WILLIAM WATSON'S POEMS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 13

WILLIAM WATSON'S POEMS

"The story that Mr. Alfred Austin guaranteed t a-. publisher; • against .risk .of loss' in bringing lout l a volume of mine is purely mji;hical,'..and; is absolutely' new to' me," writes''Mr.''William ! Watson to the "Scottish Review." v' "Thc:Poet-Laureate i is a, man of a most, .kindly heart;- and the' story' . harmonises thoroughly with his 'character; but th4u;is .thd only : sense ii> which it can be 'Said'-to, have' any foundation in'fact." "' After 'controverting a'further story, which had also been quoted , from ail anonymous .paragraphist, according to.whqm he regarded; ■Mr.i,Austin''as his "discoverer," Mr. .Watson- gives ■ somo - very interesting ifacts , regarding the'publication; of his poems. "Ten ■years,: after ; my first'volume had been published at my father's expense by. Kegan ■ Paid' .who at that time (1880)' was perhaps tho_leading publisher' of; poetry,- not twenty eppiesvof it Bad been disposed of to,persons outside' the immediate circle of my friends and*/acquaintances; and ' six years after tho' publication of my second volume, likewise at iriy cost, this also had met with a si^)ilar..rec^btio'n. ! ' ' , '' ■ -.' ';. ■"> ■• "My:third volume," proceeds Mr. Watson, 'was' entitled 'Wordsworth's ,' Grave, and Other Poems/ and was published, by Mr. Fisher Unwin,'l myself providing part ,of "the cost, arid the publisher taking the remaining share; of-..whatever 'slight risk of loss there' may. m this instance have been. Mr. Unwin sold three editions of it Jt after' which 1 trans'.f erred' it to .the 'Messrs. 1 Macmillan, irho "issuedfit,': With additional matter, and undor the-title of 'Poems;' - That •.eminent 'firm sold, ;I think, four or five editions ,'of" the' book, iand 'then it-'changed' its publishers • passed- into''the hands of Mr. Jorni;Lano, vrho in his turn ; sold many editioris• of its contents in a variety of forms." To those, who reiterate ''tho perpetual and wearisome par Tot-cry that there aro no readers of' Contemporary poetry," Mr. Watson 'ventures "to .suggest that there are living poets who do not seek, but rather evade, the cheaper and louder • kinds of publicity; whose names are not plastered on hoardings, tor'their works puffed like patent medicines; who neither shout from tho house-tops nor wheme arid , intrigue for the, notice of-the Press;-but Who, nevertheless, can count upon -.an audience that is not wanting in a sober enthusiasm, and is .by no means contemptible. either in intelligence or in numbers.': , 1 , . ' , ■