LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 15

LITERARY GOSSIP.

From the '-Bibliographical Notes' of theYiiterary Supplement of "The Times," the following will interest lovers of the great • Dumas, and especially those to whom the eminence of Mr F. W. Reed, the North Island collector and authority, has been a fascinating rumour: Alexandre Dumas. There have been hitherto four chief authorities tor the bibliography of the elder Dumas. Querard's "Superchenes Litteraires Devoilees," a pioneer work but one of little discrimination, dealt only with the earlier part of Dumas s career as an author; Parran's "Romantiques: Borel et Dumas," though more accurate, went little beyond the original editions of the more important works; Lecomte, in "Alexandre Dumas, 1802-1870," added no information about editions or publishers to nis very thorough list of the plays; while Glinel's "Dumas et son CEuvre limited bibliographical information m the interests of biography. After these French authorities it has been left to Mr F. W. Rc-ed,- who has a possibly unique collection of books and manuscripts in New Zealand, to supply the first really comprehensive compilation in his recently published book, ( "A. Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas (J. A. Neuhuys", 37, Dean road, Willesden Green, N.W.2, 30s n'ef). Mr Reed's book is at once more and less than a bibliography. It is less in that it gives only a minimum of details about the structure of the printed books, and is not concerned with any of the finer "points" which have led the science perhaps further from the textual criticism which was its origin and which is still its justification than the literary student might wish. It is more than at least the average bibliography in its attention to non-bibliographical facts—facts, whether biographical c" critical, of a purely literary interest. Thus the three great series oi' historical romances—the d'Artagnan series, the Valois series, and "Mcmoires d'un Medecin"—are discussed in relation to one another: Maquet's share as collaborator in these and other books is assessed; and sources for many of the works are indicated. A discriminatingly select list of reprints and translations is given under each of the separate entries of published books. Dumas's output was at all times very large, and as much of his work was neither signed nor explicitly acknowledged the full list of signed and certainly or uncertainly attributed works is enormous. Mr Reed is careful in his attributions and rejects several as unfounded. He gives many books in which Dumas is known to have had a share, great or small; describes fourteen journals owned, partly owned, or edited by Dumas in 1826-1869: and traces fugitive pieces to the periodicals in which they first appeared. His information about Dumas's verse is particularly valuable, since it is for the greater part new, being based on an unpublished collection of Glinel's considerably augmenting that author's published work.

Captain Herbert Buckmaster, among whose achievements it is to have founded Buck's Club and married Gladys Cooper, has crammed his reminiscences, called "Buck's Book," with amusing stories. One of them is about an episode in Leeds, where Miss Cooper was playing with Seymour Hicks. Captain Buckmaster went to the theatre, found them in the middle of a railway station scene, borrowed a much-too-small hat from the stage manager, and walked on to the stage. He said to Hicks: "Could you tell me, sir, what time the train leaves for London?" I thought he would be tak«n back, as he didn't even know I was in Leeds, but he showed not the slightest surprise. "No, I couldn't," he snapped, at the same time reaching for a bun from the tea-wagon. With an unerring shot he threw it at me as I walked off—a beautiful shot that knocked my little green hat flying into the wings. The Leeds audience screamed with delight, and thought it was part of the playTwo important Shakespeare manuscripts, known as the "Disputed Revels Accounts," have been officially declared to be genuine by the Public Records Office, says " John O'London's Weekly." "They record payments for the performances of various plays before King James's Court, at Whitehall, in the winter seasons of 1604-5 and 1611-12. Some of the plays are by ' Shaxberd' — merely an erratic spelling of Shakespeare's name—and include ' The Plaie of Errors' and ' Mesur for Mesur.'" Sir Emery Walker, the authority on typography, who has died at the age of 82, was a friend and disciple of William Morris. Between them they founded in 1891 the famous Kelmscott Press, which turned out books that were models of fine printing. With Walter Crane and others they also established the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, which is still in existence. The bequest of £25,000 which Mr Kenneth Grahame, author of "The Wind in the Willows" and "Dream Days," left to Oxford University is to be devoted to the Bodleian Library extension scheme.