LITERARY GOSSIP

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18195, 4 October 1924, Page 11

LITERARY GOSSIP

A controversy has been raised in an American literary journal on tho plethora or' books. Mr Simon Nye, president. of the American Booksellers' Association. accused the publisher of creating a class of retail customer who now considers a book that is throe or four weeks old behind the' times. Several famous publishers agree with him, but for the most part think that it is the unworthy books that are in a superfluity. Novels are issued at the rate ot" fourteen a week, and one eritie invites the publishers to enter into a sort of "Gentlemen's agreement" for curtailment of their number. all the publishers agree with Mr Nye. Thev sav his real quarrel is with the pnbiic "taste—"the safetv-valvo of sales pretty inevitably regulates the publisher's enthusiasm." Perev Lubbock, whose '' Roman Pictures '' has been awarded the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, is the author of a much-praised but rather fastidious and difficult work on "The Craft of Fiction." He edited the "Letters of Henry James," one of whose executors I believe he was, and he is one of the staff of "The Times Literary Supplement." He it was who used to write most of the reviews of Henry James's books there as they appeared. Readers of Arnold Bennett's '' Books and Persons," as that series was priftted in "The New Age," may recall that Mr Bennett once demanded to know the name of the writer of those reviews of Henry James's books in "The Times Literary Supplement," so good did he think them. Exactly how far Mr Lubbock can be regarded as a new or insufficiently appreciated writer I do not know; but the lot of those who award prizes is not by any means an easy one, and nobody in this case would question the excellence of Mr Lubbock's work.

An estimate, and description, of Sit Philip Gibbs: Then one said: "Rise, Sir Philip"— but the terms in which the still young man received ennoblement were heard by none; for all were drawn by his fdce, in which austerity and gentleness seemed mingled. A pale young man -with a nicotine-stained third finger whom Arnold Bennett had once warned authors against (he asks yon to lunch and drives a hard bargain over the coffee). A good reporter for Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northeliffe. A war correspondent with seven-league boots. A man standing on a platform in Carnegie Hall, which rings with riot, "looking like a frightfully tired Savonarola who is speaking in a trance." His thin, uncompromising nose; the jut of the chin; the high cheekbones and the liollow cheeks; long upper lip and mouth with drawn in, straight corners (yet a compassionate mouth); the deep-set eyes; the ears placed so far back; and the raking line of the jaw—-if these w;ere air he might be nothing better than a fine breed of news hound with "points." They are nothing; but the clear shine of idealism from eye and countenance is the whole man. Great Britain had knighted a reporter,, but Philip Gibbs had been born to knighthood.

In the eyes of the world Sir Philip Gibbs is the D 'Artagnan of the Three Musketeers who are also three brothers. They ar9 Philip (Hamilton)- Gibbs, Cosmo Hamilton (Gibbs), and (Artbjar) Hamilton Gibbs, the mutations of name arising from choice and even from,,a certain literary necessity; for aii author's name should be distinctive and is usually better when not too long.The father, Henry Gibbs, was an English civil servant, a departmental chief in the Board of Education. The mother had been Helen Hamilton. . The family at one time consisted of six boys and two girls. Henry Gibbs had "a delicate wife, an unresilient salary, and "hist spirit of taking chances had been killed by heavy responsibility, tho caution and timidity growing out of a painful knowledge of the risks and difficulties of life, and the undermining security of having sat all his working years in the safe cul-de-sac o* a Government office." It was the office in which Matthew Arnold worked, and in whieh an obscure temporary clerk, W. S. Gilbert, stole moments to compose verse called "Bab Ballads." A lady's meditations during Divine service—according to Margaret Tod Hitter in the "American Bookman": Suppose I were to bite Sir Hubert's ear? • ■ Would lie turn round and smite m« with Ilia sword? Could anyone who loots so limp and! bored Defend himself? And if he did? Dear, dear, I -want a drink, that m«tans IH not attend To any of the 1 service j what l a shame To miss the Bishop's eermon when I cam® On purpose not to miss it. I'll' pretena. He mumbled, if he asks me. There! I saw n ant crawl down Monsieur de Goaeorcrs oloak. ~ What shall I do? Slap? an awful joke ' i • i i To rise in churoh *nd slap ones son-in-.awl Alas' Alas! I must compose my face; At eixty one is loath to fall from grace. A new literary review from Paris. After Ford Maxtor Ford's "Transatlantic Review-," whose debuts are quite successful, we hear of the new magazine "Commerce." whose editors and chief contributors will be. Paul Yalerv, AndTe Gide, V. Larbaud, fat. John Perse (si mysterious pseudonym for a prominent leader of young poetry), and a few more. Only hitherto unknown young authors will be admitted, in addition to these already glorious names. Useless to say, the word commerce must not be understood in the mercantile sense, but ratlier in its etymological sense of "intercourse." A' subtlety that will undoubtedly create some funny mistakes. (N.Y. "Bookman.") t Edgar Saltus leads the list of American and British authors whose first editions are in demand just now among dealers and collectors, according to a compilation made by "The Biblio," with sixteen of his books among the volumes sought after. H. L. Mencken comes next with fourteen listed, Stephen Crane next with thirteen, and James Branch Cabell next, with twelve. This puts Mr Mencken and Mr : Cabell at the head of the list among living authors. The author of "Deep in the Hearts of Men," Mary E. "Waller, published her first novel, "The Woodcarver of 'Lyrnpus," almost twenty yeara ago, but until this year never gave oat a photo for publication. She is a New Englander by birth, residence and long deseent, and inherits the traditional reserve of the type.