THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18147, 9 August 1924, Page 11

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

HALF-HOURS IN A LIBRARY. (SPECIALLY WHITTKS POE K IHB PBBSS.") By A. H. Gbinioko. LXXIII.—ON POCKET EDITIONS. In 6tarting a library, it is well to begin with pocket editions. For one thing they are lower in price than the more stately tomes for which the desire" will presently be created; and they occupy so much less shelf-room, a most important consideration. For the rest, by reason of their size, 6lipping conveniently into the pocket, the books are likely to be better loved; they act as companions, in the bush, by the sea, in train and tram, but not in motorcar, this latter representing a cogent reason, why motor-cars are not likely to be extensively patronised by the book Iov?r. Pocket editions, carried everywhere one goes, are certain to be carefully conned. Library editions are often be3t known by their bindings, which are handsome, and by their illustrations, which are attractive, but for getting to know the contents of a book give me a pocket edition every time. The pocket edition of to-day is a desirable possession; printed in good type on India paper, and tastefully and strongly bound, it stands the stress and strain of regular reading, and even when well-thumbed, it scarcely ever gets shabby. That is, of course, providing that reasonable care is taken oi the book, that it is not dogs-eared, or converted into a receptacle on which to stand a cup or a glass or soiled with greasy finger- marks, or thrown at a ;-«1; or a dog; in short, made the victim of the hundred and one bad praoticas to which the ignorant and vulgar are prone. The pocket edition calls for good treatment, which, consistently given, yields'the very best results.

One of the oldest and perhaps the finest series of pocket editions was issued in the early 'eighties from the Walter Scott Press at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The founder of that press, Walter Scott was that rara avis, a publisher who published for the good that ho could do and who was not afraid to lose a little money over the transaction. In dainty, handy shilling volumes, under the title of the Canterbury Poets came out the cream of English, Scottish and Irish poetry, to which was afterwards added the best of.contempory French, German, Belgian and other verse in translation, over 100 volumes in all. This series was edited by William Sharp and in ber memoir of her husband, Mrs Sharp relates the circumstance under which it was projected. Sharp had an introduction to Mr Ernest Rhys, then living in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, from a common friend, Mrs William Bell Scott, and Mrs Sharp says:—

The occasion of his visit to Mr Ernest j.-'bya was in connexion with a schema io:: the publication of two series of cheap re-issues of . fine literature —a comparatively new venture four-and-twenty years ago—to be published by Messrs Walter Scott: '""The Camelot Classics," to be edited by Ernest Ehys, and to consist of selected prose writings, and "lie Canterbury Poets," to be edited by "William Sharp. Each volume to be prefaced by a apecially written introduction. For the Prose Series, William Sharp- prepared Dfi Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium Eater," and Mrs Cunningham's "Great English Painters." For' a. third eeries—Biographies of "Great Writers," edited by Erio S. Robertson and Frank T. ' Marzial, he wrote his monograph on Shelley in 1867, on Heine in- 1688, and on Browning in 1890.

The fact that William Sharp. was recommended to Mr Ernest Rhys by Mrs William Bell Scott may be taken to suggest that the' lady had an interest in. the Walter Scott publishing company ; at Newcastle. In the ' 'Memoirs of a Social Atom"—a reprint of a series of articles appearing in the "Newcastle -Weekly Chronicle" in 1901-1902—the author (W.E. Adams) has a good deal to say of Newcastle and its people, among others of William Bell Scott who, in t,he 1860's, was master.of the school of design in that city, and who afterwards won repute both in art and poetry. Jn a chapter on "Rossetti and His Friends" in "My Story," Sir Hall Caine mentions "William Bell Scott, poet and painter, very emotional, very sensitive, a little inclined to bitterness a tall old man who had lost his hair, and wore a wig which somewhat belied his face." In William Allingham's Diary under date Sunday June 26th, 1864 —more than 60 years ago—there is the following entry:

Down to Chelsea and find D. G. Roafietti painting a very large young woman, almost a giantess, as "Vernis Verticordia." I stay for dinner, and we talk about the old P.R.B.'s Enter Fanny,' who says something of W. B. Scott which amuses us. Scott was a dark, hairy nvin, but after an illness has re-appoaied quite bald. .. Fanny exclaimed: "O my, Mr Scott is changed! He ain't got a hye-brow or a hye-lash—not a 'air on 'is 'ead." Bossetti laughed immoderately at this, so that poor Fanny, goodhumouT«d as she is, pouted at last: "Well, I know I don't evy it right,'' and I brushed him down.

