work, The mere completion which the greater part was written another, does not always vest the author the completing part with independent Authors' Rights his contribution: (R.O.H., XVII. 39.) An author who makes over his work to another may the understanding that the transferee raw material for his own work, and without as in reservation, will stand the same legal relation resulting work the mere amanuensis. to a on as it author, use the �24 THE IN CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION 4. But in no case may a literary production, or any part of one, be given out as the work of another author who has not written it in the form in which it is published: XV. (See below, 8.) which someone orders a literary or artistic work for his own use, but not for reproduction, is not under our notice: (See VI. 2, ad fin.) 6. Where an author has worked on a plan supplied by a publisher, the circumstances of the case may debar the writer from acquiring Authors' Rights in the work pro 5. The case in of to on of A be to is of however, of merely the technical single parts, does not so its embrace the substance the work, but finishing, the supplementary composi is or a of interwoven to be subordinate contribution that with the whole; and when the employer produce the substance intends himself the work and actually produces it; then those contributors are mere to tion the order the integral of “When, production of 9. in as a is of in its in a its “ 8. an : as or he or : A of A of is or it of a it, duced: (R.O.H., XVII. 39.) employer 7. But the who merely gives an external impulse to the author's independent production acquires no Author's Rights in but only claim the valuable use of under the law the Contract Publication. This even then the case, when the publisher suggests Dictionary Chemistry, determines the topic (e.g., Compendium Penal Law, Series Articles Bimetallism, &c.) (R.O.H., XVII. 36.) Even where the publisher has supplied the author with single editor regarded motives, ideas, materials, still only (Wii., 186.) the author's amanuensis employer only acquires the rights Such author ship who has laid out definite plan for the work which entirety and details, governs execution that the worker the instrument another's ideas, not only undertaking the task whole, but throughout the workmanship”: (Wä., 192.) �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SwitzERLAND. 25 is the author of the resulting original copyright; work and has the and his artificers have no share in the Authors' Rights, and their claims are confined to such payments as may have been stipulated ”: (Wä., 186.) 10. These principles are now regarded as decisive for the interpretation and application of such statutory pre scriptions as touch upon the subject. [11. In Prussia, the author's control of future editions amanuenses; the employer if its lapses, “when the publisher has conceived an idea and has charged a writer with elaboration, the writer under in by a as be to in so by of by in he a “If a a : § § of ”: writing special reservation (Prussia, 1021.) 12. Austria, 1170 writer undertakes the plan laid out for him elaboration work after the publisher, (the author) can claim nothing beyond the remuneration agreed on. The publisher has the free copyright for all the future.” provision has been accepted 13. This Austrian Switzerland Art. 291 the Code; “This article applies those cases only where the plan framed the publisher must considered the main achievement, that takes the task without it, a or to as it is if, or employee the writer appears contractor his quite thing happens often service. But another enough, the publisher merely suggests the work the author, plan for perhaps lays down the resulting work being really the author's own independent produc tion”: (Schneider, 509.)] W.—CLAssIFICATION OF THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION. is of of to of to no above of It 1. apply attempt that the traditional kinds contracts the Contract Publication has gained common acceptance. To-day, the Contract nearly universally Publication was remarked the special rules �26 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN be of to its on It us to by its regarded as a peculiar modern institution, a transaction sui generis; it is subject to the general law of contracts, but stands a distinct species, and details must jurisprudence according treated its special features. would lead too far, were we trace the influence of to to be 2. of in development other institutions this place. How pronounced the isolation the Contract readily Publication has seemed some authorities, will following inferred from the nonsensical utterance peculiar junction dare, praestare, the special of rather nature the of as It I. (Ger. a to be as of in of of by but in and actions called for the Contract Publication. Intellectual workmanship literary production, and the the form publisher's propagative activity are performances just original import “dare" and “praestare,” and cannot jurisprudence”: reduced more general term facere, in a found of be a which celebrated jurist has committed himself: “The distinctive feature of the Contract of Publication will not 459.) an of of That happens, however, some where an author disposes by of of a to is 3. quite the exception for author's business pure category transactions fall under Civil Law, instead under our typical Contract Publication. cases of it the of at a to a or place takes deliver some specific work and publisher disposal operis), free the (loc. cond. &c. to a or in of or in the sale at a of as noticed donation it; manuscript and all Authors' Rights where publisher writer places his services the free disposal (locatio conductio operarum); where writer under above, Prussia, WALIDITY, CoNSTRUCTION. 998, makes the validity written agreement. But of WI.-ForM, of Art. a of on a § a 1. the contract 272 the Common German Code Commerce declares the Contract of Publication commercial transaction when made with dependent �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 27 professional publisher, and as such it is released from all formalities by Art. 317 of the same Code. And as in Germany, the law of the States is overruled by Imperial legislation, a written agreement is now prescribed, then alone, and only in Prussia, when the publisher is not a corporation or private tradesman, e.g., a non-commercial person who may undertake a publication for public benefit, for religious purposes, &c., or for profit : (Dern. 640.) Nowhere but in Prussia has a written contract been prescribed for our agreement. At the present day, the Contract of Publication is universally regarded as a consentient contract—i.e., a valid contract exists as soon as the parties have agreed on the 2. points. This agreement may be inferred from of the parties (R.O.H., XVI. 249); e.g., if an author delivers a manuscript to a publisher on having received certain proposals from him (Wä., 374); or sends in a manuscript to a periodical : in either case without a reservation. But the intention of entering into essential the conduct or acts parties reciprocal are is Publication to construed after the The real ascertained well contracts. in as the its copyright: of as principles be tentions Contract of of A 3. general title 5.) to IV. no all copyright legislation, (See above, of ing to is, a contract must be inferable from previous transactions or from usage; for the mere possession of a work accord in be it be no of to do be to to of is of no of to possible, consequences and the reasonable these drawn; for kept intentions must always view that the relations between author and publisher are capable untold modifications which are restricted by legal inhibitions. Then only, when there evidence the intentions the parties, the legal presumptions construed, not only take effect. These intentions are according the expressions used, but also their previous relations and transactions, the special nature the �28 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN business in question, and special circumstances to which a trade-usage is attached. In view of the complexity of the relations established by the contract and of the subtlety the principles of bona fides are here of enhanced importance. of its performance, VII.-CHIEF RESTRICTIONs. contracting with a publisher must be 1. A person entitled to dispose of the Authors' Rights in question (Switzerland, art. 374); the author himself is liable to his publisher for his exclusive Right of Publication, he must inform the publisher of any previous disposal (Switzer land, art. 374); even if such previous disposal does not preclude the publication now contemplated. The publisher can recover damages for defect of title of the author, if a third person asserts with success an older right to the work in question, or proves it to infringe a copyright of his own: (Klo. II. 721; Dern., 642; Eis., 84.) 2. The author's future disposal of the work is governed by two main principles (Wä., 280): (a) He has curtailed his rights by constituting the publisher's Right of Publication and is deprived, to the extent of this right, of their exercise: (b) He has implicitly, if not expressly, entered into an obligation not to interfere with the publisher's valuable interest in the Right of Publication. The author, then, is limited to narrower bounds than a third person that manages to escape a copyright action by altering the form of the work sufficiently to avoid a tech nical piracy. The author is liable for every and any illicit competition: (See X.) 3. On the other hand, the publisher is bound not to make any use of the work not authorized by the contract. [4. Legislation on copyright has gone farther than the �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 29 law in insisting on the liabilities arising from the contract. In the German Empire and in Hungary, a reprint of works made by author or publisher in violation of their agreement, especially the production of a larger edition than that which the contract allows the publisher, constitutes a criminal infringement of copyright: (German C.R.B., § 5; Hungarian C.R.B., § 6.)] 5. The prohibition of any disposal of the work by the author, to the disadvantage of the publisher, is expressly enacted by Saxony, § 1140; Hungary, $ 517; Switzerland, common Art. 375. VIII.-ExcLUSIVENESS OF THE RIGHT OF PUBLICATION. 1. The transfer of the Right of Publication authorises the publisher not only to copy and publish the work but also to prevent others from doing so. “This exclu siveness determines the very nature of the Right of Publication as a valuable right, a property” (Wä. 108.); it is the gist of the use transferred to the publisher. 2. Now in some cases the mere priority or even a licence with that of any number of others may be of value to a publisher. This will generally be the case with “news; ” a newspaper's interest lies rather in bringing concurrent § on s. 2; a s. of 9, § no of it. important news before, or at least not later than its competitors, than in preventing others from reprinting Recognising this, the law copyright affords the ephemeral 7b; newspaper article protection (German C.R.B., 4); Hungarian C.R.B., Swiss C.R.B., Art. 11, only where the value the use depends its exclusive production against piracy. ness does the law protect gist the author's work 3; the is the I. : article from (See above, of to presumed The exclusiveness publisher's consideration wherever is newspaper Publication be excludes the common the Contract of the scope II. 2.) of But this fact �THE 30 IN CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION legally qualified for, and the circumstances point to the intention of entering into a Contract of Publication, which Literary, is nearly always the case with “books.” scientific and other contributions are usually disposed of to periodicals under a contract of publication; but here the exclusiveness 4. Sometimes is limited : (See XI. 7 et seq.) the author gives the publisher the exclu sive right to publish a work for certain districts only, and if, reserves the right of republishing other editions elsewhere; certain complications are apt to arise regarding the collis however, the sion of the different publishers' interests; it to to be of of of a a to 6. of of of of to of a is a of 5. of et it to author has avoided assigning more rights than were left fight dispose of, him will for the publishers out between themselves, under the copyright laws: (See Kohler, 272 seq.) contracting with The author may reserve the right another publisher about editions intended for other circles library edition readers; so, often followed by popular edition, &c. Though the co-existence such editions cannot fail call forth some competition between them, the valuable interest each publisher generally substantially unimpaired. remains This arrangement publication. allows true contracts Other modifications this “Divided Right Publication” are possible. An ordinary Contract Publication can exist wherever the publisher has not right merely copy and publish the author's work, but from, and has advantage derives some independent in, protection valuable interest the the author against piracy. IX.