LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 130, 29 November 1930, Page 21

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHOIiS

Mr. Bertram. Lenox Simpson, the Customs' Commissioner at Tientsin, who was'shot'recently: by Chinese gunmen, is the author >of a- number of novels and other works-.on the East. He wrote under the pseudonymn. of Putnam. Woale. A^'Wonianless library" is to be established in lowa, in the United States, under the will of, a misogynous lawyer. Only books by men. will be allowed, and magazines must be censored to eliminate all articles and stories written by women. : The ' Appeal Court at Toronto, ha 3 dismissed the action for plagiarism brought by Miss Florence Decks against Mr. H. G. Wells. Miss Decks alleged that Mr. Wells in Ms "Outline of History" plagiarised her book, "The Web," and asked for £500,000 damages: The ease has been ponding several, years. The London "Sunday Times" reprints this paragraph from its issue of 20th June, 1830: —"The book trade ought not to be considered on its decline when it is stated, from authority, that Sir-Walter Scott will realise, by one moiety of the profits of the current edition of the Waverley novels, upwards of £60,000; and Heath, the engraver, more than; £20,000 by his illustrations of these novels." The arrival of the three-shilling novel is the most important publishing event since the war. It has long been talked of by those who have noted the popularity of the two-shilling "paper back" in France,; and the recent introduction of the /'dollar'novel" in the United States has made people talk about.it all the: more. But no one hitherto has been bold enough. in England to take the risk; until a week or two ago, when a. special company was formed to finance the venture. '-. Mr. Kipling, in'one of the stories in "Puck of Pook's Hill," describes how a young Roman officer, taking his company to Hadrian's Wall for the first time, found one of the gateways blocked up. The defence of Britain was tottaring, troops were being withdrawn for foreign enterprises, ■ and the blocked gateway represented the change in ta'etiee. The word "Finis" was roughly scrawled on the stones. This incident of the waUed-up gate was regarded as an effort of imagination, but new excavations have proved it historically accurate, for such a bloeked-up gate lias been found for the first time at Stagshaw Bank, on the Newcastle-Carlisle main road. Sir Henry Robinson, in hi 3 " Memories: Wise and Otherwise," tells a good story of .an-Irish county council election, A: candidate died two days before polling day, and, as he had been nominated, his name remained on the ballot-papers. Many of the voters came to'the.poll after attending the funeral, and. were surprised to find his name still on the ballot-papers. Some discussion ensued. One man'said: "Well, it would be a compliment to his wife to elect him." Another remarked: "Well, anyway,'he won't raise the rates on us." That clinched it, and the dead _ man was returned by a tremendous majority. The vacancy could not be filled for six months, as dead men cannot resign, and they had to wait that period before Llie seat could be declared vacant.