NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 443, 27 February 1909, Page 9

NOTES.

■ .The "Bookseller" -contains] a veryi'lhteresting. artjple ■ ;<m ; tlie; famous - bookseller's shop in Piccadilly;-"known:]-as-Hatchard'sV -'The. au'npujicement;:is':made''that-tLe/well-known\ bookshop ...of .'rHatchard's, 187 Piccadilly, which rfor.'.overaVceiitury' has been k famous.•literary rendezvous,., is about to ,be rebuilt,. andSthe .old building,;, which.: has, known,'so'.many.celebrities,/will be'replaced by, ah even 'more, splendid erection, in' which the Georgian front and classic columns" of the; seventies-,: will. once", more -find' • favour, i'or use .".while, the- work-' of reconstruction is. in" progress; temporary premises Von: the other .side of. Piccadilly,'-, almost'■■ exactly opposite, have been secured,; so 'that .business can .be carried on," ''as; the'-,phrase goes/ without ; interruption.] -'.The, original John' Hatchard, who started.-the:business.in 1797,' had,' it may, bo interesting, to recall, 'only. £5 of his own when he. commenced, iand bo 'traded with such, success that 'when ;ho■died, 'some fifty, years later;: . :ho : was worth - nearly' £100,000,; a> siim which even ; in' those i'days was, a good, deal: more' than .iii .would bo to-day." ■•;,..:..■■■•,-'. ...... ■'■-■■;, '...,;:.'..■ )■■}:: '.:.;. '. '.-:■■-.

;. A ..trade/brgan; for the booming of English .literature'is; to. be .'started, we 'hear,:.on the Continent;. .Good!, ;We; have been.too'long talked.of,as. a nation of .shopkeepers.', Yet we have hosed our • way into European notoriety.. ..Shakespeare .'is better: known in Germany .than. Goethe in ' England- -And, as we :ha.ve, already/mentioned,: of. .the'fifteen most popular children's books'in Russiaj a St. Petersburg paper . selects' six that ■ are written in,,English,":.:while .Mr. Jerome has achieved, the, adult triumph -ih Russia. Baron Tauchnitz Has done his best, " but there is no reason why we should not.raise the ..of \British: exports in literature; —."Westminster Gazette. ' •"■;.'■:

: Ono.of the newspaper l kings of this.country, .(says ' the \"l)aily News")—if we may be, permitted ' rather , American-sounding phraser-has been explaining the.reason of .the.-present depressed condition of literature.' ■ A'prime, cause,- he. declares in the columns.of ..a New York journal, is the literary' agent, of recent, appearance—the ; middleman who.c.omes. between the author and the. publisher,;and makes his .living to the detriment'of both of theirs. The publishers,'- it. need hardly, bo.said, take much' the same view of the. agent, though they will hardly .go so far'as, to affirm. that, he has "destroyed imagination," as. the newspaper -king in 'question :holds. : The publisher's view of the. agent may be. stated in. this way. . Once author and publisher, knew each other,Vand trusted .and stood-by each, other.Thou the literary, agent came ' along, • and, seeing an author bringing out a successful novel, began, to canvass-, the publishers and to.sell the'- successful, author's : next -book to the highest bidder among them. He began to squoezo the i publishers, too, for'a greater advance of author's royalties'than they had' been accustomed to give. The unhappy publisher, afraid of losing a famous author, dared not refuse, and >so . not only was his enterprise in other directions crippled, but he stood a fair chanco of losing for-good and all a part of the money adi vanced to. the.author.' The 'publishers de: clare that the present statu of things cannot continue, and: that the agent eith or must coaso to exist:' or; limit ; the' extravagance of his demands...-.-';■