LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 152, 24 December 1926, Page 17

LITERARY NOTES

Sir Henry Lunn, who paid a brief visit to New Zealand, lias "Round the World With a Dictophonc" in the press.

Thomas Burke, of "Limehouse Nights," has promised that henceforth he will write "novels about people like ourselves."

A well-known London publisher expresses his belief that tho sale of books has been stimulated by modern house lighting with its portable electric lamp:3, which make reading anywhere in the house and even in bed a real pleasure.

Wood-modelling is the favourite hobby of Mr. S. G. Hulme Beaman, whose "The Seven. Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" has just been published. He has taken as long as three months to carve a model Spanish galleon. It was from carving that he got the idea of- his.spcci,ftl style in illustration.

Mr. MacNair Wilson, who has written a Life of that great physician, Sir James Mackenzie, is himself a. physician, and used to practice in a town in the West Highlands of Scotland. Mr. MacNair Wilson has also written a detective story.

Those who declared that the passing of Joseph Conrad would, mean the end of the Conrad cult, and that he was nothing more than a meteor in the world of literature, are now forced to admit their error. His books are in greater demand than ever, and the complete edition of his works is being subscribed for by the discriminating reading public. "Of all famous British authors of recent years, none perhaps is more secure in fame than Joseph Conrad," says the\"Daily Telegraph."

How did that brilliant American writer, Ambrose Bierce, die? According to a writer in "The American Parade" (a quarterly), Bierce joined Villa's army in Mexico, and was shot by Vila's soldiers while he was attempting to desert to Carranza. Something like this has been conjectured before, and it is quite possible that it may be true. But the writer does not tell how ha obtained the information, and lacking that one may still be permitted to regard the fate of Ambrose Biorco as an unsolved mystery.

"Rene Milan," whose saga of a family throughout the ages entitled "The Undying Bace," is shortly to be added to the International Library (Stanley Paul), now writes under his own name, Maurice Larrouy. His "L'Odyssee dun Transport 7orpille," written when lie was an officer in the French Navy, was awarded the Prix Femina in 1917, and "Leurs Petites Majestes," published in Paris this year, has become a notable success. "The Undying Bace" was written by M. Larrouy during a long visit to the Cotswold Hills, and much of the research that went to its making was done in the Bodleian Library.

Beceipt is acknowledged, from the Government Printer, of "Zimmerman's Account of the Third Voyage of Captain Cook," a booklet of about fifty pages, issued as Bulletin No. 2 of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Beaders of the extended review appearing in "The Post" last February will know that Zimmerman published his story in German in 1781. Under the direction of the Librarian of the Turnbull Library, Mr. Johannes C. Andersen, the work has been translated by Miss IT. Tewsley, of the. library staff. It ia now available, with a few explanatory notes, from the Government Printer at 2s 6d (paper covers) Or 3s 6d (cloth), plus 2d postage.

"The Victorian, monument which best survives the change of fashion is not . . . the Albert Memorial: it is all that remains of the Savoy Opera." So writes Mr. G. K. Chesterton in his introduction to Mr. A. H. Godwin's new study of the Savoy Operas, "Gilbert and Sullivan." The "Liverpool Post" observes: "Which is the most popular -opera? Opinions will differ. Mr. Godwin suggests, judicially, that the most satisfying dramatically is 'The Yeoman of the Guard'; the most humorous 'The Mikado'; the most inspiring and melodically the most inspired is 'The Gondoliers'; the most whimsical, 'lolanthe'; and the moat satirical *pto.p|a Linrited»^'^~ "*~ (