In 1858 Swinburne made the acquaintance of William Bell Scott, then (according to Mr Edmund Gosse) "a middle-aged drawing-master working at Newcastle who, seeing Swinburne capering on horseback drew Ruskin's attention to the marvellous resemblance lie bore to Uccello's portrait of Galeazzo Malatista, with his aureole .of fiery hair and his arrogant faoei in the 'Battle of Sant Egidio' picture in the National Gallery." Swinburne, during the succeeding years, was a frequent visitor to the Scotts at Newcastle and when Scott died in 1890 Swinburne "greeted his departure in memorial verses which celebrated the dead man ae 'poet, painter, and friend thrice dear.' " William Bell Scott lived for twenty years in Newcastle, and it is fair to assume that the Walter Scott Press owed its inception to some of his sons or descendants. The circumstances under which Scott first left London for Newcastle are related in the article in the Dictionary of National Biography:—

In 1843, he sent a cartoon to the competition of designs for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament. Xhe cartoon was unsuccessful, but procured him from the Board of Trade the offer of a mastership in the Govwriment school of Design at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He had already married, *nd desirous of a fixed income, he Accepted this offer, which gave him for twenty years a chief part in the organising of art 6chool« in the north under the department of science and art.

The mention in connexion with Scott of the. names of Ruskin and Swinburne brings me to the pocket editions of both these writers. In the good old days the works of Raskin were procurable only in a high-priced edition, -but whtfn the copyrights expired, there was a rush on the part of many publishers to issue reprints, and for a while the marl«:t was flooded and Ruskin reprints bulked largely in the booksellers' shops. That was twenty years ago, and it gave rise to a keen controversy. Ruskin as is the habit with many ■writers, revised much of his early work and George Allen—tie original publisher of

all Ruskin's books—made g«at i plav of the fact that _ »cy still held the copyright of the revisions, and that all other editions were unauthorised and incomplete. Accorcuntlv thev issued a pocket edition beautifullv bound in red leather, which is a jov.'to handle and which includes the whole of Ruskin's writings, nearly ntry volumes in all, and which make a nne show on the shelves. But lam fain to confess that few books are so seldom disturbed as those reposing on the Ruskin shelf. The reason for this is touched upon in a volume of Oentenarv Tributes issued under the title or "Ruskin the Prophet" four or five years since, viz., that the issues be raised have in most cases been settled, that the policy he advocated has largely been carried out. In one of these tributes Mr John Masefield says: — I suppose that no man has I*>en more abused He wae a man of msiy powers, an artist in two kinds, subject to attack in both, and a philosopher with theories designed to rowse the world. He rouse/1 the world. I have heard a hanker condemn his political economy, and a Drose writer condemn his prose, and _•» draughtsman condemn his drawings, with the utmost savagery, bnt yet the banker praised his piwse. and the prose writer praised his drawings, and the drauenta- ; man praised his political economy. They ! eaw that t great man had passed thorn. Hi 3 arts are those which touch the haart, not the trained and restless intellect. Swinburne was another author who, until six or seven years ago, was only to be read in expensive editions: his collected poems were procurable only in set? of six volumes, and the book of selections issued was most inadequate in its. presentation of the poet's varied moods. Happily, this has all been altered; there is now published a capital volume of selections, and best of ali a delightful pocket edition is to-day available, ■ consisting of the following half-dozen books, viz., "Poems and Ballads (First Series)", "Poems and Ballads (Second and Third Series)," "Tristram of Lyonesse," "Atalanta in Calydon and Erechtheus," and "Songs Before Sunrise." There can be no belter companion at any season of the year, or amid any environment, than one of these pocket Swinburnes; but especially is he to be enjoyed when wandering by the sea. The poet is never so much at home as when singing of the sea; indeed, he brings the sea into almost all of his verse. I have many prime favourites, notably "The Triumph of Time," "A Swimmer's Dream," and "Ex Voto," the last-named exemplifying Swinburne's own M'ords, "I remember being afraid of other things, but never of the sea." Some of the stanzas in "Neap-Tide" show forth the poet's exquisite understanding of the ocean' 3 moods and tenses: — The world draws back and the world's light wanes, As a dream dies down and. ia dead; And the clouds and the gleams overhoad Change, and change; and the eea remain* A shadow of dreamlike dread. A sail to seaward, a sound from shoreward, And the spells were broken that seem* To reign in a world of dreams, Where vainly the dreamer's feat 'n»ake forward, And vainly the low eky glosma. The day's heart cowers, and the aight'e heart quickens; Full fain would the day be dettd, * And the stark night reign in his stead; The sea falls dumb as the sea-fog thickens, And tho sunset dies for dread. For the storm and th© win and the darkness borrow But an hour from the euns to be, But ft strange swift passage, that we May rejoice, who hav» mourned not to-day, to-morrow. In the sun and the wind and the oca.

