BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 14001, 6 March 1909, Page 4

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

I Rivonnan.’ By Stewart Edward White. London: Hoddcr and Slough- ; ton. Dunedin j R. J. Stark and Co. | Mr White has two strings to his literary ? how; ho aaa tho gift ol foiled tons expression, and in those hooks of his that wo have road ho talks only of those tilings he knows. The silent, J . reckless spaces of tho Grandran snows, the stirring life on an Arizona ranch, and tho blood-tingHng daring that forms tho hourly part of logging on tho great American forest riyers—these to him are as the breath of ids nostrils. Ho knows every inch of tho ground, every trick of the trade, and every character in tho many and varied groups that incessantly come and go. Better still, ho cau describe them in terms that make one thrill in sympathy or Laugh in unison. He has a sure touch, a dear grip, and marked descriptive powers. Therefore Iris books are worth reading. Possibly 1 The Biverman ’is too long drawn out; there is more than a suggestion of repetition, and the reader, with the best will in tho world, at times finds it hard to follow each move of the ri Yemen in their perilous (to tho outsider) voyages. Not that tho story is all logging and fighting and fun. There is a quite simple, natural, and probable love story; and Jack Ordo, tho still, silent, strong riven-man, a veritable Bock of Gibraltar in time of trouble and emergency, and Carroll Bishop are admirably cen-tra-ted. The story of their courtship and marriage runs like a silver thread through tho storm of passion and intrigue and treachery which blends with tiro joined of ‘"the h-ors.” and constiuitos tho backbone of tho look. To those in search of a healthy, inspiriting, and Informative novel ‘Tire f.’iveinnn ’ can be honestly commended. "r he Judgement of TLlinbororigh.’ By It. lv Vorncde. Loudon; Hodder and Stoughton. Dunedin : R. J. Stark .nil (.o. Mr Vc.rncde, wisely and with some success, adopts a light, humorous stylo, and contents himself for tho most part, with normal hapjx'nings. It is tnio that the basis, the crisis, and tho conclusion of his Last, story arc abnormal, but. their abnormality is lost in tie delightfully obvious evemlaynct-s of firs men "and women to whom we ere introduced. Their talk and therr behaviour are ordinary to a degree. Too heroines quarrel and “knock” at each other, wear tight shoes, set their caps at eligible men, use slang and toil fib?, as meet girls do. whether proriy and charming or not. in real Life. And heroin consists Mr Vorncdo's attraction. It is tho humanity of his book that tells. There is very little posturing and heroic?—not more than the conventions demand—and no high .fahitin’ cither in its sentiment or tragedy. Ckice grant that a rich old man would entrust a young lawyer to select from his throe unknown nieces his heiress, and that Ins own secretary overhears tho commission, and that the lawyer is an honest, youth, and, though homely, likely to gain ’he love of the- best and most beautiful of the three against the rivalry of handsome and well-born athletes—grant these, and we have all the elements of a piquant and, at tho same- time, a rational situation. It is lilinborough’s scrupulous conscientiousness that gives point and effect to the many scmi-ludic-mis, semi-tragic situations. Tho author is not above indulging in epigram, but he does not overdo it, and in tho majority of cares hie epigrams fit the character to which they are assigned. Ono o? the I rest is Lady Start’s definition of love, of which she says : “ Ifa not. their hearts expanding, it’s their heads contracting,” and there are many others. Novel readers- who prefer their love-mak-ing mixed with laughter and restrained within reasonable bounds will like ‘Tho Judgement of Iliinboiough.’ even though the author is ns uncertain in hi.s spelling of the word “judgment” (we get it both ways) a - is'(ho judge himself on whom to bestow tho prize. 'Flowers of Fire.’ By G. P>. Burgin. London ; [bidder and Stoughton. Dim-e-din ; R. J. .'■dark and Go. One cannot go far wrong with any of Mr Bragin's many tales. They are strong, vigorous, and full-blooded. Tie has an extensive knowledge of men and countries, a. hoaithv outlook, is free from morbidity, ;tnd expresses himself lucidly. There may not lv; a. great deal in them, and they may convey ibe impression that they avo the, few weeks’, or days’, labor of a man who, having a good mock to diaw upon and the ability to write, quickly and well, has no hanb-bbi isi turning oirt Ids work without effort. Non'' the ’ess they :|!T , readable, and those that we know leave no bad taste behind. There is not much plot in ‘Flowers of Fire,’ the inspiration of winch seems to have Ix-en suggested by tho marriage of the- aged Baroness Bnrdctt-Couttfl to a man young enough to be her own sou or grandson. We ha wo also a trifle of hypnotic suggestion and a struggle of temperaments, with victory in the end on the side of tho angels. Mr Burgin, doubtless. will have no difficulty in turning out doze no of similarly passably entertaining stoi he. ‘John Silence. Physician Extraordinary.’ By Algernon Blackwood. London: Hoddcr and Stoughton. Dunedin; R. J. Stark and Co. The above is hardly a novel, though presented iu novel form. It really consists of five stories, each of which deals with same more or less mysterious ex posit ion of psychical phenomena. The treatment throughout j o serious, the purpose apparently to furnish proof, if proof be needed, that there are stranger tilings in heaven and earth Ilian are dreamt of in (he philosophy of every day, and their atmosphere or.o of almost unrelieved gloom. Candidly, we do not care ior this sort of thing in a book purporting to lx> a novel. It is true that each has a pilot of some kind, hut the mysteries arc not of thin earth, and the. scoffer is apt to deride or resent what ho may regard as a jumble of magic, hypnotism, crime, and tomfoolery. The first episode, ‘ A Psychical Invasion,’ (.oils of a house tliat is haunted by tho presence of a woman who some generations earlier had committed a series of horrible crimes therein. Dr John Silence undertakes an investigation, his object being to counteract if possible the inlhicnco for evil and to exorcise tI«J ghosts of the departed. His theory is “ that the forces of a powerful personality may still pre.rsist after death in the line of their original momentum, and that strong thoughts and purposes can still react upon suitably prepared brains long <iiter their originators have passed away.” 'The second story, ‘Ancient Sorceries,’ recalls both ‘ Apnloius ’ and ‘Tam-o’-Hhanter.’ but, the rollicking, laughable deviltry alike of the ancient and the modern is wanting. 'To students of tho occult the uncanny, and the inexplicable and unexplainable John .Silence’s experiences yvill not lie unwelcome, bat the ordinary novel - reader is not likely*to greet tlicm effusively. AN UNFINISHED NOVEL. The late, Mr Arthur A’Beckett used to tell a story of a sensational novel called ‘Through the Fire,’ which he wrote in collaboration with Sir Douglas Straight, then a young barrister. “ I was to look after the town part,” Air A’Bcckett said, “ while he took the country side. After a while we were not quite fair to one another. For instance, a country character would become a bore, and then Straight would send him or her up to town to l>e worked into my part of the story. I could not stand this, so whenever there was such an arrival I immediately killed the character of! in a railway smash or a carriage accident. When I found a moneylender I had introduced into my part of tho story becoming monotonous, I sent him off to Straight’s department for change of air. My colleague was quite equal to the occasion. On arrival of the usurer in the country he took him promptly to a livery stablekeeper, moanted him on a screw, and, sending him across country, broke his neck. This reduced tho cast of the story, and we had to supply the places of the deceased heroes, heroines, and villains by a second generation. To this day tho story remains unfinished. *

AUTHORS AND THEIR INCOMES. 1 —Hall Caine’s First Novel.— To “cheer the beginner, who is trudging through the dark ways of the literary life, knee-deep in disappointments,” Mr Hall Came, in his autobiographical ‘My Story,’ told how modest were his earnings in his earlier years, and how stuff a struggle it was to begin to write his first novel on three hundred a year. To judge by the expressions of opinions of several leading novelists in a January. ‘Bookman,’ tho frank confession will serve ratlier to bewilder the beginner than cheer him. Compared with those of his brother novelists, Mr Hall Caine’s stiff struggle on modest earnings was a primrose path of affluence. The plaint that Mr Hall Caine could get no more than £175 for his first novel will be received with dry eyes in face of tho knowledge that Mr Edgar Jenson received for his first two books £2 Is Bd. Mr Cntcliffe Hyno says: “ I was working for six years before I made £l5O a year.” Mr John Oxcnham’s first wear’s efforts brought him in about £25. To Mr Percy White Mr Hall Caine’s struggle was unheroic. Mr H. C. Bailey cannot seo tho “ stiffness.” Mr Silas K. Hocking does not see where it comes in, “compared with what file majority of authors have made out of a first novel.’ Mr Frankfort Moore ventures to ! Link that the Manx novelist's £175 is rot "absolutely contemptible.” —What Jane Austen Got.— Jane Austen received £l5O for her first book, ’ Fen.-e and Sensibility,’ a sum which appeared to her “a prodigious recompense for that which had cost her nothing.” ihat was in 1811. Eight years earlier she had sold the MS. of ‘ Northanger Abbey ’ to a. Bath publisher for £lO. Ho at ohco forgot all about it, and many years after, when the author’s fame was assured, the MS. was bought back. Then, too, there i s _the case of Oliver Goldsmith, with his £SO for tho ‘ Vicar of Wakefield.’ Taking all things into consideration, Mr Hall Caine has not much cause lor dissatisfaction. —Anthony Trollope's Beginnings.