-ExTENT OF THE PUBLISHERs' RIGHTS. is in by is is to 1. of The number editions that the publisher usually fixed produce authorised the contract. frequently overlooked settling the But this point �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 31 the agreement. In this case, the right trans presumed to cover one edition only, and the permission is requisite for every new edition. of ferred is author's Being a Art. 1 of terms by Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and of specifically §§ to a to is as a 2. of § of on to he a to on of a an § by $ 522; Switzerland, Art. 377; and 1142. [Austria alone gives the publisher right 1164, 1167. all editions: Should author reservation, and there have disposed his work without publish later desire new and altered edition through another firm, indemnify the first would have publisher for copies original the edition still hand: (Austria, 1168.)] doubt, presumed In case new edition enacted Saxony, Hungary, it is Prussia and ; statutes of it, common trade usage, this principle has, under the German Commercial Code, invalidated such viz., of German States as conflicted with certain number what was stipu 1015.)] ($ of for the first one : by the author for half of as If remuneration a lated 3. been disposed of to : stand under the same agreement the preceding one (Switzerland, art. 384.) [In Prussia, however, the law presumes the second and following editions each have copies have been agreed on, he as to in of § as if to is to print them, and most certainly the publisher bound print not more. But the contract leaves this point unsettled, the publisher may print many copies (Hungary, 520; Switzerland, likes: art. 377.) [The limiting the edition Saxony stands alone code copies, where a as he he a in as 4. to be he of a is (§ a the contract has not fixed certain 1142.)] The publisher may not, however, produce smaller edition than consistent with bond fide performance the contract: (See XV. 5.) If, then, the publisher chooses run the risk, print may many copies likes. But they must If, therefore, the work finds more produced one lot. reception may favourable than the publisher hoped for, 1000 number: �“printing of a to no bounds of up he of to printed copies. for him determine the number the publisher has once made his mind and copies, certain number himself has set right produce the edition and has a “When his shelves under pretence lots,” although was several to originally gaps the the edition it fill not IN CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION in in THE up 32 at notice and without considerable publisher's Right expense. be shortest a of he 5. ”: reprint without the author's permission (Blu. II. 509.) The publisher may consequently neither stereotype the work nor leave the type standing without the author's permission and control, i.e., may not procure himself producing surreptitious edition the means the of a a as be to is of so of as to to it or of to to of if all a to 6. he of Publication may certain space time. When the term expires, rights from the contract. loses But the contract, limiting Right besides the Publication certain term, authorises produce the publisher certain copies editions, number will construed authorising the publisher sell, even when the term has produce, expired, the copies that the contract allows him merely terminating the exclusiveness and his Right Publication, dispose that the author then free elsewhere of his work. The limited X.—SPECIAL LIABILITIES. confined in specific wrong (i.e., infringement right): of of to a is a of 1. as against third parties “Whilst the publisher's rights only reproduction cover one and the same work the rights same form; and any encroachment on his sphere copy It to no in by is restricted, over the party contracting with him engagement, way and above, the conventional on its by it to a of in be of interfere with the exercise the stipulated rights. trust, would the teeth contract entered into possible for the author were render the right assigned illusory realisation, though not actions preventing �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SwitzERLAND. 33 happening to involve a criminal infringement”: (Wä., 346.) Any proceedings prejudicial to the legitimate interests of the publisher make the author liable for damages to the full of those interests, i.e., the trade-value of the on the publisher's hands: (See also Kohler, extent copies still 293.) 2. This does not say that the author may not publish any new work on the same subject. “In no case has the publisher a right to prevent am altered edition altogether. For it is of the essence of intellectual productivity that it continually innovates, As and is expanded, and replenished. little as the author can prevent others from making use of his thoughts when once published, can the publisher of a certain work hinder the author from modifying the issue of his mind, and from giving the public access to the new production”: (Wä., 294.) It remains to be seen, how the conflicting interests may be reconciled under different circumstances. 3. In some cases the question of damages is altogether precluded. the work is quite antiquated or can be quite unsaleable, the author may publish a shown to be If of the same matter at his pleasure, for publisher's then the interest has practically expired. 4. The author may publish an essentially different work on the same subject, even if the previous publication should thereby lose the public's interest. 5. But in either case (viz. 3 and 4), the author is bound to observe any agreement entitling the publisher to a new new elaboration elaboration of the same subject. 6. The Prussian Board of Literary rischer Sachverständigenverein), opinion : firm work on has Experts (Litera the following given for the author who has given a bookseller his work for publication cannot therefore be forced to abstain from publishing by the agency of another a “ . . . a cognate, or even the same, subject, D so �34 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN long as it is a new, independent, production of the mind. It is altogether irrelevant to the questio facti of infringe ment of copyright, that the new work may enter into com petition with the previous publication, or even render it unsaleable. As soon as the new work is found to be a new work of the mind, the author is free of any imputa tion of piracy. This only is legally prohibited, that the author encroach on the rights of the first firm by giving to another firm a work, the contents of which are identical with those of the previous work, so that it is but a ”: (Nov. 18, 1870.) It stands to reason that the author's bona fides must be unimpeach able. mechanical reproduction 7. An author desiring to publish an edition with altera tions that do not suffice to qualify the work as a new production within the meaning of the principles laid down above, must buy up the copies on the hands of the pub lisher at their trade price: (Prussia, § 1019; Austria, § 1168.) 8. If the publisher is entitled to further editions [in Austria, whenever the author has not limited the right transferred to the publisher] the author must offer the publisher the new edition; only when he has met with a refusal may he dispose elsewhere of his work: (Wä., 295.) 9. The author has, however, an unlimited right of pub lishing separately additions or corrections. 10. These principles imply that the author may not, in the absence of a special understanding, incorporate a work made over to a publisher into a collective edition of his works produced by another publisher. The following is a decision of the Supreme Tribunal of Stuttgart (of Jan. 18, 1848): “On the general principles of contracts, a writer may not encroach on the right transferred to his publisher, and most especially may he not enter into a contract with a work already surrendered for a new publisher about �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 35 publication. This, however, takes place as soon as the author incorporates a work that has appeared as an inde pendent publication into an edition collecting all his works, produced by another publisher before the rights of the first publisher have expired. As the individuality of each single work is not here consumed by that of a aggregate of higher order, such a collection cannot be regarded as a new work.” 11. The same restriction binds the publisher: in the of a special agreement to this purpose, he may neither publish separately works that he is entitled to absence publish as an aggregate, nor may he produce a collective edition of works by the same author, which he has acquired separately in the course of time. On the one hand, few authors would like to see a collection of essays written as an organic whole, torn asunder and published separately. On the other hand, the term, “The Complete Works of Mr. N.N.” implies an important qualitative distinction from the mere plurality of separate works of one author; “for a collective edition is supposed to be the complete organism of the author's intellectual work”: (Wii., 299.) The opening words of Macaulay's preface to his “Essays” bear strongly upon this view. XI.-Con TRIBUTORs To Coll ECTIVE WORKs. relations arise where one literary enterprise unites the contributions of several authors: (See Kohler, Special 278 et seq.) 1. We have not to deal here with collections independent of works that appear separately in the market, united by some merely incidental indication of a common or similar destination: as a series of independent mono graphs on special topics of one science, or series for certain circles of readers (e.g., Workmen’s, Students' Series), or series of novels uniformly got up. Here every D 2 �THE CONTRACT 36 IN OF PUBLICATION work is the object of a special contract, and neither the publisher nor the author will derive, in the absence of an understanding, any particular right from the fact that it is introduced to the public as one of a series. Only 2. such works are legally treated as “collective as appear as an indivisible whole, as, Encyclo paedias, Dictionaries, Collections of Essays or Treatises. 3. Here the editor acquires a copyright in the work at works” large, concurrent with the copyright retained by each author regarding his own contribution: (German C.R.B., § 2; Austrian C.R.B., § 1a, $2; Hungarian C.R.B., § 2); “for to him the work owes the production of its funda mental idea and of the organic connection of its elements” (Wä., 203); he has consequently an unlimited Right of Publication for all purposes for which the authors made their contributions. An author may not, by withdrawing his contribution from subsequent editions, prevent the exercise of the editor's original copyright in the whole. 