LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 213, 8 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY.

In a recent "Spectator" competition for the best inscription for a bust of certain famous busy people, this won the prize:— H, G. WELLS. Time waa too short for him; Space waa too small for him ; Art wus too cramped for him, He dreamed of men like gods, Of God as King of men, But Man It was he served ; Man's Tale the tiest he wrote, lire Death was overmuch for him. No mention should be made of the Australian pioneers and their sous without its being accompanied by a word about the women of the bush. 1 once heard a lecturer on the old-time subject of women's rights remark that while much had been made of the trials and the courage of the Pilgrim Fathers, little is heard of the pilgrim mothers. "But," said the speaker, '"had she not her trials, too; not only all that, the Pilgrim Fathers had, but she had the Pilgrim Fathers themselves."—(From "The Australian Bush," by Mary E. Fullerton.) During July the books most in demand at tile "Times" Book Club were:—Fiction: "Swan Song," by John Galsworthy; "The Runagates Club," by John Buclian; "We Forget Because We Must," by W. B. Maxwell; "Eddy and Edouard," by Baroness von Hutten; "The Unpleasantness of the Bellona Club," by Dorothy L. Sayers; "Gold Dust," by Edward Holstius. Nonfiction: "The Memoirs of Queen Hortense," two vols., edited by Prince Napoleon; "Lenin," by Valeriu Marcu; "The Paganism of Our Christianity," by Arthur Weigall; "Correspondence of Catherine the Great when Grand Duchess," translated and edited by the Earl of Ilchester and Mrs. LangfordBrooke; "Why I Believe in Personal Immortality," by Sir Oliver Lodge; "English Prose Style," by Herbert Read. NEW ZEALAND PRESENTED FAIRIES. To tho purer and least earthy minds of children are most fairy stories addressed, and these fictions are but the stimulant intended to awaken an interest in the invisible world about us. A child who has never heard of fairies is bereft not only of a comforting present interest, but of something which kev-ps the mind of adults youthful until death, and gives a humorous and kindly light to eyes long dimmed by age. Daring, skill, and a poetic temperament, are required to write of fairies. Miss Dearmer MacCormac, a young Auckland writer, in "Patty Who Believed in Fairies" (J. M. Dent and Co.), has, with the artistic assistance of her compatriot. Olive Lloyd, constructed a literary bridge to a fairyland of her imagining. It has reflected lights of "Peter Pan," and includes references to some old story fricndß, but nevertheless it is not without originality, freshness, and grace. We have tried it on a normal child with success, which is a test of worth. For children not yet up to "Alice in Wonderland" standard it is an excellent "bedtime story" volume. We think that Davy Jones is rather a heavy subject for Miss MacC'ormac's fairies to be connected with (we have seen him rather spoil a pantomime), but otherwise the whole thing is light, and bright, and unlikely to offend the "Little People" who value good intentions. Both author and artist are to be congratulated in presenting so successful a work through a noted London house. POETRY AND PLAYS. A DIVERSE COLLECTION. The first three volumes of the Hogarth Living Poets, email books in an attractive grey binding from the Hogarth Press, present a remarkable diversity "Different Days," by Frances Cornford. te traditional in its pursuit and repre- i sentation of beauty, yet no one would mistake it for anything but a product of this age. Here is emotion well remembered in tranquillity. Take "The Lovers on the Cliff": Here in the turf that's warm arid gre?, The violets they run away Like little happy mice at play. The great and universal sufc Is glad to see them as they run. And blesses every single one. Now In my breast because of you I place this tender mouse so blue; The sun is glad to see it too: And blesses you and blesses im And blesses all the rippled sea: And so the life of man should be. Dorothy Wellcsley's "Matrix" is a harder product., a piece of philosophy expressed in remarkable verse. The author's thesie is that only tho unborn are happy. At birth man In*. - the light. I'lunges to durkn"<s, who once Was one with the centre, the world. Of some of "ft Waa Not Jones," by R. Fitzur.se,''it may be said that it, resembles a parody of extremes 'n modern poetry. I saw a dark-eyed, foreign-looking man Spit in a new-made grave and heard him mutter : "She sold three-ha'penny oranges for tuppence I" His name was Costello, hers had been Lloyd, hers had bjen Lloyd, his name was Costello. I 3aw, and 1 walking down the canal, down the canal from l'ortobello, The naked torso of a woman of forty scratching before the window, A lamp on the wall beside her and a spider As big as your fist on the lit white waU behind her.

