BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Mr. Cecil IT. Winter, of Bluff, has been awarded first prize by "The Bulletin" in its recent bush balladry competition, for his poem, "Brumby Green." A few years ago a collection of Mr. Winter's verses was published under the title of "The Story of Bidgee Queen." His pen name is ''Riverina."

Rudvard Kipling's estate of £l.">r>,22S is believed to he the second largest fortune left l>y a British author. The list is headed'by Hall Caine, who left £250.000. Next come, in recent days. Stanley Wey man's £100.000, Thomas Hardy's £01,000, and John Galsworthy's £88.000. Among others passing the £50,000 mark are George Moore's £75,000 and Rider Haggard's £01,000. The financial rewards of Poets Laureate are comparatively meagre, for Robert Bridges left only £0000 and Alfred Austin £2000. * According to the London "Daily Telegraph," Kipling's American royalties over a period of fortv years reached a total ot £3.10,000.

If one were asked to name the contemporary English author who most faithfully reproduces the spirit of the ancient ' classics, P. G. Wodehouse is about the last man one would naturally think of. It was therefore with some surprise that members of the Classical Association listened to the paper on "Plautus and Posterity" which Miss J. R. Bacon read at their annual meeting. She expressed the opinion that there was a pronounced Plautine vogue at the present time. What, she asked, was the normal outline of a Plautine comedy? The crux of it was this: a young man of good family—often, in character, a spineless invertebrate—is enabled to outwit, or maybe to conciliate, the opposition of his elders, male or female, by the devices of his manservant, a character of much greater intellect and versatility than his master. With infinite variety in detail the same recipe, Miss Bacon pointed out, retained its savour to-day. Its medium, however, was no longer the stage but the novel. When one remembered that the creator of Jeeves also shared with Plautus a mastery of vivid and varied language, it was not difficult to see what Mr. Wodehouse's initial P might well stand for.