4. An editor to whom all Authors’ Rights in another of course, proved, is total transfer can presumable of it he may, chooses. be But where IV.) (See whenever and wherever no work have devolved no 5. reprint it, person's a to an it in or be to of in that the author consented use his contribution beyond its reproduction collective work the kind described him (Wä., 305), the alienation interpreted strictly; publisher can will the editor publish any separately, neither the contribution nor other work than the one was intended for. to it in by no an of limited by is is his work the publisher's may not publish his contribution in use, i.e., he future disposal of of a of to is 6. An author who has merely authorized editor reprint his work putting bound restrictions If, however, the transaction bears the other purposes. Publication, whereby criteria real Contract transferred, exclusive Right Publication then the another �GERMANY, form until AUSTRIA, the AND switzERLAND. 37 (or editor's) speculation is HUNGARY, publisher's ended. 7. The more ephemeral the character of the collective work, the less is the author restricted. “The importance of the periodical passes away with the moment of its publi cation. The single articles in a newspaper or journal reached their destination as soon as they are published; at any rate, it is immaterial to the publisher if later on they are reprinted and remembered. But the less the periodical is of merely transient interest, and the nearer the single essays approach to independent works, the less may the author dispose of them to the publisher's disadvantage”: (Blu. II. 509.) 8. In an Opinion of May 3, 1843, the Board of Literary Experts laid down the following as customary law: “The publisher of a periodical that addresses itself to the interest of the day only and has no scientific tendencies, may use the contributions but once, and his rights in them are limited to the period within which the original edition of the periodical circulates in the world of literature and still excites interest. The author has to conform to these have rights of the publisher, and is bound not to republish contributions to a periodical until that period of interest has passed by.” 9. Recent legislation has accepted the principles laid down here as fixing the limits of authors’ and publishers’ rights, but has given them a greater precision as regards the duration of publishers’ rights. [10. German C.R.B. § 10, settles the question for the German Empire as follows: “In the absence of an agree ment providing otherwise, single essays, treatises, &c., that have appeared in periodicals, e.g., journals, vademecums, almanacs, &c., may be published elsewhere by the author, even without the consent of the editor or publisher of the work in which they were inserted, as soon as the two years �THE CONTRACT OF 38 IN PUBLICATION have expired that began with the end of the year in the Note, that of which the publication took place.” this privilege refers to contributions to periodicals only. 11. Switzerland, art. 376: “The author may immediately republish newspaper articles and smaller essays from periodicals. The author may not republish contributions to collective works or larger contributions to periodicals course of three months after the complete publication of his contribution.” Note, that in Switzer land any contribution to the most important collective work, not only to newspapers, &c., may be disposed of by the author, at the latest after three months. “An exact dividing-line between the smaller essays of the first section and the larger contributions of the second section, (Schneider, 501.) cannot be drawn to Hungary, the authors' 517, we find still greater deviation, advantage, from the general principles: a 12. § In '': before the expiration “An of as at as to or a of if in or a author who has supplied collective work with contributions may republish them separately his collected works, those contributions were not, though parts collection, independent objects sale. Smaller journals periodical works that have been delivered publications are the author's free disposal soon they have been published.”] certain XII.-TRANSLATION. to be of a on of it to no is § is of in 1. Publication, the an unlimited Right implied Translation never presumed (Hungary, 518; Switzerland, art. 382); and the pub lisher more entitled than any third person. pre-existing On the other hand, the mere correction translation will not confer Authors’ Rights the editor: Even Right (R.O.H. 39.) or of If the Right Translation (complying the title sheet with copyright laws) 2. on XVII. the author has reserved �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SwitzERLAND. 39 he may publish a translation without the original publisher's consent. If the author, however, has not given his publisher to understand that he intended himself to produce or countenance a translation, he is liable for damages, where the publisher can prove the sale of the original work to have been seriously impaired by the publication of a translation: (Wä., 318; Klo. I. 146) and provided that the publication of a translation involved a breach of good faith on the author's part. 3. But in no case is this liability from the contract to be confounded with the infringement of copyright con otherwise, stituted by an unauthorised translation produced third person. XIII.-PERFORMANCE by a BY THE AUTHOR. 1. If a contract is made about a work that is ready for reproduction, the contract is performed by the author with the delivery of the work in the condition it was in when the contract was made : (Klo. II. 721.) 2. If a contract is made about an unfinished work, the author is bound to bring the object into existence, the Right of Publication of which he has transferred to the publisher. The work must be executed by the author himself, so far as the individuality of his mind is likely to influence it (L. 31 Dig. de solut., 46, 3; End. I. 817); the work of an amanuensis employed by him must be over shadowed by the activity of his own mind: (Wä., 322.) 3. The author must conform to the contract throughout the execution of the agreement (Wä., 323); conformity to the agreement implies the observance of all under standings about the form, size, completeness of the work, and the time of delivery : (End. I. 814.) several States this conformity to the contract is enforced by special enactments. [Prussia, §§ 1008, 1009: the author finds it neces 4. In “If �40 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN sary to alter the volume or arrangement of his work before it is put in print, the publisher has the option of countenancing the alterations or withdrawing from the But an author who makes such alterations after contract. the printing has begun, without the publisher's consent, is liable to the publisher for any damage ensuing there from.” “If the author fails to deliver the work at the time or in the condition agreed on, the publisher may withdraw from the contract; and he can recover damages of the author, if the performance failed through any negligence of the author's.” 6. Hungary, § 516: “The author (artist, draughtsman, &c.) is bound to deliver the stipulated work to the publisher in the condition and within the time agreed on. If, by any fault of his own, the author fails to perform this obligation, the publisher has the option of (1) enforcing the specific performance and recovering damages from any disadvantage ensuing from the delay; or (2) recovering damages for breach of contract; or (3) he may treat the contract as null and void.” 7. Switzerland, Art. 379: The author is liable for 5. Austria, § 1166: unforeseen expense caused by belated alterations.] the interpretation of such enactments is by considerations like the following: “As regards topic and contents, the author's workmanship enjoys the most extensive freedom, which is intimately 8. But governed connected with the advantage expected by him; and then, too, the publisher has in this respect trusted to the author's reputation ”: (Walter, 357.) “A contract about a work that is not finished binds the author in so far only, as he may not make such alterations of contents or volume as would make the work quite a different thing”: (Eis., 85.) “Even where it is certain what has been agreed on, the doubt arises, especially where the contract is concerning �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 41 works that are still to be executed, whether every deviation must be considered a breach of contract producing legal consequences. The nature of such workmanship refuses to countenance that the author should under all circum be bound to observe the agreement to the last On the other hand, the publisher must not be made absolutely dependent on the author's whims and fancies. No legislation and no theory will be able to draw the sought-for boundary line between freedom and bondage; that is only possible on examination of each stances letter. case as In it arrives”: (End. I. reality then, 814.) restriction of the author is marked out by the real interests of the publisher, and alterations within these limits involve no breach of 9. the contract (Klo. I. 146); this holds even where the contract was made concerning a work that was finished and had by a publisher on examination been accepted of it: (Klo. II. 722.) The author may, in particular, alter the text for every new edition, if no considerable expense or of the work is thereby caused (Klo. II. 733); if the publisher refuses to countenancesuch legitimate alterations, the author will be at liberty to contract with depreciation another publisher for the new edition: (Stobbe, 290.) 10. In Switzerland, art. 379, the author's right of altering his work is most emphatically insisted upon : “As long as the author is able to do so, he has a right to make such corrections and improvements of his work as he may consider necessary; but he is liable for unforeseen costs ensuing from such alterations. The publisher may issue no new edition or reprint without first offering the author an opportunity of making the necescary improvements. This right is a personal right of the author's, and does not descend to his heirs. But the publisher may object to alterations that would injure his interest in the publica tion, or enhance his responsibility.” �42 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN 11. The publisher has no claim to alterations by the author for new editions, if the contract does not set forth this obligation (Stobbe, 290); or where such alterations are not essential to the integrity of the work and therefore If, however, the sale implicitly agreed on : (Wä., 326.) of a new edition to which the publisher is entitled, is manifestly dependent on a revision of the original work, and if in spite of representations the author refuses or is unable to undertake the revision himself, the publisher may cause the necessary improvements to be made by any other competent person (Wii., 327); in this case the additions must, by suitable typographic arrangements, made distinguishable from the original text: (Klo. be II. 732.) rule, author alone is competent to the intellectual organism of his work to be complete or incomplete. But in some cases the incom pleteness is self-evident (e.g., an unfinished biography) (Wä., 325); here, or where flagrant blunders are dis covered, the publisher may insist on completion or cor 12. As pronounce a the rection. 13. The author's liability for faults that diminish the commercial value of his work falls under the cognizance of the general private or commercial law of each State (Klo. 721); if such faults can be neutralized by supplements II. or appendices, the author is liable for the extra expense: (Klo. II. 720.) But the author can never be held liable for the internal literary value of his work: (Klo. II. 721; End. I. 814; Dern., 642). 14. Where the author causes unforeseen expense by belated alterations or by exceeding the volume agreed on, the special facts of the case and his bond fides will have to be taken into consideration when his liability is under judgment (Dernb., 641); trade usage allows him a certain latitude : (Wä., 348.) �GERMANY, 15. the It AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. lies in the author's free choice to co-operate or not, if he has not entered into correction 43 in an to do so (Klo. II. 722); provided that his supervision of the printing is not essential to the production of the work, as where his manuscript was more or less illegible, or where special knowledge is required, e.g., in works, works in foreign languages, mathematical &c. : (Wä., 349). 