Worse remains, but let us merely say that tliis book is an unpleasant curiosity Ln strange company.

"Three Plays," by John Brandane (Constable), is a fresh testimony to the activity of the new Scottish drama, in which this author has been specially successful. Some of our readers will know other plays of his, particularly "Glenforsa" and "The Glen is Mine." Of these three new ones "The Treasure Ship" is a long play of the Western Highlands, and "Rory Aforesaid," a oneact play laid in the same parts. Both havo been produced by the Scottish National Theatre Society. The third is a one-act play of the war, and its theme is divided allegiance among the people of Alsace. Now and then authors of deserved reputation put their names to astonishingly poor stuff. Here is Mr. Eden Phillpotts, novelist of Dartmoor, and author of at- least two striking plays, "The Farmer's Wife" and "Yellow Sands, *' issuing three short plays (Duckworth) of which little that is good can be said save that the first, "The Money Market," a picce in a Dartmoor setting, has a grim dramatic surprise at the end. It is appropriate to commend here Mr. F. W. Felkin's little book, "The Craft of the Poet: An Outline of English Verse Composition" (Allen and Unwin). This is an elementary discussion of the nature of poetry, and of various metres and forms. The collection of quotations makes it fascinating to those of riper years as well. An excellent book with wnich to stimulate love and study of poetry. It ia noteworthy how often That consummate refuses to di*. ,

