LITERARY GOSSIP

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21656, 14 December 1935, Page 19

LITERARY GOSSIP

The headline, “A Fortune Waiting,” appeared recently on* the editorial page of the “News-Chronicle ’ over the report of a talk with a well-informed book publisher. In his opinion a fortune awaits any novelist who can fill the place of Silas Hocking, who lately died at the age of 85, and his brother Joseph, only five years his junior and now in feeble health. Between them these two brothers have written books whose total sale has exceeded 6,000,000, and this publisher knows of no successor to them within sight. Silas Hocking himself entered upon a literary career almost by accident. While he was a Methodist minister in Burnley he was going out one day for a walk when the rain came down so heavily that he returned to his study. A few old circuit plans happened to be lying on the table, and, without any serious intention, he began to write down on the blank sides some curious stories told him vears before by a seafaring uncle. The thing grew upon him. When he had completed some 20 chapters he happened to mention it casually to the editor c? a local weekly, who asked to see the ms. The result was that his first story, “Alec Green.” appeared serially in the paper, and later in book form. The story that made his name was the second, “Her Benny,” inspired by his sympathy with the waifs of the Liverpool streets. Ke disposed of the copyright for £2O to a publisher, who subsequently sold 250,000 copies of it. Thereafter Mr Hocking insisted on adequate royalties. Two years ago he estimated that he had made at least £60.000 by his pen. He never laid claim to any literary distinction, and he preferred to speak of his books as merely stories, but a former Prime Minister once offered to recommend his name for the honours list, on the ground that he had done more than any othgr man to provide healthy fiction for the young people of England.

Low, the cartoonist, in “Ye Madde Designer,” differs from the German and French schools of caricature in believing that malice is a falsifying and marring motive or instrument:

There is, of course, inevitable, a certain degree of strong personal feeling in most political cartoons. The passion of personal conviction enters into political cartoons, and perhaps they are more effective for a little malice. As a political cartoonist myself, frequently it is my immediate aim to ridicule opponents and to injure their policies. But no artists in caricature Jiurely can do good work on malice t clouds the judgment The immoderate exaggeration inspired by malice is apt to become as tedious as too much slapstick in a farce; whereas a wise moderation preserves a semblance of plausibility in the performance which gives it enduring interest Brutality almost invariably defeats itself. A story was told me once of a certain celebrated statesman who was asked to autograph a copy of my book of cartoons of himself. He angrily threw it across the room. “To blithering blazes with it!” he stormed. “Doesn't it do you justice?” asked a tactless friend. “Justice!” snorted the statesman, “I want mercy.”

It would seem impossible, says an American columnist, that a book could be written, published, and go into six editions without the actual author’s knowing of its: existence. Such is the case, however, and we have Henry Ward Beecher’s word for it, according to George Lyon of Pittsburg. A book of Beecher’s, “Royal Truths” (Boston, Ticknor. and Fields, Publishers, 1566), first published in 1862, went into six editions before Beecher ever saw it or knew of its existence. Beecher had to go to London to find his own book, as he tells us in the “prefatory pages” iii and iv: “Sure enough, on reaching the capital (London, Strahan’s Book Shop) I found a book by myself, of which I had never heard. . . . The book is, therefore, mine, and not mine. It seems that someone had taken from my sermons, published every week, such extracts as were fitted for standing alone, and framed them into a book, baptising it ‘Royal Truths.’ ”

According to a writer in the “Bookseller,” the very best bookbuying public of to-day in proportion to its means is to be found among the working men * and women. They are interested, in increasing numbers, in serious subjects, especially political economy, and they buy, instead of borrowing, the books they want.

A visitor to a London book shop recently discovered a copy of James Stephen's poems, “Songs From the Clay,” in the section labelled “Pottery and Porcelain Collecting.”

Professor Harold J, Laski confessed, at the annual conference of the Library Association, that he reads on an average three detective stories a week.

Mr Robert Lynd suggests that the great books of the past have for the most part lived, not because they are awe-inspiring masterpieces above most people’s heads, but because, like Plutarch’s ‘‘Lives” and “Don Quixote,” they are so pleasant to read.

The librarian of the Canterbury Public Library reports that there has been a steady demand for Dr. Cronin’s story of life in the north of England, “The Stars Look Down,” and for Francis Brett Young’s “White Ladies.” a story written round a Tudor house. Women novelists have also been in demand, and Edna Berbers American story. “Come and Get It” has attracted attention. Enid Bagnold’s racing story, “National Velvet,” and Georgette Heyer’s historical romance. “Regency Buck,” have also been widely read. In the lighter tyne of novel, A. E. W. Mason's ‘They Wouldn’t be Chessmen,” and Agatha Christie’s “Death in the Clouds.” have also been in demand. In the non-fiction section Captain Liddell Kart’s book, “Lawrence: In Arabia and After,” and Vincent Sheehan's “In Search of History,” a book of adventures of a modern journalist, are attracting considerable attention, as is also “The Great Tudors, ’ edited by Katharine Garvin.