16. The author is bound to deliver a manuscript suitable for reproduction. The publisher may refuse illegible writing. Every part of the work must be in proper place: (Wä., 329; Blu. 61; Schneider, 499). delivery course, determined 17. The term by If any of of is, I. its engagement of is to be of in relevant clause the contract. the instrument does not prove what the intention the parties really was, optional with the author: presumed the term (Geng., 533; Eis., 83); but the circumstances the special Prussia, the publisher may call binding term, the appointment on [In an it be be case and trade usage may indicate the proper term (Klo. II. 721); and the delivery may not deferred to, any may more than demanded at, unreasonable time. he he of of of of a of of In - (§ to a of the author may, for and comply request, should the author refuse with this 1004; withdraw immediately from the contract: Eis., 83.)] any case 18. doubt the publisher can apply for the judicial appointment delivery. term The court justice would take into consideration the general way living and working and any concurrent occupation the sufficient is if volumes however, the work parts, it is successive work. If, the whole or appear in to manuscript of is - of author's (for entered into the contract under these lasting conditions life) (Wä., 330); besides the nature of the work and other circumstances. 19. The author not released until he has delivered the �44 THE IN CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION publication : its he delivers the manuscript for each section in due time for (Wii., 331.) remains the author's property. [Baden alone has enacted the contrary: according $577 D., the publisher acquires the manuscript property.] The publisher may retain the manuscript until the reproduction finished. manuscript is as D. to 20. The XIV.-PUBLISHER's REMEDIEs. : to his (the 516; Geng., 532; Bes., occasioned § any losses ensuing from delay author's) negligence: (Hungary, 945; Eis., 83; Klo. II. 722.) by to is 2. I. § to or 1. an An action for specific performance lies against perform duly perform altogether author failing (Hungary, 516; Wä., 334, 386; Stobbe, 291; Geng. 539; Ger. 461; Klo. II. 722.) indemnify the publisher for The author bound in be by of subject: (Stobbe, 292; Ger. 946; Eis., 83.) I. 461; the work the public the Geng., 533; Bes., value in of the delay, e.g., where the commercial depends upon the transient interest of in or or to If 3. the delivery fails take place due time, the publisher can withdraw from the contract, provided that altered, the quality value the performance would the publisher's interest the contract diminished, In 4. this case the publisher can, besides withdrawing, recover damages for damnum emergens and lucrum cessans. The same action lies against an author, where an action to of in In 5. or delivery, for has not led where the negligence author's own has rendered the performance impossible: (Wä., 386; Stobbe, 291.) withdrawing some states the publisher's right holds other cases also: performance to In [(a) Prussia: The publisher can withdraw when ever, and from whatever cause, the author fails perform �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 45 within the stipulated term (§§ 1000, 1001); and if the author refuses to appoint a term of delivery when requested to do so: ($ 1004.) (b) In Austria: If the work is not delivered at the time or in the condition settled by the agreement (§ 1166); this right is not contingent on the author's negligence. (c) In Hungary: If through the author's negligence the stipulated term of delivery and qualities of the work are of a by it, is no or to be not complied with : (§ 516.)] 6. The action for specific performance aims at the delivery of the manuscript. If the author is in possession of a complete copy, it may be seized under a writ of execution (Stobbe, 292; Klo. II. 723; Bes., 946; End. II. 16). Where the general law allows of the defiant specific performance author will held means fine even imprisonment (Wä., 335); especially where of has made the productiveness of he a is of the work lower intellectual range, i.e., where special inspiration, &c., but only the writer's goodwill requisite for performance (Klo. II. 723.) “For who his mind the bearer an that his intellectual powers were subject and subservient his degree that promise will such due completion and delivery was founded entering into firm basis; and obligation, such divested himself ipso facto the plea (not unreasonable itself) the action for per formance, that the activity the mind could not submitted the coercive measures the judiciary. The plead author can none but true hindrances that have set through negligence his own, and that might compared with vis major; and the validity such pleas pronounced must, however, the court. We admit that there are innumerable valid pleas”; (Geng., 540. 541; confer Ger. 461, n.) And Bluntschli says, with regard the promise deliver the work: “This has contractu, must have been convinced of a of be in is be by he to to I. on of of in no to of of in an he in on a a to to ea obligatio �46 THE . CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN As, however, promised, and he has to fulfil his promise. the individual produce of a mind is here in question, the individual circumstances of the author must be considered. The creative powers of the mind cannot be bound by and defy any extraneous coercion. On the other disposi hand, they are dependent upon the ever-changing contract, tion and faculties of body and mind of the author himself. This susceptibility is recognised and presumed by the Contract of Publication, and limits the author's obligation. We find that in the following cases: (a) Not only health wholly incapacitating the author for work, but also an important change in his course of life depriving him of the time or of the elasticity of mind indispensable for work of this kind, are to be considered a sufficient reason ill for releasing him from the obligation of performance. He may not, however, plead such hindrance and at the same time undertake other similar works. Not the plea, but the real obstacle alone affects his liberation. (b) Such circumstances, if lasting, would warrant the author's withdrawing altogether from the of above) appreciation possible a the several applicable in is of which essential here as as Wà., 389, &c.) the nature the work, and of will have to of course, seq.; similarly : 506 of II. et (Blu. careful examination all concomitant circumstances, 7. of Bona fides A ": contract. there is, technical determine (partly indicated case. “The judicial perfectly free. They aspects given whether admitted (Klo. to an pretext”. on II. or to be to if or be is the hindrances entirely subjective, i.e., conscientious doubts only these subjective obstacles personal considerations, stringent motives for the author appear withdraw from the contract. But the author cannot withdraw at random, without any substantial reason, some mere may 722.) The authorities are not agreed author, pleading personal objections that are liberate him from the performance, but which �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 47 to actual and absolute impossibility of ought not to indemnify the publisher for do not amount performance, such damnum emergens If as the avoidance has caused. the author's reasons for withdrawing are not found sufficient, to say nothing of a wanton withdrawal, for the purpose, e.g., of contracting with another publisher, 8. his plea of “subjective impossibility” will not be admitted, and the publisher will recover damages to the amount of his interest in the due performance. [This holds in Prussia under all circumstances, if the work in question appears within a year from the dissolution of the contract, but under the auspices of another publisher: (§ 1007.)] 9. a reliable standard for the assessment of damages If is not otherwise obtainable (e.g., from the actual results of the publication by another publisher), the court of justice will assess them, assisted by experts, to the amount of profit that was likely to ensue from the publication, in addition to the amount by which the publisher is t actually out of pocket. XV.-PERFORMANCE PUBLISHER. BY THE We have seen (II. 3) that the author's consideration is presumed to consist in the reproduction and publication of his work by the publisher, and that this obligation is an essentiale of the Contract of Publication. The publisher his right: (Eis., 85; Kohler, does his duty in exercising is, 285). cannot release himself payment of a profit (Eis. 85); withdraw wants to he by (Wä., 340); and of loss instead from some other reason he nor if reasons for expecting a of he of he on $ § to 1. The first, then, of his obligations have the work 519; Switzerland, printed: (Saxony, 1141; Hungary, art. 372, art. 378.) The publisher cannot avoid this losing his hopes profit (Klo. II. 724); cannot even Publication, when then abandon his Right has good �48 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN the stipulated fee (Stobbe, 287); for the author's right to the fee is an independent obligation: (Wä., 341.) 2. The reproduction must take place in the manner, to the extent, and within the time stipulated by the contract or presumable as tacitly agreed on : (End. I. 816.) Where the special intentions of the parties are not to be ascer tained, the particular circumstances of the work, as, its volume, the urgency of the publication, technical difficul ties, &c., will usually prescribe a term for finishing the production. The author may apply for the judicial appoint ment of a term. In the absence of a special understanding, the work must be put in print immediately on delivery of the complete manuscript, and the production must proceed without intermission: (Eis., 85 ; Klo. II. 723.) 3. In the absence of a special agreement, the publisher may get up the book entirely after his own judgment and taste (Saxony, § 1141; Baden, § 577, D.E.; Klo. II. 724; Eis., 86; Geng., 534); but the technical execution must be suitable (Saxony, $ 1141; Switzerland, art. 378); and adequate to the purpose and importance of the work (Hungary, $ 520). For the reproduction, typography is presumed to have been agreed on (Klo. II. 723). The quality and correctness must come up to a fair average (Wä., 342), which involves the responsibility of the publisher for the correction (but see XIII. 15). If the publisher grossly neglects these claims of the author (if, e.g., the utility of the work is appreciably diminished by errata), an unusual number of the author can demand a new reproduction and (Eis., 86; Dern., recover damages for the delay: 642.) 4. The publisher has to put the whole of the manuscript in print and may suppress no part delivered, not even indices, &c., that he may himself think wholly superfluous: (Wä., 343.) 5. Where the agreement has not fixed a certain number, prefaces, �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 49 the publisher may determine the number of copies at his own discretion (see IX. 3, 4); for not only must he be the best judge of the market, but the publication takes place at his risk and expense: (Wä., 270.) But he does not perform duly, if he does not produce a reasonable number of copies (Wä., 343); and at the author's bidding he must cause at least so many impressions to be taken, as a proper publication demands: (Switzerland, art. 377.) 