LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 248, 16 October 1920, Page 18

LITERARY.

'■ I Mr. i i.mptnn Mackenzie was reported rcri-nt.lv t<j be starting in ihr autumn fur i cruise amnnt; th" i.-lands of thp I'.u itic No doubt up -hull -rp the result 1 i> [Tint i Will the ]n ■■ .• of English novel- rise " ;■ ii ix.urnlV "I have liilk'-d with wveral : . ..ling l.iiniliin publisliprs during tin , " |...-i "i','k .111 Hip. subject of the -20/ 11 ii.i\i!." ?n: - ii writer in the "Daily ' M.iil." • Iliev nil agreed as to the " i| -ir.ihility. both from tho point of view '..i .nithorA mill of the puhiishiiijr trade. h . . new novels iis llie lirst in- '" -i.iiu-e ut ibis price with cheaper eiliI : i,..iK to follow later. But they were l . finally unanimous in their view that :i II ] -trii-t 'agreement between the publishers tjnuiild be necessary before tlie cxpcri l j menf i-oiild be tried. And not one of ■jtliem thought there was the remotest '• il.iiipp (if the publ'mhcTH combining sue- " I i-i -.-fully for any purpose whatever! si'Mur-.' n< one of them remarked, Ms nut -ut throat business. It's a pity, bui ■•I ihcre it i". , " y \ In the "T/Hcrary Letter" of a recent i,l 'sphere" arc some nojes of tiiiiffular ~' patln.s. They eimtain extracts from euloI .■.-Iμ n-ui-w-, n-i-eiHly pubiifllu'd in tlie Morning I'nxt" and 'the -Times'" Lite ii r> Siipjilcmciil in' Dora Hp'reon"* post-; n'miiis i 1-;. " V Dull 'Day in London." p \fi-iitiiiu is al.-o iiuuli' uf high praise tluii ~ fi.is lately been inven to her poetry liy I . I ivu lending > lilies, .Mr. Robert Lviid and Mr. S. I. It. .Mais. Hut in her lifetime, I i he writer uf the paragraphs reminds us, f the judgment vi' Dora Sigerson's work ~ I «ns almost iiniversallly antagonistic! .j Mr "failed utterly," lie sayr>, as an! ||;iutlior, and -she recognised her failure.] J of her best novels, for instanep, sold j J only JIM) copies and is now quite for-j f j pott en. "Assuredly."" he concludes, "it is ■ J bettor to praise tiic living than the dead.! I 1 Whether A Dull Day in London" sell-* : , IdO fopii-s or lUOO pan now matter little; | . uhcther it hp praised or dispraised is! ( immaterial. It is all too late." The j j significance of this sad commont .» that ,it is signed '•(.'.K.S."—the initials of Mr. I t ( lemenl, Shorter. Dora Sijierson's hiis-I I band. J i HUT* in a great deal of amu.scnient t<. be <;ot out of English literary iriti--1 yUm, if you know where to look for the 1 bright critics. .Mr. James Huneker, that ' brilliant but exotic American writer, is ' deftly bundled in a recent "'Observer."' I * A good deal of his latest volume, j "Bedouins," is devoted to praise of Miss i ' Mary Harden, the famous prima donna, j This is one of the things Mr. Huneker • says of the lady:—'"She was then something precious—a line of Pater's Drose, ' the glance of one of Da- Vinci's strange 1 ladies; a chord by Debussy; honey, 1 timer's blood, and absinthe; or like the 1 enigmatic pallor we see in Renaissance 1 portraits; cruel, voluptuous, and sugi gesting the ennui of Watteau's ■ LTiidififerent.' , Is there any meaning iin this writing? asks the "'Observer" ; critic. Precious, indeed? Might not one 1 say equally well: "Plovers' eggs, sac- ) charine and Vi-Cocoa; an erasure by t Augustus John; a chance missed by > Bombardier Wells, an echo of George ; Moore's prose, in the lost lougn of St. r Patrick"?" One might. This sort of ■ writing is largely a trick, and can be ■ done indefinitely. It is generally a mode i of the young, and Mr. Huneker is old , enough to know better. i ' \\ i hear a great deal about tlie effect of the price of paper and other material on publishing, and our readers may remember that recently one of the leading London publishers Raid that for this reason he hau been obliged to refuse a number of good books. Yet expensive books of little or no worth pour from the presses. "We are moved to draw attention to this by the following review in n> London weekly of a half-guinea book by Parker Woodward on the Baconian theory:— "We- resent," says tin- reviewer, "the waste of material that goes to the publication of another Bacon-Shakespeare absurdity, in which i the old errors, the old misrepresentations, and the old exploded ingenuities are trotted out once more and made to run round. Mr. Woodward bolts the whole hog. For him Bacon was the author not merely of Shakespeare's plays, but of the works of Spenser and Marlowe, of Kyd and Peele, of Sidney and Lyly and Nash, and of the rest of the so-called Elizabethans. He wrote Milton's sonnets and Burton't* 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' There U nothing that he did not write, by the i aid of 'his light-hearted and witty at- . tendant,' Ben Jonson! He 'rounded off tho English' of the Authorised Version of the Bible, and 'was busy , with 'Don , Quixote,' which Cervantes stole and I translated into Spanish. These, and a thousand other labours, says Mr. 'Woodi ward, would occupy Francis a considerable length of time! We should think so. indeed. But is it possible that a publisher has been found to foist all , this Rosicrucian rubbish yet again upon a. weary world?" Whatever th© Bacon-was-Shakespeare theory may be worth, . its extension seems to be a form of mental aberration. v BOOKS RECEIVED. i> 'Wheat Production in New Zealand," by U. B. Copland, M.A. (Whitcombe and 1 Tombs, Christchureh.) "Success in Retail Advertising," by ' Thomas Russell. (Xisbet and Co., London.) "Campos," by K. L. Stevenson. (Chatto and Windus, London.) "The Trap of Mischief," and other verses for children, by Olive Chandler. [Cliatto and Winduu, London.) "The Line's Kngaged" (a laughter book), by A. K. Ullman. (Jarrolds, London.)' "Quick Cuts to Hood Coif," by StanclilTe. (Methuen, London.) "Commercial Civilisation," by W. Iliiichley. ("Southland News" Co.. Tnvercargill.) LATEST NOVELS. "Beck of l?eckford." by M. E. Francis. Kleorgp Allen and Unwin, Ltd.) "Timber Wolves,"' by Bernard C'ronin. ITlodder and Stoughton.) "1110 Mahogany Ship," by A. Williams. (Ward, Lock and Co.) "■When the Empire- Crashed," by'lF. W. Marohmont. CWard, Lock and Co.) "The War Lord of Mars," by Edgar Jlicc Burroughs. (Methuen, London.) "Who's That A-Calling?" by Kate Horn. (Stanley Paul, London.) "McOlusky, the Gold Seeker," by A. i;. Hales. ' (Hoddcr and Stoujrhton, London.) "Harry Dale's Grand National." by •lark North. i'Xpw South Wales Bookstall Co., Sydney! REPRIXTP. "A Pastor's Wife." by the author of "Klizabet'h and Her German Garden.'" (MncmUlan. London—3/6.)