— That Anthony Trollope, like Jane Austen, was not overpaid for his early work is proved by this extract from a letter of his f (> Lwrt Houghton:—-“I send you a copy of ' Ike Warden,’ whicli William Longman assures me is tho last of tho first edition, i hero were, I think, only 750 printed, and they have been over ten years in hand. But I regard tho book with affection, as I made £9 2s 6d by the first year’? sales, have previously written and published for ton years without any such golden result. Since then I have improved even upon ■ that.” Anthony Trollope was one of the bestpaid of Mid-Victorian authors, and succeeded in earning £70,000 in the course of his literary career. His high opinion of too pecuniary value of his work was not aiways shared by his publishers, as mav he gathered from an anecdote related bv the late Sir George Smith. “ Trollope came to mo in Pall Mall to arrange for a new serial. I told him mv terms, but he demurred to my offer of £2,000, and said that ne had hoped for £3,000. I shook my head. ‘Well.’ he replied, ‘let us toss ior that other £1,000.’ I asked him if ho wished to ruin me, and said that if my banker heard of my tossing authors for their copyrights he would "certainly close my account. . . . We ultimately came to an agreement on my terms, which were sufficiently liberal. But I felt uncomfortable-—! felt mean—l had refused a challenge. To relieve my mind I said; ‘Now that is settled, if you will come over the way to my club, where wo cam have a little room to ourselves, I will tops von lor £I,CCO with pleasure.’ Mr Trollope did not accept the offer.” —Other Salaries.— Last year the ‘ Morcuro de France’ published an article on the profits of British authors, by Mr Arnold Bennett, the writer of ‘The Truth About An Author,’ and other works dealing with the commercial sidy of fhn lit ye ry craft. In Mr Bennett’s opinion, if an unknown writer receives a royalty of 10 per cent., or a copy, for ius first novel ho may think himscli well treated. “ A sale of 600 copies would be considered satisfactory, and a sale of 1,000 good, while if 2,000 arc sold the book has achieved a decided success. Thus a new author, who is not a fool in business matters, outjht to make at least £l3 on his first novel.” As to the profits of established writers, Mr Bennett states that over a hundred English novelists realise at lead, £3OO for each novel they write. Mrs Humphry Ward, Nliss Marie Corelli, Mr Hall Caine, Mr Rudvard Kipling, and Mr J. M. Barrie obtain as much as £2O,CC<\ Below these in the scale of popularity, but higher, perhaps, in artistic merit, come writers who earn from £2,000 to £4,000 a year, or more-; such as Mr H. G. Wells, Mr George Moore, Mr Robert Hi chons, Mr Eden Phillpofcts, Mr Maurice Hewlett, and Mr Quiller Couch. With regard to serial rights, Mr Bennett remarks : “When R. L. Stevenson died in 1824 ho was receiving 6d a word, and this was considered an extraordinary rate. At present, however, such a scale would excite no comment. ‘ Pearson’s Magazine ’ paid Mr Kipling Is a word for ‘Captains Courageous, ’and other authors have received quite as much. For each story in the latest iserios of ‘ Sherlock Holmes ’ Sir Arthur Conan Doylo received £750, which is equivalent to 3s a word, or 50s a line; this probably beats all records. MISCELLANEOUS. A laborer named Williams has had his poetical talents recognised by the inclusion of two poem of his in a recently published volume of representative work of contemporary poets. " Mr Williams is a hammerman in the Great Western Railway works, and resides in a small cottage at South Marston, a few miles from Swindon (England). He is about thirty years of age, and deeply read in the classics, having taught himself several of the dead and modern languages. He has done a good deal of translating, and written many original poems and plays. According to the ‘ Publishers’ Circular ’ 7,512 new books were published last year, which, together with 2.309 new editions, made a grand total of 9,821 for the year’s books. The new books of 1908 were by 159 fewer than those of 1907, while there were 36 more new editions—an increase duo, no doubt, to the popularity of the cheap reprint. The decrease in new books was general throughout the various classes, including fiction; bnt there was, on the other hand, a very small increase in poetry and drama and a rather larger increase in voyages, and travels, etc. The number of new novels was 1.819, with 968 new editions—a very fair allowance for a year’s consumption. How many authors are there in England ? Eleven thousand, says the ‘Author,’ accepting tho reckoning of a statistician whoso figures, we are assured, may be relied on. Mr J. M. Barrio once remarked that the easiest way to be an author was to belong to the “Author’s Society, ’ but, in fact, the membership of the society amounts only to 2,000, out of this 11,000. The ‘ Literary Year Book ’ prints the names of 3,000 authors. Fielding’s assertion that ‘Tom Jones’ contains “nothing to offend even tho cnastest eye” appears to have impressed the officials of tho French Ministry of Education; for this work, which Taine described as untranslatable in parts, is included in the synopsis of English books to be studied by French women, teachers entered for this year’s higher certificate examination. The ‘ Figaro ’ has published an indignant protest against the official recommendation of “a book which no well-bred girl in England has ever read; while married women, if they happen to have read it, are careful not to mention the fact.” The late George Eliot and “ Oliver Jane Hobbes” were great lovers of Fielding, the latter recommending every healthy English girl to read ‘Tom Jones.’ What has 1 The Figaro ’ to say to this ?