6. The same obligations devolve upon the publisher he has expressly entered into an agreement to publish further editions, when the first one is disposed of. If he has not done that, but merely acquired a right to the future editions (which is always presumed to be the case unless the engagement is explicitly stated in the clause disposing of the coming editions) the author may call upon him to put the work again in print as soon as the present edition is sold ; the author may apply for the judicial appointment of a term, on the expiration of which the publisher loses all rights in the work if he has failed to produce a new edition : (Switzerland, art. 380.) [In Hungary alone is the principle of this contract (viz., Right of Publication—obligation to publish) consistently applied to future editions. Hungary, $ 522, says: where &4 if the future editions were assigned, the publisher is bound to produce a new edition immediately on completion of the sale of the preceding one.” And § 523 provides the author with every desirable remedy: XIX. 5.)] The author has bestowed the Right of Publication on the publisher, but beyond this exactly defined right he has transferred no particle whatever of his Authors’ Rights. No power, then, is vested in the publisher that (See 7. would entitle him to alter the work, whether by additions or omissions, without a special authorisation: (Switzerland, art. 378; Hungary, § 519; Bes., 946; Dern., 643; E �50 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN Eis., 86); and he must leave every word as it stands in the manuscript: (Wii., 359.) He may not even alter unim portant details, as, single expressions, the author's spelling, except obvious slips of the pen, not to mention the arrangement, the sequence, or the connection of the parts, &c.; (Wä., 345.) 8. “The editor of a journal or other compilation stands in a relation to contributors that differs somewhat from that of the publisher who has to reproduce the author's work without any alterations; the editor undertakes, not an exact reproduction, but the insertion of the contribution in accordance with the proportions of the whole, as determined by his editorial functions. The editor, then, of an encyclopædia is entitled to suppress such parts of the contributions as would conflict with the standpoint and tendencies of the work at large, but this principle may not be understood to sanction the falsification of the contents; for the contributions were made in expectance of none but the usual and necessary editorial alterations: (Blanc. Traité, p. 100.) The authorisation to make such alterations involves no right to wholly remodel the author's work; the permission, on the other hand, to wholly recast the work, will warrant the insertion of it with but a few unimportant alterations”: (Wä., 346.) XVI.-SALE OF THE WORK. 1. The author, says Bluntschli, has not bargained to have his work stored up at the publishers; he wants to see it spread abroad. And one of the publisher's principal duties is to do his best to bring about a good sale : (Saxony, § 1141; Hungary, § 519; Switzerland, art, 378.) He must proceed with the solicitude of careful booksellers, as defined by the institutions of the trade, even if he has no prospect of profit (Klo. II. 724; Wä., 352); and he must employ the usual ways and means (Switzerland �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 51 art. 378; Eis., 88; Stobbe, 287; Geng., 534); in case of litigation, the court will appoint experts to examine whether the publisher made due efforts to sell the work: (Dern., 642; Stobbe, 287.) 2. The publisher is bound to distribute copies for review and to issue public advertisements of the work: (Switzerland, art. 378; Klo. II. 723; Wä., 352; Stobbe, tion that the cannot avoid the usage (Blu. II. and must bear expense the ’’: advertisements are but part of the publica author may claim. The publisher, then, “Public 287.) 511.) or do to to if is he of as if a to he a sale: (Stobbe, 287; may not, without new contract duce an edition once destroyed, regard the chances the work destruction. pronounce bring about On the other hand, with the author, repro should happen improved since to likely to if experts were he exertions his part Wä., 353.) as reasonable the edition, on new production of a a be be to be 3. The publisher may not destroy the copies remaining on his hands, the sale proves difficult slow (Wä., 352); only entitled that, when the positively unsaleable, when work proves further reasonably expected (Klo. II. 724); the sale cannot rash destruction of the work would render him liable for the fix to is to he is if be to at it is 4. As the edition the publisher's property, and, more over, risk and expense are his, for him the price sold, which the copies are the contract does not provide otherwise. respect But here, too, bound of by an is in a in proper sale the author's interest the book, even where the author not interested the financial success. he : Ś $ He may not, then, impede the sale unreasonable price (Saxony, 1141; Hungary, 520; Switzerland, arbitrarily reduce the publication art. 378. Nor may E 2 of or or price under circumstances that might damage the author's literary fame scientific the commercial value �52 The CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION future work of his : (Eis. 88; Klo. II. the court to decide, in case of litigation, lisher's course of action in reducing the was justified by the circumstances of the XVII.--THE IN 724.) It is for whether the pub price of a book case. AUTHoR’s REMUNERATION. 1. The stipulation of a fee is neither an essentiale of, nor even inferable from, the Contract of Publication in itself. On this point all authorities are agreed: (See II. 3.) Yet, a pecuniary consideration joins, not only frequently, but mostly, with the author's literary, &c., interest (Ger., 459); usually by the stipulation of a definite or definable sum of money that the publisher is to pay over to the author: (Saxony, § 1143; Austria, § 1165; Hungary, $525; Switzerland, art. 383; Stobbe, 292; End.I.817; Dern.,642.) 2. The publisher is bound to remunerate the author of the case point to this, that the reasonably not have been expected without transfer could a remuneration : (Hungary, $ 525; Switzerland, art. 383; when the circumstances Stobbe, 292.) is a professional writer has, for remuneration (Wä., 356); so also when he is one whom the publisher knows For it is a principle to usually take a fee for his work. Law, that “whoever accepts the of German Common services of one whom he knows not to render those ser 3. Every author generally speaking, who an action to vices but for remuneration, enters into an engagement give him what he will claim, provided that the amount is not inequitable" (Windscheid, Pandekten II. § 404); this principle is usually (but not, as regards the matter in hand, unanimously) supported by L. 22 Dig. de Praescr. Verbis 19, 5. 4. A tacit stipulation of a fee will always be presumed, where a publisher has in his own interest ordered work from an author: (Wä., 357.) �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 53 5. Where no other evidence is forthcoming to indicate the intentions of the parties, the custom of the trade will usually afford guidance, e.g., where the remuneration of a contribution to a periodical is in question. 6. “The motives that lead the author to the work, and his literary aims have nothing to do with the question of remuneration; those intentions may never be brought forth to prove that the author had not desired a fee"; (Wä., 357.) 7. The remuneration of the author is a matter of course, where the agreement is based upon, or refers to, a previous transaction between the same parties where a fee was paid. If, then, the author allows his publisher a new edition or gives him a new work of the same kind, and if the question of remuneration is not otherwise settled, the author will be entitled to preceding payment edition at or work: the (See rate IX. of the 2.) fee for the 8. If the original contract prescribes a new fee for every new edition, this fee includes the remuneration of the author for the trouble of editing revised editions. If no remuneration was stipulated at all, the publisher cannot claim the author's services for the preparation of new editions, without offering him a reasonable remuneration. If a fee for all editions was prepaid, it must be gathered, from all circumstances of the case, whether it was the intention of the parties to bind the author to gratuitous services in editing future editions: which intention is by If, how no means presumable without distinct evidence. ever, the author is really bound to gratuitous services, he will have to compensate the publisher for the expense of a revision by third parties, should he himself refuse to perform that obligation : (See XIII. 11.) 9. The claim to a fee is established with the constitution of the contract; it does not depend on the financial success of the work, and can never be contested on ground of the �54 IN THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION disproportion between price and goods (laesio enormis); proceeds of the sale fall to the publisher's speculation, and the claim to a fee is independent of them : ” (Blu. II. course, inapplicable where the 513.) This principle agreement made dependent author's remuneration the success the work, as, under the royalty the half profits system, not mention the case common partnership. writing 10. Bluntschli says: “If the contract made usually and no fee mentioned the conclusion admissible that no claim fee exists; and where an by is, is to in a it, is is in to of or of on is of “the is he supported by be no it of if to be by a as ” to in of he to a publisher, unknown writer offers his work will right doubt, presumed, case that has acquired remuneration, and desires nothing beyond the publica tion (Blu. II. 512); the latter assertion has been opposed rule; anyhow, either too sweeping these presump tions will set aside one favourable the author, sufficient evidence, XVIII.-TERMs. it of of by is of copies produced, and the publica 2. tion price: (Blu. II. 513.) If the author's fee was fixed in consideration of a expenses, the number of $ to the fee be 1. neither fixed by nor ascertained means one the presumptions recorded above, the court will assess on hearing experts (Hungary, 525; Switzerland, art. 383; Stobbe, 292); taking into consideration the publisher's Where the amount agreement a be to is Where the author an as of no 3. 360.) paid by $ But this rule does not apply where approximate number sheets was only mentioned binding estimate, with intention the author: (Wä., 526). of (Hungary, of in to be of sheets, the publisher cannot certain maximum number pay for copy held excess the volume agreed on the sheet, all �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 55 copy delivered, including titles, index, prefaces, &c., counts as remunerable matter. In the absence of a special agreement, it is presumed that the parties had sheets of an average size in view. 4. it is generally for the publisher to choose the yet the author may demand size of the book (see XV. calculation his fee on the basis medium size: (Klo. II. a of a of 3), Although 725.) to or of is of of If author's § 5. entirely on remuneration depends partly the sale the book, the publisher bound the usual settlement accounts and proof sale (Zurich, 1611; Switzerland, art. 386); this holds wherever the the of to to to is of or in an controlling the publisher (Bes., author has interest 947); especially where the agreement limits the number copies editions the publication which the publisher entitled. This involves that the author may claim access the publisher's books: (Klo. II. 725.) is of separate on If a 7. part or : of of on § $ § to on is a 6. established, and Where the author's claim fee provide otherwise, the publisher the agreement does not delivery payment immediately bound the complete manuscript, for then the author has acquitted his obliga 1143; Hungary, 527; 1165; Saxony, tion: (Austria, Wä., 362; Klo. II. 725; Stobbe, 292.) [Switzerland alone does not follow this common principle, and prescribes, publication agreeing with some authorities, payment the work (Art. 385); the first draft the Code by Prof. Fick followed the common rule (Schneider, 506.)] remuneration was agreed for each section, the nature of complete if a of a on on If of or of on of in a on is of work that appears such sections, delivery due each the sections: (Wä., 362.) [In Switzerland publication the part volume: (Art. 385).] the remuneration was not fixed separately for each part, the author may call the publisher for proportionate part payment delivery volume the payment the work makes the �56 THE CONTRACT OF IN PUBLICATION is, calculation of such quotas possible, and without prejudice to the publisher's right of then demanding security for the delivery of the rest of the work: (Wä., 362.) 