LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2492, 19 June 1915, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

The first volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "History of the War" is complete, and was to he published by Hoddor and Stoughton early this' month. If Conan Doyle can give us as good and readable a history of the present great struggle as he did of the South African War, his book will be worth reading. So far, I find John Buchan's "History of the War," published by Nelson in shilling volumes, the best all-round work of the kind. The much-puffed "Times" History is hopelessly belated, and is, I find, not always reliable. G. K. Chesterton's "Poems"—a collected edition, I presume—have been published by Burns and Oates, the same firm which issued the exquisitely-printed edition of-France Thompson's "Poems." Chesterton's book includes the "War Poems," "Love Poems," "Religious Poems," "Ballades," and a section of "Rhymes for the Times," serious and gay. A new volume in the popular and useful "World's Classics" series (Oxford Press, Is.'3d.) contains six plays by contemporaries of Shakospeare. Dekker, Webster, Beaumont, and Fletcher and Massenger are represented. Russian fiction is rapidly gaining popularity with English readers, and Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, by their new series, "Great Russian Fiction," are catering for- the new demand. The Beries will include novels by Turgeniev, Andreiv, Lemontov, and Gorky, and will be published at a popular price., Miss Ethel Turner (Mrs. Curlewis) is returning to her first publishers, Messrs. Ward, Lock and Co., for whom her popular "Seven Little ■ Australians" and other of her earlier successes were Written. Miss Turner's Christmas Book' this year will be, I hear, a story of Belgium and Australia, entitled "The Cub." It is claimed by the.publisher that this new story, the. hero; of which is. a fine type of an Australian youth, will; disclose that Miss Turner's acquaintance with Continental Europe .is almost as thorough and complete as. her wide knowledge of Australia. An item of special interest in Messrs. Ward, Lock and Co.'s list of forthcoming books is a story entitled "My Friend Phil," the author of which, Miss Maude Mary Peaoocke, is a wellknown Aucklander, the lady teacher at the Dilworth Ulster Boys' School in the northern city. The scene of the story is laid. in Sydney. The story ' itself, which is related by a young barrister, is said to fairly bubble over with wholesome fun. Critical readers of the manuscript, in New Zealand and London, describe Miss Peacock's story as exceptionally clever. The author has published a volume of verse which was well reviewed, but this is her first excursion into the world of prose fiction. Some of these days, when the war is over, and one has time to think of the small worries of life, "Liber" intends writing an essay on "The Folly of Lending Books." Meanwhile he welcomes, as one who has in his time suffered severely from the Book Borrowing Fiend, the following heart-burst from the recently published "Reminiscences" of the famous ashonomer, Sir Robert Ball. • Sir Robert writes: "Lending books is death and destruction. . . . The worst of it is that the books we lose—i.e., lend—are generally the ones which we can least spare. I have lots of bookß of which I have been sick of the s : .ght of half a century. I will try lending 'them, I think." . ..