LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1933, Page 22

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

The Society of Authors is consider-^ ing the establishment of a registration: bureau, theiobject of which -will be to.i prevent the duplication of book, film, and play titles.

"This generation of poets swamps us with .stuff which is quite incomprehensible without footnotes and not i very comprehensible with them," remarks Sir J. C. Squire.

A copy of Plato's ''.Republic,'' "bor-1 rowed fifty years ago from St. -An-.| drew's University l>y a stu-;l dent, lias been returned with the apolo-1 getic explanation that though lie has! kept it so long lie has been too busy to, finish reading it. !

It is suggested by Basil de Selincourt;, that the present world chaos is partly;; due to the diffusion through books of , ideas that have no relation to .any ;pos-; sible realisation in practice, so that, people live in a -"Tiaze of. book notions.;" ■'«....-.. •;!

The copy of Boswell's "Life, of Samuel Johnson" sent by the author to the Bey. Dr. Joseph., Goodafll, head-;, master of Eton, was recently sold t;o America for £'220. A Dickenß letter fell to the :same .buyor for £.'30., and j another Dickens letter, in which the author protestod against capital punishment and public executions, fetched ■£54. ;

"The English Book Society's choice fot September is the forthcoming novel "Woman on the Beast," toy Miss .Helen. Simpson, the Australian novelist. It is a fantastically-imaginative novel dealing with ;the aerial extermination of the Australians in 199?, followed by,, the end of the world. •

A new Bernard Shaw boo"k is about' to be published. It is the text of the lecture which Mr. Shaw delivered to a .shocked but delighted audience at the, Metropolitan Opera Houso in New 'York, .together with an explanatory, preface. Mr. Shaw is calling the book "The Political Madhouse in America and Nearer Home: A Lecture with an 'Explanation."

Sir Emery Walker, the authority on I typography, Who has died at the age lof 'cighty-tfwo, was a friend and disciple,; of William Morris. Between them they founded in 1891 the famous Kelmscott Press, which turned out books that were models of fine printing. With Walter Crane and others they also established .the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, which is still in .existence.,

Mr. Robert Mac Donald, the novelist and dramatist, who died recently, was, the son of the Victorian -writer and; mystic, George Mac Donald, and the) father of Mr. PMlip Mac Donald, ■ who! rivals Edgar Wallace in /the production; of detective stories (says "John o;': I London's Weekly"). His elder brother, Dr. Greville Mac Donald, wrote last year a delightful volume of memoirs, entitled "Reminiscences of a Specialist."

"The Early Life of Katherine Mansfield," fty Miss Kuth E. Mantz and Mr. J. Middfetoii Murry (who was Kather-' me Mansfield's husband), is in Constable 's list for the English autumn. Miss Mantz, who has written most of the narrative, gives extracts from unpublished journals and prints many hitherto unpublished fragments of sketches and stories, as well as some letters. The book is illustrated by a series of photographs made by Miss Mantz, who spent some months in New Zealand gathering material for the book.

The tercentenary of the death of George Herbert, the mystical poet, was commemorated on July 30 in the town of Montgomery, where ho was born. Another recent tercentenary was that of Anthony Munday, who died on August 10, 1633. He was, among other things,' poet, actor, traveller, antiquary, and draper. He was author, or part author, of eighteen plays," one of which, "Thelftrst Part of Sir .John Oldcastle," was published in 1600 with Shakespeare's name on the title-page. Ealstaff and Poms are mentioned in this play. The reason for Munday's quarrel with Ben Jonson docs not appear to be known.

The1 Vienna branch of the Pen Club has been leaf in twain. The Jewish and pro-Jewish -members, ff.omprisrng' some of the most eminent of Austrian authors, at a general meeting forced) through a resolution condemning the| German persecutions. Among the Pro-i testants were such well-known writers; as Ernst Lissauer (author of "The: Hymn of Hate"), Rudolf Lother, Emil Ludwig, Robert Neumann, and Gina Kaus. The Aryans countered by maintaining that it was -none of the Ben Club's business to .interfero with 'the internal politics of another country. The Pen Club is a literary organisation aiming at bringing about a better understanding among nations. Many members have resigned, including Count Egon. Corti and Erica, yon Handel-Mazetli. The founder of the Vienna branch, Grete yon Urbanitzky, also resigned.