LITERACY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 111, 13 May 1933, Page 17

LITERACY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

■ "One hardly realises that Sinclair Lewis's new realistic novel is fiction at all,: until just near the end, when a/Tammany politician goes toigtfol," Remarks the "Boston Herald." <...!;-v. ; •;■:■:'. '' A Hearri Memorial Museum is to,,be founded 'at Matseu, \yhere Lafeadi6 Hearn, who became Professor of English Literature in the.Tokio University, first taught in a Japanese s6hbol. ■ According to the "Evening' Standard" (London), the;, best-kept literary secret of today is that of the identity of the author and critic who writes under the name of Francis lies. ;/ . "The AVorld Economic Survey," prepared for the League of Nations Economic Intelligence Service'by Mr. J." B. Condliffie, formerly Professor of Economics, Canterbury College; New Zealand, and Michigan University, U.S.A., has just been published by-Allen and Unwiii. Ruskin has much to answer for: At a dinner of the Ruskiri Society ih-Lon-don it %vaa stated that Mahatnia Gandhi attributed to a chance: reading of "Unto This Last" the inspiration'which'impelled him to "give Sif ' his-1 successful practice at the bar .and take.lip1 social work." '; ■'.. ".'■ .■',';'',"■,-'. ' ■ At' the moment the' (English) bodk trade : (says a contributor to '"Everyman") is suffering acutely from what has been described to me as a' plague of "remaindering." This'means that the copies of a work with which a publisher may happen to get t left are sold off at a cheap rate as "remainders." There, is an understanding, as between booksellers and publishers, that a.book is not to be "remaindered" within at least1 a year of itsi publication. "Booksellers might still have copies at the 'original price/- and 'if so the further understanding is that the- publisher takes them back. Now bad book 'trade hag caused a notable growth of the "remainder" side of it, and that is not healthy..- ..'"■-,' Sixteen manuscripts of Mr. Compton Mackenzie, extending to inmost 6000 pages of his handwriting, wlih a selection of rare books from his library, were recently sold at auction. It was the largest collection of MSS. of a living novelist that had ever come into the market. The earliest manuscript was of the first volume of "SinisterStreet," which was published twenty years ago. "Guy and Pauline," which covera more than 600 folios, was written in the early^days of the war, and owing to the scarcity, of paper Mr. Mackenzie wrote .tr,e;.';wßble ' of his next novel, "Sylvia, Scarlet^ yon the back of this manuscript: There.were therefore two complete novels written on the1 same paper. . . •, ■ ' ".' ' i .;': r\,\; ;■ ■ Among a number of Bronte relics recently on sho^V in a London saleroom were some of the stories which Charr lotto Bronte composed- and wrote out in an almost microscopic hand, when a child or young ;woman. Many of theso manuscript booklets, written between the ages of l<i and 23, exist, and some of them are. as long aa 35,000 words. ..The handwriting is so small that' a tiny home-m<ide book will contain a fairly long story. For example, 'f Visits- in yerrepolisj by Lord Charjes Wcllesley,". in two .volumes qf .20 and 12 pages- respectively, has 850 words to "the page, thoiigh'the page?only measures'3}in by 2Jiny and contains theref fore ! spme' 11,000vtwords. This little book was bound; ,by , its youthful authoress (she was 14) in wrappers evi"dently appropriated 'from the parsonage medieihe-chest, for "on them ia clearly ptinted the legend "Purified Epsom Salts,- Sold by. J.. West,, Chemist ■ and Druggist, Keighley." • !