LITERARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 27, 26 October 1907, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES.

;lri connection with tlio new Pocket. Edition of Mr. Kipling's proso works, of. which Messrs!' Macniillan will commencp ,tlio issue - immediately, it is interesting to note that the palm for popularity among them seems to bo borno by "The Juiiglo Book," which;fa in its 73rd' thousand, closely followed, by "Kiln," in its 63th thousand, and "Tho Day's Work" in,' its 6itii. It is rather surprising that the last-named volume should,stand in front of "Many' Inventions," which has. only scored--43,000 copies,^sirico the latter contains some of tlio,novelist's very finest work', including, tlio most-, characteristic.adventures of his, hero Mulvanoy..' "Plain Talks from the now in tlieir 56th thousand,, and' "The Light that Failed" in its 53rd. ' "L'o Courior Europeen" doubts whether liboity of thought can be said to exist in Japan, and cites in support of its opinion the action of'M. ! 'Hara Kei, Japanese Minister of the interior, Mn forbidding tlio salo of a book'bir a loading' nath-c 'Socialist, on 'die plea that its .circulation would tend to "trouble tho' order ;: arid tranquillity of! the Empire." Tlio caused all the copics of ; to' be seized, and also impounded all the'printing materials used in , composing it. Yet /this same "Minister, when' lie. .was only editor "of an' Osaka journal, was one of tlio loudest supporters of tlio freedom, of the Press. Reading, I 'except in tho case of Socialist: literature,'''is J 'encourngod by' tho .Govorunient of : Japan.' which contributes liberally to tho-public'libraries, upwards of 100 111 number, and! possessing a total of. nearly a million vohinies. of.' l homb niainifacturo and 40,000 of foreign origin! ' : * ' 1 The "publishers!. aniiouncemont, which fill" the English' papers to hand this week, iucludo ,an' ovorpoworiiig mass of now fiction:"A fow'of'tho liovols aro:—"Tales.of Two People"'(Anthony I^opc); "The Sccrot Agont"'(Joseph Conrad)!;.".Major,Vigoreux" (Q.)"Hie lialo". (IJartinqss, von Hutten); "Votes for' Woiueii" .(Elizabeth Ilobins;; "Ancestors" (Gcrtruclo ■Atherton); "Tlio C.i ! l of the 'Drum".'(Horace Wyndham); "Tho Woman in the Way" (Lo , Quoux); "Tho Power of ; tho'-Keys" (Sydney Grier); "The Weavers" (Gilbert Parkor). 1. - Macmillan's announco a',new volume in the "English Men of Letters" t ■ series—James Thomson, by Professor J. O. Macaulay. ' ; Mr. C. E. Russell, the American journalist, who was out here a while back looking into our industrial system, Jias' tenlbodied his investigations in "The 'Uprising' of tlio ■Many,",..shortly- to bo published,-by Fisher Unwin.' ' ''! : - !vj', " !' ; An instalment-payer raised '".aii ...'ingenious point in his dcfenco to an action .for ail instalment alleged to bo duo for a copy of the "Library of Famous Literature."; ..Ho .7. «c----clared that the statement, ill' tho 'a'dyortisemont of the firm that issued the work to. the o.'t'eet that the books wore, being .sold at cost prico was uiitruo, and he asked that. tl>o firm, be rcnuired to disclose tho profit it'-lmd.mado.. Tho Court, however, declined to make an order calling 011 tho firm to make a statement, r*i tlio ground that it was oppressivo.. It might- happen, said counsel for the plaintiff, that' tho books wero .sold at a .loss in order to push another hrnnch •of tlio busi . noss, and to ttw 'arsufient. tho Court !suc(iuinbod; although it had just before said that "tho public wore greatly 'attracted'by the wonderful and delightful idea that, tliey, wore getting goods at 25 per cent, less than cost price." ' , • / !'