8. The exact calculation of a fee that is to be determined of is is it is as a is as is a is by the volume of the work when printed course, only possible when the type set up; tacit agreement therefore presumed that the payment due when the printing Now, composed, finished. soon sheet the fee for as much of the author's work as contains as it determined, be might regarded and due the general usage and several enactments declare, however, the fee due completion the printing: (Saxony, 1143; Hungary, 527; Switzerland, art. 385.) ipso facto of § § on (Wä., 362); a of so he on if II. 9. “But the publisher may not protract printing and publication, and thereby unduly defer the payment” 513); (Blu. does the author may demand provisional estimate: (Wii., payment the basis 363.) a be is to of an of Instead of, by a or fee, concurrent with, certain copies are often stipulated number authors. But obligation by no the publisher that effect 10. to a general trade usage cannot means presumable, and (Wä., 364); proved exist author's copies must therefore explicitly stipulated (Klo. 725); they are stipu II. action and in to is of at an execution (Hungary, claim. be claim REMEDIEs. action for every equitable have the work produced can The author has to 2. 1. by good booksellers: (Wä., 364.) XIX.—AUTHOR’s His them general custom the trade, the get copies from the publisher the 725); and can claim any discount § to allowed is entitled trade price (Klo. deliver he author bound to to a the if II. be publisher time: (Dern., 642.) 11. According lated, realised 523; Eis., 85); the �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 57 compasses the production of the work at the defiant publisher's expense. execution 3. The author has an action for holding the publisher to the disposal of the copies in conformity with the rules usually observed in dealing with works of the kind in question: (Klo. II. 724.) 4. If the publisher does not perform duly, or at the proper time, he is liable to the author for damages: (Hungary, $ 523; Wä., 341; Ger. I. 462; Dern., 642; End. I. 816; Bes., 947; Walter, 359.) 5. If it can be shown that the author's interests demand the dissolution of the contract, the author can withdraw without prejudice to his action for damages (Hungary, § 523; Bes., 947), especially where the publisher's failing to perform in due time has diminished the author's interest in the contract (Wä., 386), or where it is rather to his interest to give the work to another publisher, than to sue for specific performance (Wä., 386,) [In Hungary “If, nothing through any the author has left to wish for. negligence of his own, the publisher fails to produce the work, and place it in the market, or to produce a new edition as soon as the previous one is exhausted, the author has the option (1) of demanding specific per formance of the contract and damages for the delay; or (2) of recovering damages for the non-performance; or (3) of withdrawing from the contract and regarding it as never made”: (§ 523.)] XX.—SUCCESSION TO THE PUBLISHER. 1. The derivative Right of Publication is not less trans ferable than the original Authors’ Rights in their totality. On principle, the Right of Publication may be alienated wherever the transfer is not precluded by the import of the contract. 2. But the publisher can dispose of a Right of Pub �58 THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION IN lication in so far only as his rights are separable from his obligations, for obligations from contracts cannot be trans (Kohler, p. 285 ferred without the consent of the obligee. emphatically seq., et and other authorities most assert that a publisher's rights and his obligations under a Contract of Publication are indissolubly bound together, so that any transfer of his rights affecting his obligation to perform in person, must of necessity violate the contract.) 3. It will have to be decided by the features of each case arising, whether the rights are separable from the (End. I. 817.) is true, that by the transfer of a Right of Publi cation acquired under a Contract of Publication, the publisher does not substitute another as obligor in his place, but merely causes another to perform for him, whilst he himself remains liable for the performance: (Klo. II. 734.) But the publisher is not entitled to do even that, if the Right of Publication was trans ferred to him as a strictly personal right (Klo. I. 13); the Contract of Publication is usually made in con sideration of the publisher's person, especially as the rule, unable author control the production work, copies produced. and sale his and the number author, therefore, guarantee The seeks for the respectability his publisher, the solidity the firm with which contracts (Wä. 365); and their honesty, circumspection and dexterity business: (Geng., 536; Walter, 359.) And further, the liability the original publisher for obligations: to by 5. of of in in he or of a in of a as It of is, 4. of is it as a as very limited value, the performance the transferee for, rule, the contract does not fix the publisher's duties with such juridical preciseness would make in as to no to in liquidate them an action: (Wii., 366.) may the publisher transfer an Under circumstances author's work other persons, except such are skilled possible �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND switzERLAND. 59 the publishing trade and ready to devote their energies to the work transferred. Persons not answering to those requirements, do not acquire the rights that the transfer tends to bestow on them: (Dern., 644.) 6. If the author objects to the transfer, the court will be called upon to answer the question, whether the nature of the case does or does not imply the tacit agreement that a transfer by the publisher is precluded. 7. An unconditional right, therefore, of the publisher to transfer a Right of Publication to others cannot be taken for granted (Bes., 947); but it is true that in many cases the contract can be duly performed by any publisher (Klo. I. 147); and as a matter of fact such transactions a is, in by the authors. 8. But an assignation of Rights of Publication involved in the alienation of a publisher's business, his entire rule, valid, more especially where the firm taberna, as are mostly acquiesced of proprietorship necessity affected by the mere change seq.); and trade usage has established the (Kohler, 289 validity of of to of on right a of Rights transfer Publication under without prejudice the author's opposing such transfers the ground material circumstances, of those et of of ; in remains the same for such cases the principles, con nections, institutions, and resources the business are not and substantial objections. to of by a 9. of publisher succeed The heirs all rights and duties ensuing from Contracts Publication made him. XXI.—SuccEssion To THE AUTHOR. by is it in If to he if 1. of usually dissolved by The Contract Publication death, completed the author's had not the work; his heirs are neither bound nor entitled finish his place. the author had lured the publisher into making the as be be finished, his estate representing contract the work will liable for damages; and damages will recover �IN THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION 60 able in every case where the non-completion is due to the negligence of the deceased: (Wii., 376.) 2. But iſ at the author's decease the work is finished, or “in in seized Or, exceptional surrender it; and Switzerland, art. 389, cases, where it are bound execution. appears it puts this), the heirs it, be clude may as to its at least so far completed that it can be finished by another writer (provided, of course, that nature does not pre possible be upheld entirely that the contract should partly, the continuation will decreed and the necessary details prescribed the court.” The publisher bound accept and publish the work was finished the author before his decease; he finished section or independent marketable value: (Schneider, 508.) sections the publisher had acquired title future by it a if to If to If by to a to to if of by on he having the book brought may insist that called for the nature the work. the author was bound undertake such alterations, his provide for heirs are bound suitable revision. the author was not bound revise future editions, the pub date, is editions, up a If 3. of or if to is by or be and equitable be to any competent person; lisher may cause that done and the heirs cannot withhold their consent without urgent rea,SOInS. XXII.-DIssolution of THE CONTRACT. of of he of to an if of or 1. The contract ends when the publisher has disposed copies all editions the publication which was entitled, and, unlimited Right Publication was transferred, with the expiration the copyright. § : is If 3. to by of or by 2. But the contract may end before one those events taking place, either mutual consent, other facts; always without prejudice already claims established. the author dies before completing the work, the 531; Switzerland, dissolvedea, nunc (Hungary, contract art. 389; See XXI.) �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SwitzERLAND. 61 4. The publisher may withdraw and sue for damages if the author concealed the existence of rights of other persons in the work concerning which the contract is made, provided that those pre-existing rights conflict with those of the publisher: (See VII. 1.) 5. If severe illness, lunacy, &c., incapacitate the author from fulfilling his obligations or attending to his interest in the contract, the analogy to the case of an author's decease will obtain, without prejudice, of course, to the operation of the general law. 6. An accidental loss of the manuscript, which renders the production of the edition impossible dissolves the contract; for the author cannot be compelled to do the work over again : (Hung., § 531; Sax., § 1144; Klo. II. 735.) But the publisher in the hands of whom a manuscript is accidentally lost, is not thereby released from such obligations as can still be fulfilled by him : he is in particular bound to pay the author's fee. supply him, for however, bound 8. The author a to is, 7. a $ of he he if one a of of manuscript, and the the work, not merely only then sufficient reason for the manuscript the author's acquittance when the performance the of a is loss of delivery possesses or § if script, 529); of copy with the lost manu (Saxony, 1147; Hungary, producing one without has the means (Switzerland, considerable labour: art. 387.) “For the author's obligation from the contract embraced the consideration, reasonable no by if is 9. contract has become impossible”: (Wä., 380.) This implies that the author means freed without further ceremony the manuscript intended for and the elaboration substantially or is a destroyed, of if is is accidentally lost before delivery. his publisher The only freed when the performance has become author impossible (Blu. II. 515), i.e., this work lost new �62 IN THE CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION - work would be necessary. But then he cannot claim the stipulated fee, unless the publisher has been in mora accipiendi. 10. The author can, on the other hand, compel his publisher to accept and publish a copy of a manuscript lost after delivery. 