LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14854, 20 December 1913, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP.

Recognition has just been paid to Mr Edmund Gosso by the French Government, which has appointed him an Officer of the Legion oi Honour, as an acknowledgment of his- services to French literature in England.

Tho death was announced a few weeks ago, at the ago of 68, of Miss Emily Lawless, well known as a writer on Irish subjects. Her first novel, "Hurrish," made for her a reputation, and was best (says the "Athemeum"), though "With Essex in Ireland" was an effective piece of historical fiction. Her "Ireland," in the "Story' of the Nations," was well done. Her poems, entitled "With the Wild Geese," dealing with the Irish who left the country after tne Treaty of Limerick, in 1691, for service under the flag of France; are full of tho tragedy and pathos of the distressful past.

An American publisher has issued an interesting book dealing with Nathaniel Hawthorne, and containing among other matter a number of letters to nis friend Ticknor. * A point which these letters bring out is the famous novelist's pronounced Anglophobia. On one occasion, ho tells of receiving a letter from a German proposing that ho (Hawtoorno) should pay a certain sum for making a translation of hiß entire works, taking tho chance of selling the copyright to German booksellers. *"•_ rather think," is Hawthorne's comment, "that the Germans are the meanest devils in tho world, though the English deserve a pretty prominent place in that particular. After all the slander against Americans, there is no people worthy even to take a second place behind us, for liberality of ide* and practice. Tho more I see of the rest of the world, the better I like my owa country (not that I liko it very enthusiastically, either); and I thank God, England's day is past forever. I have such a conviction of tho decline and fall of England that I am about as well satisfied aj if it had already taken placo And yet I like John Bull, too." In one letter to Ticknor, Hawthorne records tho astonishing success achieved by Longfellow's "Hiawatha" in England. Not only was it read, but everybody seemed to be seized with an irresistible impulse to write verses in tho new measure. That there wero some "disgruntled" Englishman, however (tho "Bookman" observes), is evident from the following lines which found their way to Hawthorne through the post: — Hiawatha! Hiawatha! Sweet Trochaic milk and water! Milk-and-water _li.___ippi Flowing o'er a bed of sugar!— Through three hundred Ticknor pages, With a murmur and a ripple, Flowing, flowing, ever flowing— Damn the river!—damn the poet!

There aro good reasons to believe, says the "Daily Graphic," that, in new of dissatisfaction given to King George by recent memoirs of his father, his Majesty will consent to an authorised biography of Edward VII., and that Viscount Knollys will be invited to undertake the general supervision of its preparation. No better choice could be made for such a task, since Lord Knollys not only served King Edward for very many years aa his private

secretary, but enjoyed his confidence to a degree shared by no one else. Lord R-osebery has been suggested as tho author. The first step to be taken in the preparation of this biography will bo to go through such private papers as King Edward left behind him, and the King and Queen Alexandra will do this jointly. A _tart will be made almost immediately. It is possiblo to state at once that these papers are somewhat scanty in number, since the luto King never kept a diary or any connected iccord of his life—unlike Queen Victoria, who did so for manyyears. It will, therefore, be necessary to rely to a considerable extent upon tlie recollections of many of the closest friends of the lato King Edward and tho«c who served in his Household. Among thoso who will be invited to assist in this direction will be Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstcin, Lord Farquhar. tho Earl of Rosebery, and General Sir Dighton Probyn. V.C. Tho Duke of Connaught, too, has many valuable records of tho early days of his eldest brother, and ho will bo invited to place these at the disposal of those charged with tho work of compilation. It is probable that the work will stop short at tho time when King Edward came to the Throne, since the King is stated to be of the opinion that to include anything subsequent to his father's accession would be to deal with events which are of too recent a date for it to bo desirable that they should bo discussed, especially as many of those who took part in tho public events with which it would be necessary to deal are still alive.

Tho publication recently of the collected works of tbe poet, James Whitcomb Riley, recalls the famous "Leonainio" hoax, which at the time of its perpotration by the then little-known poet, attracted a great amount of atentiou. Riley, in 1877, then in his middle twenties, was smarting under tho criticism of the editor of the Anderson '-Herald," who heartlessly advised him to givo up the writing of poetry. So he wrote "Loonainio" in the Poe style, enlisted the services of a friend, tho editor of tho Kokomo "Dispatch." and launched it as "a hitherto unpublished poem of tho lamented Edgar Allan Poo —written on the flyleaf of an old book now in possession of a gentleman of that city." A long introduction described in detail tho circumstances of the supposed "find." Calling at the house of a gentleman of this city the other day," it runs, "our attention was called to a poem written on tho blank fly-leaf, of an old book. Handing us the book, ho observed that it (tho poem) might bo good enough to publish, and that if w© thought so, to tako it along. Noticing tho initials, E.A.P., at the bottom of tho poem, it struck us that possibly we had run across a 'bonanza,' so to speak, and" after reading, it, we asked who its author was, when he related the following bit of interesting reminiscence: He said bo did not know who the author was, only that ho was a young man, that is, that he was a young man when he wrote the lines referred to. Ho had never seen him himself, but heard his grandfather, who gave him the book containing tho verses, tell of the circumstances and tho occasion by which be,"the grandfather, came into possession of tho book. His grandparentkept a country hotel in a small village called Chesterfield, near Richmond, Virginia. Oho night, just before bedtime, a young man, who showed plainly the marks of dissipation, rapped at the door and asked if he could stay all night, and was shown to a room. This was the last they saw of him. When they went to his room the next morning to call him to breakfast he had gone away and left the book on the flyleaf of which he had written the lines given below." The result of'the hoax exceeded Riley's fondest hop*s. The critical editor fell an easy victim, and praised "Leonainie" to the skies, providing ample demonstration of Riley's thesi.3 "that liko critics.of verso would praise from a notable source what they did not hesitate to condemn, from an emanation opposite." This "Leonaigmie" hoax is quite in the manner of Poe himself, and would probably have delighted the author of "Arthur Gordon Pym" as much as it humiliated the critic of the "Herald."