Pocket editions of Dickens-''and Thackeray are as essential as they aro numerous; the difficulty is to make a selection. I have a weakness, in the case of Dickens, for an edition in a limp leather binding, printed in splendid type on India paper, and published by Nelson's more than twenty years ago. At the same time lack the introductions contributed by Mr G. K Chesterton to Dent : s "Everyman" Dickens; but the Bhape and size of the Everyman volumes is against themj they -io not slip into the pocket' so readily, nor do. they stay open so . easily, two requisites of the ideal edition. I find myself hankering, also after the introductions which George Gissing wrote for Dickens's novels, and which are to be collected and issued shortly m volume form, Gissing's monograph on Dickens is one of the finest criticisms extant, and his edition of the "Life" gives the reader all about the novelist, and with the übiquitous John Forster left out. I hesitated long before deciding upon a pocket Thackeray, and in the end I selected the Oxford University Press edition in dull green leather binding. The books are beautiful from both binders' and printers' point of view, and they'have the advantage of Professoi.- Saintsbury's critical introductions, besides reproductions of the original il' lustrations. There are seventeen volumes in this edition, and there is endless enjoyment to be had in dipping into Thackeray's minor work, such as iho Yellowplush Papers," "The Paris," and "The Irish" sketch books, and the novelist's many contributions to "Punch." Mr E. Beresford Chancellor has recently published an account of "The London of Ihaekeray," which makes a pleasurable adjunct to the novelist's own writings. Mr Chancellor 3ays: —

Throughout Thackeray's works there are innumerable allusions to all kinds of .London localities. These may ™Ugh'y,.°° divided into two sets: Ibo first dealing with the city as it was from the time of Anne to She close of George 111. 6 reign; the second from the period of tho Ke-ency to the middle of the nineteenth eenCy! Esmond and The ■Virgin.—. Barry Lyndon and Denis Duval, with a sort of general "The. Four Georges," and The V*B>™> Humourists," are the maWI for the earlier section of the subject; the rest of Thackeray's novels, talcs, and miscellaneous sketches form the basis of the i»tter half.

With my incurable habit of discu siveness, I find I have emteirked on a big subject without any nop© to a reasonable end. On every hand pocket editions meet my eye, and a« clamour for honourable mention. \\ hat shall I say of the stance, awe that the highest point erf ; perfection is reached in the edition, with Mrs Stevenson s bio£aph- [ ical introduction, and vnth c ' entirely new essays on illv written by Mr Lloyd (Jsbourne. Seek by Vl with the Stevenson stand well-thumbed pocket Thomas Hardy and M £^jne' the former in a drab brown bmdingtho latter in ribbed-red ™y el \^ n - Meredith's eign/iture reprodiwed i cold. How typical of the two great masters- Hardy's world is ever drab Sdtelr, whi&Jfarrfitb'* ' slow like the red, and are enmnw gold. Good old bound m green m The MinbJ g Edition," which compressi ve whwo of the voluminous essays of the Chetefci sage into some sixteen books of .conWient size. Here Putter a wail of woe: one of those books, *inep has never been returned, »> leaves a gap which seemingly will never be filled. wortfof-SS»S *->- SumefinJL bourf S °beforc D the Great Ww. There is much wisdom enshrined m tho/e dear.Jittle books, poetry essays, and romances, and they are not stud_«d half as much as one would wish. Near

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W stand a number of shorter stones of Henrv James in a pocket edition, and memory recalls -gratefully the sensation when first reading "The Turn ot the Screw," ."Hie "£«*, "Daisy Miller," and "The Altar of the Dead **' My eve moves on, and it stops at a' pocket edition of Maeterlinck s plays and essays. It is strange when the vogue for Maeterlinck which existed before 1914, is brought to mind, what a. marked cessation or interest there is in the writings ot the Belgian playwright. There are fas ;iona in wading as in everything else, in contrast, the present rage for Anatolo 'France h;'.s been created almost entire!} bv the charming pocket edition in which the translation of his stones ave now available. So long as these translations were confined to the handsome library edition, tho veteran Srennh author h<id comparatively . few English readers, but now all that is changed I find mvself wondering whether the porket edition of tho works of Walter Pater, with Marius the Epicurean in one volume, will create a demand commensurable with its literary merit. Pocket editions cue great populansers, but even they canncfc effect tho impossible.

I began with the "Canterbury Poets" • I will conclude with another favourite eories of bygone .days..A quarter of a century since, Mr. Daniel Douglas, of Edinburgh, issued in shilling volumes a series of. the works of American authors, men little known m the Homeland, a series which had a very wide circulation. It did much to make known Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the "Breakfast Table denes' ; ipracticallv introduced W. D. Howeta aad John Burroughs to the Engl** reading public, to say nothing of writers of: lesser renown, such as W. W. Cable James Lane Allen, Mary E Wilkins, and T. B. Aldfich. Best of all, it nopularised F. K. Stocktons "Rudder Grange," and "The Lady or the Tiger?"