Marion Cran's fifth book on her gardening adventures, "The Joy of the Ground" (Herbert Jenkins), is exactly what all lovers of flowers will enjoy. It is at once romantic, descriptive and practical. Of course, in New Zealand, the difference in soil and climate must be considered, but in the main her instructions hold good. THE AUSTRALIAN "BUSH/* j- Mary E. Fullerton has written for J. M. Dent's "Outward Bound" Library, an excellent handbook, "The Australian Bush." . The Australian definition of "The Bush" is "All of Australia that is not city, town or suburb." In this book of 242 pages there is some skilful boiling down, for it sketches rapidly the history of the vast country from its "birth pangs" to the present time, and is of great interest to colonial people, and of much service to outsiders contemplating residence in the Commonwealth. Although the authoress is one hundred per cent. Australian in her love of country she has avoided any exaggeration. There is a vivid appreciation of bush men and bush women (as distinct from the Australian of the cities, sometimes unrecognisable from the people of nonAustralian cities). She touches on the passion for reading among the backblockers, and the undoubted poetic strain, and not only describes faithfully the strong individuality and independence of the Australian but has something to say about the other side of the shield. The author is very sensitive to the beauty of her country. She tells a story of a prosaic y&mg city man who. cycling on the Coolgardie goldfields, was so overcome by the loveliness of the wild flowers that he dismounted and rolled in them. It may be news to some that in Victoria there remain hut fifty-live full blooded blacks, but that in the north it is computed that 250,000 still roam the wilds. One may here read the story of the heroic explorers who faced greater hardships than those of any other land, of the numerous rascals who took to the bush and created the grisly romance of murder and pillage. The curious marsupial animals of the bush have a chapter, as also have the pests. Many interesting pages are devoted to the growing industries of the great land. The reader is impressed by the iminfii.se work a few people have d'>n«' in a land which seems illimitable, and in reading this book one forgets the reactionary element of which we read SO much. rcmemberiiiEr that the rea' worker of Australia, like his brother of New Zealand, has without fuss and by he majric of his hands laid the founda tions of a great, prosperous and progressive nation. There are errors, some of which suggest that the authoress did not read the proofs. Governor "Phillips" (Phillip) appears more than once,-and another Governor appears as "Burke" instead of Bourke. "Jervois" Bay should be •lervis. Whether an atlthor is on the' spot or not, it is a pood plan with books like these to submit proofs to cheek by an authority on the subject. This would have prevented Mr. Bolitho from making, in the companion book of this series (which, by the way, is praised by the "Times" Literary Supplement as a model for following authors) such a mistake as praising the work of women in the New Zealand Parliament when no woman has yet sat there. PRICE OP NOVELS. An interesting controversy has taken place in English newspapers regarding the published price of new novels, which for some years has been stabilised at 7/'t For twenty years before the war the price was 6/- Many authors believe that if the price were reduced their sales and profits would be Inrper; but most publishers believe that the public cannot be induced to buy novels, for although the public wants to read new novels, it does not want to possess the books. The prices of novels have fluctuated a ?reat deal sinco fiction-writing began in England about two centuries a<ro. "Tom Jones" was first issued in 1749 in six volumes, and on the day of publication an advertisment announced that as it was "impossible to get. sets bound fast enough to answer the demand for them such gentlemen and ladies as pleased might have them served in blue paper and boards at the price of 16/- a set." Richardson's "Clarissa Uarlowe, (1748) was published in eight volumes at 3/each, and the "Vicar of Wakefield"(l7o6) in tuo volumes at 5/- each sewn and G/- bound. Fanny Burney's first novel ''Evelina" (1778) was issued in three volumes at 9/- the set, and its successor, j "Cecilia" (1792) also cost 3/- a volume, I but was issued in five volumes. When Sir Walter Scott came on the [scene as a novelist he raised the price, which for some years previously had been 15/ for three volumes. "Waverley" (1814) and "Guy Mannering" (1815). each of which was issued in three volumes, cost 21/-. With his third novel, "The Antiquary," Scott raised he price to 24,'for three volumes. "Ivanhoe" (1819) was published at 30/-, and "Kenilworth" (1821) was the first of a long line of three-deckers, published at 31/(3, A guinea and a half remained the standard price for more than sixty years, although there were some departures from it, notably, the issue by Dickens and Thackeray of many of their novels in twenty monthly parts at 1/- each. Apart, from the circulating libraries there was littlo sale for novels at 31/t>; and the libraries obtained their supplies at a considerable reduction, the trade price in later years being 18/. Popular novels after enjoying a limited circulation in thrje volumes at 31/6, were generally issued in one volume at 6/. One of the last of tho three-deckers was "Trilby." published in 1894. No fewer than seven editions were issued at 31/6.

It was a concerted movement on the part of popular authors, headed by Sir Walter Besant and the newly-founded Society of Authors, which killed the three-decker, in the nineties. Popular novelists came to the conclusion that they would increase thei-r readers and (heir profits, if their books were issued in the first place in one volume at 6/. This remained the standard price until after the outbreak of the Great War, when paper and printing increased in price. The price then fluctuated between 7/ and S/G. With the return of stable conditions in the paper and printing trades, the price was fixed at 7/6. In the United States most new novels are published at 2i dollars (10/), but a few are issued at two dollars (8/). The foregoing should show colonial readers how well off they have been wiUi overseas editions issued at a lower price. BOOKS RECEIVED, "While Rivers Run," by Maurice Wa7sti: "Women Are--"' (answer to "'Men Are Pifrs"), by C. Mcol (Cornstalk Company. through Angus ;nd Robertson). "The Craft of the Poet," by F. W. Felkin. M.A. (Allen and Unwin.) "General Crack," bi r-eorg'e Prudy; "Short -.ircuitc," by Leacoek (Joiin Lane, throua-ti Dvmock's Book Arcade). "Different Days," by Frances Cornford; "It Was Not Jones," by R. Fltzurse" a.id "Matrix," by Dorothy WeMesley (three volumes of ver«e from to® Hog-»r»t Press.)