LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14072, 17 June 1911, Page 7

LITERARY GOSSIP.

Messrs Witherby and Co. have in tho press, and will shortly publish, an illustrated travel book, entitled "Through South Westland," by Miss A. M. Moreland. It is stated to bo a charming chronicle of a, rido through a district in New Zealand which is still unknown to the outside world.

Mr Jnstin Huntly McCarthy entitles his new novel "Tho King Over the Water," and finds that this title has already been used. It wasi used by Miss bhield and Mr Andrew Lang for a book which they wrote about tho particular Stuart who was known as } 'Tho King Over tho Water."

Gertrude Atherton's immediate literary work, which she is seeking poace and quiet, at Frankfort to accomplish, is tho writing of a novel out of the dramatio bones of a play recently done by her for Mrs Fisko, the American actress. "The usual way," Mrs Atherton has been telling the ''Book Monthly," "is to dramatiso a novel or novelise a drama. My play is written, and, before it. appears I am going to write the novel, which is another affair altogether." When winter comes Mrs Atherton hopes to find herself in Washington, thinking out a new "Senator North." Her American publisher and friend. Mr George P. Brett, has been reminding her that a new world of American politics has evolved since "Senator North" appeared. Being a sweetly biddable author. Mrs Atherton is going to act on the hint.

■ In "Attitudes and Avowals." the latest of Mr Le Gnnienne'p hooks. Mr T> Gallienno says he admires Tennyson. He sayspractically that an admiration of Tennyson is the reward of middle age:—"My own impression is thnt his fame is securer than ever, and his appeal—after a period of comparative eelins© —if . anything, more deeply grounded. Thero was a time, some twenty years ago, when it was the fashion to depreciate Tennyson ns thin, shallow, and pretty-pretty; and probably young people still pass through that stage of development when they say that they have 'gone beyond' Tennyson, that, he has nothing for them, and so forth. Such is a part of tho history of every classic. Perfect utterance has a way after a while—owing partly to the universal currency it." perfection naturally gams—of seeming superficial utterance. Young mind? in particular are apt to find the profound in the obscure. . ."

Amidst the blaze of yesterday's noon (says a recent "Daily Chronicle*'). habitues of Fleet street must have been startled to notice a poodly crowd of obvious country-folk, gathered in the roadway by St. Clement Dane's, sunburnt and bewildered, and in imminent danger of being run over every moment or so. They' wwe the Johnson Society from Lichfield, a band of devotees from tho great lexicographer's native place. "Of course," said one of the pilgrims as they wandered in groups through tho.sacred streets, doffed their hats in front of tho Gough square house, and stood pmrderingly by tho old Johnson pew in St. Clement's, '•'all this reverence business is very well in its way; But what we are really here for is to make people talk about Lichfield. Wβ want to turn Lichfield into a pocket Stratford. They say that Stratford makes £*10,000 a year out of Shakespeare. Well, why shouldn't wo make our littlo hit out of JobnEon ? There is really no reason why wo shouldn't mft nage to ropo in every American -who comes to England. If you ask mc, Lichfield is a far ■ finer type of a sleepy o!d English cathedral town, with grass .crowing in the streets, and tho whole place hardly changed since the eighteenth . century. Then we have Addison ns well, and Gixrrick would have been born there- if only hia mother had not gone to stay for a j week at Hereford. Properly Tnan.-vsed, it ought to be a little gold mine."

Discussing George Borrow, a writer in tho "Academy" refers to tho strange atmosphere of contradiction which invests his character, evidenced by the fact that "ho who to-day seems the "most fovablo of men, and who slxaros with Johnson and Byron a personality which lends lnstro t,o their •works, was J>sculiarly adept at mining friendships. Perhare the Korrovians would not hare loved tho man so much in the fteeh. Ho possessed those traits which always tell against a man's perconal reputation. lie was self-opinionated, and so aroused instinctive opposition; he was selfconscious, and consequently unnatural; and he was jealous, and thus estranged eyrapathy. His life, indeed, is a record of fragmentary friendships. Ho knew many famous people intimately for short- periods. Has works at tract d men, bub tho rough edges that seemed so delightful in roadmg were a J::.i-i-3 too rough for real life. His response to Miss Strickland's otter to si"»d hiai her work, "The Queens of England,' was not _ calculated to breed favourable opinions. 'For wod's sake doa't, Madam,' he said, 'I should not know where to put thorn or what to do with them.' He could hardly have propitiated Thackeray by telling him that 'Punch' was a periodical which he never read. Even his friendship with that most placid of men, Edward FitzGorald, wore out. It. must tako a Boswell to{jj ar t]j e repeated shocks of soeh a man."

