LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 19

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

The valet of the Emperor Charles | of Austria, Vlnzenz ' Petrik, who has just died, is said to hare written some sensational memoirs.

' Hoddcr and Stoughton promise for June tho first of the two volumes by Mr. Philip Guedalla on "The Queen and Mr. Gladstone," written round their correspondence..

According.to Mr. Hugh Walpole, to write- an indifferent novel has always been as easy as to crochet. The trouble today, ho.says," is that so many people are able to write clever ones.

. The Widener Memorial Library at Harvard -..has acquired tho manescripts of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "The Judgment of the Sea," "The Cruise," "The Song of the English,"'"Anchor Song." "MeAndrew's Hymn," "The Flowers," and "Hymn Before Action." '

Mr. Loyd George is said to have 'nnishedvthp first two volnmes of his war memoirs;, which will probably run into four '.volumes in all. The first volumes, dealing with,the period- before he became Prime Minister, arp likely to be published serially before appearing in book form.-

Mr.-"1-, James. 'Courage, . whose 7iovcl, "One, House, I*'ha1*'has-just .appeared, is a Ken-.^ealander, being born at Christchurch twenty-eight years F;iigo. He took an- English degree at Oxford, and was on. the staff, of the "Isis." He has worked in several countries as a journalist, and now lives in Norfolk, devoting liis time to writing.

Mr. Archibald" Henderson, Mr. Bernard Shaw's biographer, has sold his colleVtioK of Sh.-iw- first editions and autograph letters. A fifty-four page ■letter, written in 1904 giving data for ft- biography jfefched £480; poem, MRairi," £"0;[ and autograph answers to fifteen questions on writing plays, £80. ' '■- .

Sir Oliver Lodge has just sent the manuscript of a book to his publishers. At present the book is called "The Ether of Space," but it may be gb/en IliS'/simpler title of "My Philosophy" before it l .is.pu.blished. This book may be the. last th'at^'ySn; .Oliver will ever ''WtiW/'-Ifi an aeeoSipaiiyiS^note to his publishers ho'-says:Of the book: "It is really my pronouncement, probably .my final pronouncement, to the world as to what-I think of things in general."

The book chosen by- the. Limited Editions Club, New York, for February was "The Analects of Confucius." This edition was designed and printed by Chinese a.t Shanghai. It is bound in Chinese brocade and placed in a box made of genuine Chinese red wood carved by hand. The text consists of a critical introductory essay and a complete new translation, by Professor Lionel Giles of the British Museum. ]STo copies can be offered for sale. The edition consists of 1500 copies only, and these will be sent to the 1500 jnembers of the club. The club membership is restricted to 1500, and there is said to be a waiting list.

The "Manchester Guardian," in toviewing Mr. J. C. Squire's selection of "Younger Poets of Today," is severely critical of the contemporary Muse. Comparing this anthology with earlier volume* in. the same series, it finds that, for sheer poetic quality, the verse written in ■ the last 10 years ranks definitely below ■ that written in the preceding 20. . The handicap, it thinks, on most of tho later verse is the tendency of its writers to "intellectualise" their lyrics, to!put a, cheek on such passionate impulses as visit them and, in- general, tq. under-express themselves rather than risk., emotional excess or the access of an emotion whose truth they, might suspect. ~

Mr. 'Joseph W.- Lippincott was the guest of the American Club of Paris recently and told the members some interesting things about "best sellers." Comparing the lists of the ten best sellers in the United States in 1931 and 1932, he directed attention to the fact that among the books of 1931 the scenes of only threo of tho ten were laid in the United States, and that 3even.of.the ten were written by women.' ' Of the 1932' list, all tho ten are either English or American, and the number of women authors had sunk to four. The formula for a best seller was "the right book at the right time," but it was impossible to judge in advance.

The "Manchester Guardian," which in the past has been unfriendly to the Book Sdciety, has adopted the same attitude towards the recently-established book-of-the-month club for children. What value to tho real republic of lettors, the "Guardian" asks, is a reader, child or adult, who takes books that aro shot at him instead of following the honest bent of his own mind and inclination? Tliesc, it says, are not the freemen of letters, but the conscripts of fashion, and it seems a particularly unfortunate thing to tie children, who have usually honest and unprejudiced minds in the matter of reading, to a system of this kind.