11. It stands author and publisher resulting in the loss of the to reason that both liable for negligence manuscript. are it. 12. It has been deemed equitable to allow the publisher to reproduce an edition accidentally destroyed without paying a second fee to the author (Switzerland, art. 388; Hungary, $ 530); but not to hold him to the reproduction. For he has performed an essential, certainly the most onerous part of his obligation in placing the edition at the disposal of the market.” He does not, however, escape the obligation of paying the fee stipulated for the lost edition by declining to reprint is in Ś by an to is by if it to a to or he to as as is If 13. the edition lost after the sale has begun, the sold, and the publisher's rights lost copies are treated consumed; the author this edition are regarded royalties profits not entitled that would have received, had those copies really been sold, but does not lose his claim fee should not yet have been paid. singular exception Saxony, 1148, [A made allowing the publisher destroyed reproduce edition after the sale has begun.] or to be he if § or § on if he he borne to in occurred is be he it to then, If accident, occurred. of it An is the party the person business pay the author's fee, the publisher, will have though may released from the publication; from only then liberated that obligation the author can place his work with another publisher the same terms: (Saxony, 1146; Hungary, 528); but not loses the manuscript the edition. 14. which �GERMANY, AUSTRIA, HUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND. 63 15. The unforeseen occurrence of events rendering the publication futile, is regarded as an accident that annuls the contract ea nunc (Saxony, Ś 1146; Hungary, § 531); e.g., the abrogation of the law on which the author has written a commentary, &c. The author's title to a fee is not affected by this contingency, but the publisher will successfully defend an action aiming at the production of the work, with the exceptio doli : (Klo. II. 735.) [In Hungary this principle holds only where such events occur after the delivery of the manuscript; if they occur before the delivery, the author (or his representatives) cannot claim the stipulated fee, and must refund the publisher for any payment on account: (§ 531.)] 16. We have seen above (XIV. 3, 4, 5; XIX. 5) that non-performance or improper performance may entitle the party other to avoid the contract. XXIII.-BANKRUPTCY OF THE PUBLISHER. of our subject has neither in theory nor a satisfactory development. The following principles may, however, be regarded as established: 1. the contract has not yet been performed by either party when the publisher fails, the author may avoid the contract (Klo. II. 735; Wä., 384); if the contract is to This by chapter casuistry attained If be continued, a new agreement must be made by the author and the trustee of the bankrupt’s estate. Under all circumstances the author may withhold the manuscript until the payment of his fee is either made or secured: (Wä., 384.) [2. German Empire: Klostermann says, that both the author and the bankrupt's trustee may withdraw, provided the work has not yet been put in print: (Klo. II. 735.) 3. The law of Switzerland deviates in some particulars from the general rules laid down above: “If the pub �The CONTRACT OF PUBLICATION. 64 lisher fails, the author may assign the work to another publisher, if security is not given him for the acquittance of those obligations that were not yet due at the time of the declaration of insolvency’’: (Art. 390.) 4. Hungary, too, deviates from the common principles, but decidedly, from the standpoint of authors, in the right direction. “The author contract if the publisher fails. If, may withdraw from the however, the printing if is of should have begun, the administration the bankrupt's estate may uphold the contract, due security offered 532.)] rule, the printing he separation of those the work reduces of the rank of the author's claims to a 5. to (§ the author’’: general As other creditors; be in of or an of the a on be and of the to claim (Wä., 384, 385); of his work from the Right Publication sold behalf the estate (Klo. II. 735); but the author may resist transfer others than able publisher (Dern., 644); his rights being the same this respect, whether the sale the publisher's rights voluntary under bankruptcy: (Kohler, 289.) cannot estate may �•■■~~~~======----- • • **** �PUBLICATIONS to 2. the past year can The Author. Literature and the Pension List. on That the Secretary. 3. application be 1. The Annual Report. for SOCIETY OF AUTHORS had to on be of to A to Monthly Journal devoted especially the protection and maintenance Literary Property. Issued application all Members. Back numbers can obtained the Secretary. of of of this work specimens are given important forms type, size page, &c., with showing what produce the more common costs - Production. kinds of books. 2s. 6d. 7. Copyright Law Reform. An 8. The Society 9. by in of of an to of in In S. of By Publication. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. this work, compiled from the papers the Society's offices, the various forms agreements proposed Publishers Authors are examined, and their meaning care fully explained, with account the various kinds frauds which have been made possible by the different clauses their agreements. 3s. The Various Methods d By 1s. In the Society. to estimates to the Société des Gens des Lettres. it The Cost the most 6. By W. MORRIS CoLLEs, - 3s. SQUIRE SPRIGGE, late Secretary of 5. of The History S. 4. Barrister-at-Law. The Contract Publication Hungary, and Switzerland. By an of J. of # of right of Exposition Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill, now before Parliament. With Extracts from Appendix 1878, and the Report the Commission containing the Berne Convention and the American Copy M. LELY. Authors. 18. 6d. SOCIETY in Germany, Austria, By ERNST LUNGE, J.U.D. application to obtained on can be - All the above publications 4, of A of 2s. 6d. of Record its action from its By SIR WALTER BESANT (Chairman Foundation. Com mittee, 1888–1892), 1s. the Secretary, OF AUTHORS, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C. � 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 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 Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Lunge, Ernst. <em>The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland</em>. London: The Society of Authors, 1896. <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102667700" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102667700</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland (1896) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland&nbsp;</em>(1896) Description An account of the resource A synopsis of publication in several European countries which follow the German Code of Commerce, written by Ernst Lunge. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lunge, Ernst Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102667700" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102667700</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1896-Lunge-Contract-of-Publication-in-Germany-Austria-Hungary-Switzerland international publications publishing https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/236/1889-Sprigge-Society-of-French-Authors.png b3ea8962e571a3c23cda5a3b3af6daf0 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) 1889 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 Henry Glaisher Location The location of the event or organisation London Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Sprigge, Samuel Squire. <em>The Society of French Authors (La Société Des Gens De Lettres): Its Foundation and its History</em>. London: The Society of Authors, 1889. <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044010126399" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044010126399</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Society of French Authors (La Société Des Gens De Lettres): Its Foundation and its History (1889) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Society of French Authors (La Société Des Gens De Lettres): Its Foundation and its History&nbsp;</em>(1889) Description An account of the resource Written by <a href="https://historysoa.com/people/Sprigge-Samuel-Squire">Samuel Squire Sprigge</a>, providing a history of the French Society of Authors (founded in <span>1829). Offers an overview of the legal and political standing of authorship in France, and the work of the Society in changing the landscape.</span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sprigge, Samuel Squire Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044010126399" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044010126399</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1889-Sprigge-Society-of-French-Authors international publications https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/235/1888-American-Dinner-Report.png ccdd23e5fcba310cea7aed5373396e2f 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) 1888 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 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 Report of the Proceedings at the Dinner Given by the Society of Authors to American Men and Women of Letters at the Criterion Restaurant, on Wednesday, July 25, 1888 (1888) Subject The topic of the resource <em>Report of the Proceedings at the Dinner Given by the Society of Authors to American Men and Women of Letters at the Criterion Restaurant, on Wednesday, July 25, 1888</em> (1888) Description An account of the resource A report listing attendees and offering a transcription of all of the speeches given at the dinner. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource The Society of Authors Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101046820708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101046820708</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1888-American-Dinner-Report publications https://historysoa.com/files/original/3/234/1892-Authors-Syndicate.png 597b9af9cd51d7474ca3381cef5c63c1 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 Groups/Organisations Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context groups-organisations Group/Organisation Location The location of the event or organisation 4 Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields London Start Date A start date for the group/organisation or publication 1890 End Date An end date for the group/organisation or publication 1926 Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission <em>The Author</em> 2.12 (May 1892): p. 423. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015031017927">https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015031017927</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Authors' Syndicate, The Subject The topic of the resource Authors' Syndicate, The Description An account of the resource A literary agency, assisting authors in placing manuscripts with publishers. Management was voluntary and unpaid, and there was a separate Council for the Syndicate. The Syndicate's services were, initially, only available to members of the Society. Run by <a href="https://historysoa.com/people/Colles-William-Morris">William Morris Colles</a>, it was based on the same floor as the Society of Authors' own offices in Portugal Street. In 1898, there was a split between the Society and the Syndicate, dissolving the partnership entirely after a series of problems with Colles' running of the organisation. Colles continued the business until his death in 1926. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Colles, William Morris Type The nature or genre of the resource Group/Organisation Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Authors-Syndicate affiliated organisations publishing https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/233/Pollock-William-Frederick.jpeg 039d791e40ae8bbcf1ed5e759cbbf427 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1815 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1888 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Author Lawyer Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Sir William Frederick Pollock, second baronet (1815–1888; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); lawyer and author. Published a translation of Dante's <em>Divine Comedy</em> (1854); also wrote an autobiography (1887) and edited William Charles Macready's <em>Reminiscences</em> (1876). Chairman of the <a href="https://historysoa.com/exhibits/show/management-committee">Committee of Management</a>, succeeding <a href="https://historysoa.com/people/Morison-James-Augustus-Cotter">James Cotter Morison</a>. Stepped down in 1888 due to ill health; replaced by <a href="https://historysoa.com/people/Besant-Walter">Walter Besant</a>. