LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 153, 27 June 1908, Page 12

LITERARY.

Mme. OlgaJsJovikoft is'writing a Volume of reTniniscpTW.es and will publish it in the autumn. This Russian woman has known many of the European statesmen of her time, and has accumulated many entertaining anecdotes.

- A copy of. the rare first edition "•(privately'printed) of "John Inglesant" is now held at £8. The book, originally rejected by a publisher's reader, was thus printed in an edition of one hundred copies tor the authors'friends. When produced the next year for the benefit :of the public it had an immediate success, and ultimately a sale of eighty thousand copies.

The immediate issue of the final volume of the "Life and .Letters of Hipporyte Tame" recalls to: an English commentator some personal details worth quoting. "Tame,'? he says, "carried his learning, which was deep and exact, lightly; and was a master of happy epigrams. Unlike most Frenchmen,, he had a nervous horror of publicity. He refused to allow his portrait to appear in ,any of the illustrated papers, and politely, but firmly, resisted the blandishments of interviewers intent on piquant copy. He had a touch of the stoic in his composition, and that stood him in good stead in his early days, which were difficult enough. It did not even desert him when he was famous and beyond want. One evening, when he was already, renowned, the Goncourts found him sitting in his'big house with neither fire nor food. ever remain like this?' 'Poohr When one is cold and hungry one is inclined to cerebal congestion, and ideas come more easily.',. That is a retort which suggests Russell Lowell's cyni-cal-assertion that the two, sources of literary inspiration are a full head and an empty pocket."

An abridged edition- of Carlyle's "Frederick the Great" has been prepared by Mr, Edgar Sanderson, and will be published soon. The five volumes-of the original edition have been cut down to one. This is "business," but it can hardly be called literature. ;.i. Monsieur ConqneHn,''', '.the ammeat French actor, in an article In Magazine" 'i for June], gives ■adnto[;;:?6ry favourable irnpieanonft of- English pat* rons of the drama. He says: "Nowhere else in the world are the true artiste and true art more appreciated than in England. Society open* its doors to all who use their talents, whether it be in acting, painting, musk, or authorship. The higher a man rises in the world of art, by his own ability, the more he is respected by the English people.'?. Ik the same magazine appear appreciations of the art of Frank Reynolds, R. 1., and of the Italian poet and novelist, Renato Fucini. There is a personal sketch of Mr. H. L. Doherty, the lawn tennis champion, seven capital short stories, and several readable articles and: short poems. r • ■ . . -.£ ■'.

Mr. Harold Spender, iri a' sketch of the present Archbishop of Canterbury, in tiie "Pall Mall Magazine" for June, describes *Dr. Davidson as "a wise, shrewd, level-headed Scotchman." "He has been trained in the purple. Starting as chaplain to Archbishop Tait, rnarryifig .his ! early patron's daughter, a "favourite spiritual counseller of Queen Victoria, then Dean 'of Wimdsor, successively Bishop of Rochester and Winchester, he has mounted by easy and certain steps to the chair of St. The article contains some interesting .facts about Lambeth In the same number of the "Pall Man,":Mr.'BL:,.C. Bailey's second article on "The Pageants of England," deals .with "Alfred the King"; the current story, of a South Sea Buccaneer, is devoted to an-exploit; by Captain Hayes in the Kanaka slave, trade. The new Prime Minister is described from the caricaturists' point of view,- the conclusion being arrived at that Mr. AsrnrHh is too unemotional a person to furnish good: copy. The'Revi* Alexander (.Robertson,- of Venice, gives some, interesting- details-of the draining of the King of Italy for his exalted position. Some,notes;on collecting old furniture and several good short stories complete an excellent number. Not only Australian but also the young Englandcr courts merciless criticisrii by mispronunciation of the mother tongue. ..<A correspondent of the London "Academy? declares that he lives opposite to a school where .a, favourite song. fc,*.continually, rendered, as follows: — [ ZZ ' / — • ~ (Flahrs, luviynahrs, In a garden yeh my ■ see, The rowses, there with their renby Hrs, Penks the 'nnny by loves teh sip, Teulips; teulips, gy as a butterfly's wing, Alerrygolds rich as tie crahn of a king. Rich as the crahn of a king, But. none. sell, fair tei'mc, None sen fair ten mo, As these wild wood flahrs. ■ ■ • - Sweet wild flahrs, ,;-.., The; writings of Swederihorg are a noble philosophy under the guise, of direct angelic revelation: They are also a great literature;' and both theology.and literature have been influenced by them. Emerson arid Mr.'- arid Mrs. Browning' hadl much, inspiration from Swederiborg. -i. " Saturday Review."

Under the 'title of "Maroria," a collection of twenty-two short stories, by A. G.'Hales, has been published in Unwin's Colonial Library. The first eight of these are obviously founded on the Servian tragedy, and purport to be tales, true and fictitious, told in that country of the murdered' queen. The other stories in the collection cover a wide range of scene and character, from the Nubian desert to Coolgardie. • Mr Hales is a great traveller, and he knows the lands about which he writes. His adventures arid experiences supply the materials for many stirring, isles. In this volume he gives a good selection from his repertoire. 'There is no lack of variety, either in character or incident, and the local colour gives an added attraction that will be appreciated by the reader... ■".'.- v '_*."".

Mr, J. L. Wimbush, the artist: (interviewed by the "English'lllustrated Maga : rinC") related several anecdotes of Whistler. On one occasion he was painting the portrait of an Oxford professor, who was an incorrigibly bad sitter, leaving his pose, running, round the room to look at the picture and even getting behind the artist to watch him at work. Whistler fumed and raged, but to little purP°?c- He would get the sitter into the right pose again, admonish him to keep quite still; but as soon as he was busy with his brush off the professor would go on his^ own little voyage -of: discovery. There is but one end possible with an artist of Whistler's temperament. He destroyed the canvas with a stroke, ordered the sitter out of the place,-and fori bade him ever to come vack again. ,•