LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 17

LITERARY NOTES

_ Deceived.—" Sir John Derring," by Jeffery Farnol,'and " Big, Strong Man," by Charman Edwards, from Sampson Low Marston, London. "Sometimes," by Phve Wadsley;" from Cassell, London; ' Poems from the Port Hills," by ;?" v >£ v? ha "' from.-WKitcombe and lombs, Cnristchurch. . , '

Sir A. Conan Doyle is finishing a new book entitled, ." The Second Furrow," which deals with his recent visit to America.

, (i M. Andre Chevrillon, in his book "Three' Studies in English Literature," has a-chapter called "The Ethics of Kipling," in which he says:—"His essential quality is energy—an energy of which one might venture to say that it partakes of the. driving power of the world—a will to live that devotes him to .the service of life, and this in his appointed order and place, in that England he serves as the leaf serves the tree from which' it has received its form and law, arid of which it bears in itself the essential sap. Better than any in our days he has represented the ancient culture, faith, and ideal of thir Eneland. More

than any he has feared and looked ahead for .her, and when the hour of trial came he embodied her anguish and her will. Posterity, looking back and beholding the poet against the tragic background of our- period, will see that his was the soul of his people." ]i . _~- ■

A biography of Wilfrid Ewart, the writer of " The Way of Revelation," by Mr. Stephen Graham, will be published by Messrs. Putnam in December, the anniversary of Ewart's untimely death in Mexico. He was shot dead in the , street by. a stray, bullet

James Branch Cabell, author of. "Jurgen," has a new book coming out It is called "The High Place." The first edition will- consist- of 2000 numbered copies with full-page illustrations and numerous vignettes by Frank C. Pape Later editions will be without illustrations, uniform with Mr. Cabell's other books. The sub-title describes the new book as "A Comedy of Disenchantment.

A book which sets forth some startling theories is "New Lands," by Charles Fort, author of the "Book of the Damned." The title refers to the other planets, ■ which the author suggests have been communicating with us for years. He doubts whether U-he earth is round and whether it revolves around the sun, and he questions the measurements of interplanetary distances as given by astronomers. "New Lands" is just published by Boni and Liveright

_ Sir Lees -riowles tells this story of Bishop Creighton in his amusing book, "Fun, Fact, and Extract," a volume which; by the way, is dedicated to his mother-in-law:—"On one occasion speaking in the neighbourhood of London, possibly at Acton, formerly known as Oak Town, Bishop Creighton drew attention'to the fact that in old times the estates of the' Bisr-^os of London extended for a- considerable distance from Fulham, but that times were changed now, for whereas formerly the Bishop of London hunted boars aro "id London, how the bores around London hunt the Bishop of London in Fulham "

.whe L "Mmnin S Post" has discovered that the secret, of longevity is to write hymns. ' The Reverend W. St Hill Bourne, the author of "A Sower Went forth Sowing," has just celebrated his golden wedding, and Mr. Baring-Gould, author of "Onward Christian Soldiers, is hale and hearty at the age of eighty-nine. Mrs. Alexander, who wrote "There is a Green Hill," lived to be seventy-two r Isaac Watts, John ft-eble, Bishop Ken, and Bishop Walsham How reached seventy-four; Bishop Bickerstetch, author of "Peace, Perfect Peace," died at eighty-one; Charlotte iilhott at eighty-two; Cardinal Newman at eighty-nine; and Fanny Crosby at ninety-two. ' ' . '

Mr. E.S. P. H.ynes, the well-known London solicitor, is rapidly winning. a large reputation as a didactic writer. He is a prominent, advocate of divorce reform, and-has written vigorously on personal liberty. Hfs new book, which Grant Richards' has just published v is characteristically entitled " The Enemies' of- Liberty." , Mr. Haynes, as befits his calling, has a strong belief in the rights of property. Property and tlie consequent privilege of service "are m his opinion ..most salutary 'bridles on human conduct, and. he delivers many slirewd blows at the Communists. His best chapter is perhaps, however, the one on Prohibition, and in an appendix that admirable writer, Mr.. A. P. Herbert, ■writes .an account of his experiences in America.

;'Louis. Couperug, the Dutch . novelist who died recently, was of Scottish ancestry,, and the ■ name . was originally Cowper .or Cooper. . - His ancestors were banished .for. political reasons during the reign of Mary Stuart, and took refuge in .Fnesland,.. where their name was latinised into its present form. Couperus ™as born in 1863, and his first novel, time Vere," was published when he was 24. H«. is best known for his four "Books of the Small Souls," entitled respectively, "Small Souls," The Later Life,;', "The Twilight of the oouls, . and "Dr. Adrison." His latest book to be .published in America was. "The Hidden Force."

Mr. W. L. George has made in more than one of his novels a study of the primitive human instincts that underlie the veneer of.education and environment.^ In "The Confession of Ursula Trent he. showed how a well-bred girl of county family became through the influence of circumstances a demi-mon-daine. In ..his new novel, "One of tho Guilty, which Chapman and Hall announce, he promises to show how a public schoolboy can become a criminal.' Mr. George has made for this book a special study of the methods and implements of burglary, and his publishers assert that the life of a thief, of a successful thief, has never before been presented so graphically, dramatically, and intimately. .

Hodder and Stoughton have just published "Tales of Travel," by the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, K.O. In early days Lord Curzon was famous as a traveller,- and in the midst of his political labours he continues', to pursue his studies and to collect his memories of the days when he travelled for many months of many years in sucession. In his book will be found an account of his experiences among the self-torturing fraternity of Kaiwan, in the hinterland of Tunis; an examination of the problem how and m what circustanees the "reat sculptured Colossus-of Egyptian Thebes; known as the Vocal Memon, was heard to sing when smitten by the rays of the sun at dawn; and a full and picturesque study of the Sinking Sands, i.e., the sand slopes and Sunes which in remote and often inaccessible parts of Asia Arabia,, and even America, give forth sounds which resemble the noise of trumpets and drums. . Perhaps the most valuable part of this work will be the authors description of his visit to Afghanistan in when he spent" a fortnight as the guest of the Amir Abdar RahmanJChan, and afterwards rode, a one through the country on the track of Lord Roberts's march to Kandahar