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a referrer="origin-when-cross-origin" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/22480" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/22480</a> Committee(s) A list of committees the person was a member of Committee of Management Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Chairman (Committee of Management) Position Start Date The date the person took on the position within the Society of Authors or committee (the latter specified by the [Position] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary 1886 Position End Date The date the person stepped down from the position within the Society of Authors or committee (the latter specified by the [Position] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary 1888 Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Portrait of William Frederick Pollock. Albumen Print. 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 Pollock, William Frederick Subject The topic of the resource Pollock, William Frederick (1815–1888) Description An account of the resource Sir William Frederick Pollock, second baronet (1815–1888); lawyer and author. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Pollock-William-Frederick Committee of Management editing law translation https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/232/1876-Russell-William-Howard.jpg 65346668afd0c337e9739db4bf7603b9 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1820 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1907 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Journalist Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Sir William Howard Russell (1820–1907; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); journalist. Celebrated war correspondent for The Times; also wrote for the&nbsp;<em>Daily Telegraph&nbsp;</em>and other major publications on international affairs. <span>Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a referrer="origin-when-cross-origin" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35889" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35889</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Lock &amp; Whitfield. Portrait of William Howard Russell. Woodburytype. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1876. NPG Ax17511 © National Portrait Gallery, London. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw122196/Sir-William-Howard-Russell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw122196/Sir-William-Howard-Russell</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Russell, William Howard Subject The topic of the resource Russell, William Howard (1820–1907) Description An account of the resource Sir William Howard Russell (1820–1907); journalist. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Russell-William-Howard international journalism military Vice-Presidents https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/231/1895-Hollingshead-John.jpeg ed338f2ed7ccb02e3d902f128d6b9132 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1827 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1904 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Journalist Theatre Manager Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources John Hollingshead (1827–1904; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); journalist and theatre manager. Published articles in <em>Household Words</em>, <em>Cornhill Magazine</em>, <em>The Morning Post</em> and <em>Punch</em>. Also published volumes of essays and books about the theatre. <span>Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33946" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33946</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Portrait of John Hollingshead. Reproduced in Hollingshead, John. <em>My Lifetime</em>. London: Sampson Low, Marston &amp; Co., 1895. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollingshead#/media/File:John-hollingshead-1895.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollingshead#/media/File:John-hollingshead-1895.jpg</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hollingshead, John Subject The topic of the resource Hollingshead, John (1827–1904) Description An account of the resource John Hollingshead (1827–1904); journalist and theatre manager. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Hollingshead-John drama journalism Vice-Presidents https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/230/1883-Wilson-Charles-William.jpg 1a5cc995cfa9fd79d85ade7eb242242b 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1836 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1905 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Army Officer Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Sir Charles William Wilson (1836–1905; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); army officer. Published works on politics and war, as well as<span>&nbsp;serving as director of the&nbsp;</span>Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, which published<span> texts related to the Holy Land. Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36951" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36951</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Hills &amp; Saunders. Portrait of Charles William Wilson. Albumen Carte De Visite. 1883. NPG x197183 © National Portrait Gallery, London. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw249183/Sir-Charles-William-Wilson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw249183/Sir-Charles-William-Wilson</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wilson, Charles William Subject The topic of the resource Wilson, Charles William (1836–1905) Description An account of the resource Sir Charles William Wilson (1836–1905); army officer. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Wilson-Charles-William history military politics Vice-Presidents https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/229/1890s-Warren-Charles.jpg 4c292433b615a71d802e4a529a5ecd57 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1840 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1927 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Archaeologist Army Officer Police Commissioner Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Sir Charles Warren (1840–1927; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); army officer, police commissioner and archaeologist. Published several works on the archaeology of Jerusalem. <span>Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36753">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36753</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Bassano, Alexander. Portrait of Charles Warren. Matte Collodion Printing-Out Paper Print. 1890s. NPG P1700(46a) © National Portrait Gallery, London. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw238412/Sir-Charles-Warren" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw238412/Sir-Charles-Warren</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Warren, Charles Subject The topic of the resource Warren, Charles (1840–1927) Description An account of the resource Sir Charles Warren (1840–1927); army officer, police commissioner and archaeologist. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Warren-Charles archaeology military police Vice-Presidents https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/228/1883-Farrar-Frederic-William.jpg 1a65ac27feaa06f8a3d10997f290cc8d 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1831 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1903 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Author Dean Philologist Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); dean of Canterbury, novelist and philologist. Published religious and historical works; also wrote several novels (primarily school stories). <span>Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33088" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33088</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Bassano, Alexander. Portrait of Frederic William Farrar. Half-Plate Glass Negative. 1883. NPG x127645 © National Portrait Gallery, London. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw111778/Frederic-William-Farrar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw111778/Frederic-William-Farrar</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Farrar, Frederic William Subject The topic of the resource Farrar, Frederic William (1831–1903) Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Farrar-Frederic-William Description An account of the resource Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903); dean of Canterbury, novelist and philologist. fiction history languages theology Vice-Presidents https://historysoa.com/files/original/1/227/1859-Kitchin-George-William.jpg 10c678a0d0ddd1d8ec9cd368cbcb53d9 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 Members Description An account of the resource By the time of the first general meeting on 18 February 1884, the Society of Authors had 14 <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=66&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Vice-President&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">Vice-Presidents</a> and 68 members. Annual subscription was set at a guinea; life subscription was 10 guineas.<br /><br />Initially, new members could join as Fellows, Members or Associates. Fellow status was abolished; not all Fellows paid for subscription and their position within the Society was thus unclear. Members had to have authored at least one full-length work (whether published or performed). Associates were aspiring writers who may not have had any work published.<br /><br />By 1886, there were 153 members. This rose to 240 in 1888, 372 in 1889, 662 in 1891 and 870 in 1892 (Walter Besant, <a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1893-Besant-The-Society-of-Authors"><em>The Society of Authors: A Record of Its Action from Its Foundation</em></a>, 1893). By 1912, there were over 2,000 members (<em><a href="https://historysoa.com/publications/1912-Prospectus">Society of Authors Prospectus</a></em>, 1912).<br /><br />This collection currently includes over 200 prominent members of the Society. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context people Person Birth Date of birth (YYYY) 1827 Death Date of death (YYYY) 1912 Sex Sex as assigned at birth M Occupation Occupations drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources Dean Scholar Biography Short summary drawn from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or other sources George William Kitchin (1827–1912; <em>Oxford DNB</em>); scholar and dean of Durham. Published historical and religious works. <span>Appointed a Vice-President of the Society of Authors.</span> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry Static URI for the person's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, where available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34342" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34342</a> Position(s) Positions within the Society of Authors or committees (the latter specified by the [Committee(s)] field) such as Chairman or Honorary Secretary Vice-President Image Source A citation for the image. All images are either used under a Creative Commons licence or with permission Carroll, Lewis. Portrait of George William Kitchin. Albumen Print. 1859. NPG P7(14) © National Portrait Gallery, London. <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03673/George-William-Kitchin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03673/George-William-Kitchin</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kitchin, George William Subject The topic of the resource Kitchin, George William (1827–1912) Description An account of the resource George William Kitchin (1827–1912); scholar and dean of Durham. Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Kitchin-George-William history theology Vice-Presidents