H. G.'Wells contributes a highly personal article* to Mr Bart Kennedy's paper, "Tho View," on his emergenco from the teaching profession into iitera-

tnre. Mr Wells says:—"Then I toiled for years to become either a biological investigator or .1 teacher. I set my face sternly against the sort of work I do now, and which even then attracted mc most, because I thought it a mere unprofitable indulgence of the mind, I hammered at the doors of school and laboratory for a chance— for half a chance-yfor just a little bit of a chance to give my life to these things. I did not understand that both these worlds are ruled by academic cliques; that I should have entered either only to live a lite of embittered obscurity. I should have spent my days in hampered, suppressed, or unrecognised researches, and in attempts to ventilato highly specialised grievances, lived, indeed, like a man swearing with his head in a baa;. But my Good Luck in its usual disguise of misfortune intervened, and one day as I ran down Villiors street with a bag of rock specimens I had been showing to a class of candidates for the London Bachelor of Science degree, I coughed and broke a blood-ves-sel. There by I was stretched out, it seemed, a _broken and ruined and almost penniless young man, and as I could do nothing else, I wrote, and in, a year found myself freo to live anvwhero and writo as I liked, twice as prosperous as I had ever been in my life before." This passage of autobiography is much illustrated in Mr Welles novel, "Lovo and Mr Lowisham".

The following novel scheme is about to be,set on toot in Belgium for the diffusion of enlightening literaturo: A central library, consisting at tho outset of lOjOOO choice volumes, is to bo created in Brussels, and any inhabitant of any part of Belgium owning, a., savings-bank book will be entitled to borrow from it and receive by post any book for a period of a fortnight on checking a penny off his saving-bank book ai the post-office, hia money at the bank serving as a guarantee for payment for books not returned. As there are about 1.500 postoffices in Belgium, this will amount to the creation of a circulating library with 1,500 branches, whose risks will be more than covered by the deposits in tho savings banks.

Tho habit of cadging gratuitous copy for newspapers and magazines, common enough in the United States, is not unknown in this country (writes Sir Henr-f Lucy to the "Sydney Morning Herald" from London.) Tho record ia. I think, beaten in the subjoined _ circular letter, which, in common I suspect with hundreds of others whoso names and addresses are accessiblo in ordinary books of reference, I havo just received. I hasten to cay that though the editor modestly claims for the magazine that it is "the premier monthly publication of Great Britain," it is of American birth and direction. "A.number of the most distinguished men and women of the United Kingdom, of every political faith, and of all the great professions, havo graciously responded to my re* quest for spme brief expression ns to the world-wido signifiennco of tho forthcoming coronation of their Majesties King Georgo V. and Queen Mary. These expressions from noted statesmen, authors, artists, jurists, soldiers, playwrights, poets, and will form an unique symposium, and will bo one of the outstanding features of tho lavish Coronn.tion number of — ; — magazine, conceded to bo the nromier monthly publication of Great Britain, nod to this truly brilliant symposium I eamoptly solicit your distinguished pontrihution. however brief it may,be." If I kept a tailor's shop, nnd a stranger passing by. dropped in. and. informing mo that ho was going to view the Coronation procession, nsked mc to givo htm a pnir of trousers, I as a struggling tradesman, would nnswer in tho negative. Why a working author, artist, nlavwrigbt, or poet should bo approached on analogous grounds and asked to give of his best to a prosperous magazine is not. clear.