BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18333, 21 July 1923, Page 10

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

A LITERARY CORNER.

VERSES.

WHERE IS HEAVEN? Whore is heaven ? Is it not Just a friendly garden plot, _ Walled .with stone and roofed with sun, Whore the days pass one by ono. Not too fast mid not too slow, Looking backward as they go At the beauties left behind To transport the pensivo mind. Docs not Heaven begin that day When tho eager heart can say, Surely God is in this place, L have seen Him face to faco In the loveliness of flowers, In the service of the showers, And His voico has talked to mo In the sunlit apple tree. —Buss Carman, in tho ‘ Christian Century.’

end,” as ho wrote in a letter of 1826. Altogether ho is credited with having made £140,000 by his writings. Later in the century popular authors, such as Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot, made large sums; the last named is said to have received £12,000 for ‘ Middlomarch.’ Trollope earned £70,000 in twenty years, as ho himself tells us, but his output was largo. • When Disraeli lost office in 1380 ho wanted to buy a house in London, but had not tho necessary money. Ha routed out the M.S. ■of ‘ Endymion,’ and sold it for £IO,OOO. In the following year Stevenson received about £3O for tho serial rights of ‘ Treasure Island,’ for which, when published as a book, ho was paid £IOO, to his huge delight. Ho wrote homo: “ I have a great piece of news. There has been offered for ‘ Treasure Island’—bow much do you suppose? . . . £IOO, all 'alive oh 1 A hundred jingling, tingling, golden, minted quids 1 Is not this wonderful?” As Mr Archer wrote long afterwards: “ This reads like rather ovor-dona sarcasm, but it is absolutely genuine.” Fortunately, his later books wore more profitable; he writes in a letter from Samoa of having made £4,000 in the previous year. • There is, in fact, no relation whatever between tho artistic and commercial value of a book. By way of proof, let me cite a plebiscite taken in 1830 by a weekly paper to discover the best living novelist. There wore 11,307 electors. Near tho bottom of tho poll were Stevenson, Hardy (83 votes), Marion Crawford (23) j whilst George Meredith did not get a single vote. Miss Braddoa headed tho poll with 1,808 votes. As a critic in tho ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ remarked i “Culture simply inverts the list, and places Mr Meredith at the top of the poll, in his absence.”—lT. M. Pauli, in ‘John o’ London’s Weekly.’

LIFE’S A TROUBLED SEA.

This life is like a troubled sea, V/hcro, helm a-wenthor or a-leo, The ship will neither stay nor wear, But drives, of every rock in fear i All seamanship in vain wo try, We cannot keep her steadily; But, just as Fortune’s wind may blow. The vessel’s tosticatcd to and fro; Yet, come but love on board, Our hearts with pleasure stored No storm can overwhelm; Still blows in vain The hurricane, While love is at the helm. —Charles Dibmn.

SOME DEAD METAPHORS

A. Clutton-Brock gives a list of metaphors in a tract on ‘ Metaphor. Tho la.p of luxury, Fart and parcel, A sea of troubles, Passing through the furnace. Beyond the pale, Tho battle of life, The death warrant of, Parrot cries, The sex war, Tottering thrones, A trial of glory, Bulldog tenacity, Hats off to, The narrow way, A load of sorrow, A chamcl-house. The proud prerogative, Smiling through vour tears, A straight fight, xb profit and loss account, Tho fires of martyrdom, Tho school of life, Branches of tho same deadly Upas Tree, Turning ft deaf oar to, Tho flower of our manhood, Taking off the gloves, Written in letters of fire, Stemming the tide, Big with possibilities, The end is in sight, A place in the sun. A spark of mar hood, To dry up the founts of pity, Hunger stalking through the land, A death grip, Round pegs (or men) in square holes, Tho lamp of sacrifice, The silver lining, Troubling the waters and poisoning the wells, The promised land, Flowing with milk and honey, Winning all along the line. Casting in her lot with, The fruits of victory, Backs to tho wall, Bubbling over with confidence! Bled white, Tho writing on the wall, The sickle of death, A ring fence round, Tea crucible of, Answering the call, Grinding the faces of the poor, The scroll of fame.

CHINESE PROVERBS,

Prom a selection of proverbs which Dr Giles quotes in his ‘Gems of Chinese Literature ’•

If you bow at all, bow low. The host is happy when tho guest has gone. A Ibofetlo-nosedl man may be a teetotaller, but no one will think so. Armies are maintained for years, to be used on a single day. If you owe a man money, there is nothing like seeing him often.

Medicine cures the man who is fated not to die.

He who has his_ba.ck to the draught has his face to the grave. Losing money is begotten of winning. A pretty woman entering a family has the ugly ones for her foes. One more good man on earth is better than an extra angel in heaven. Gold is tested by fire; man, by gold. Extraordinary men are ordinary to God,_ If a man keeps hia mouth shut his words become proverbial. For every man that Heaven creates, Earth provides a grave.

PRISES AND BLANKS

SURPRISES OF' LITERARY REWARD,

Shakespeare may be counted among the fortunate writers, for the profits oi his plays and his share in the theatre made him a comparatively rich man. But his contemporaries wore not so fortunate. Many of them, such ns Robert Greene, died in poverty; Massinger, Field, Nash, and Dekker, amongst others, were imprisoned for debt, and wrote piteous pamphlets and verses on their misfortunes. Five pounds was a common price for a play, and even Ben Jonson had to be content with £l2 10s; though it must bo remembered that wo must multiply those sums by five to obtain tho equivalent in modern coinage. A heart-breaking instance of the poor rewards of useful literary labor is that of Stow, whoso celebrated 1 Survey of London and Westminster ’ is invaluable to antiquaries. After spending forty-five years over bis ‘ Chronicle of England, 1 and eight years over his 1 Survey,’ ho was reduced to petition James I. for a license to beg! This was generously granted for one year by letters patent under tho Great Seal, to be. published from every pulpit. i But the result was not satisfactory; oh'e city parish contributed a total sum of 7s bd, and Stow was obliged to petition for an extension of his license.

Tho £5 which Milton received for ‘ Paradise Lost ’is often quoted. It is not so well known that John Foxe, tho author of ‘ The Book of Martyrs,’ nearly died from starvation; or that the poet Michael Drayton left but £5 when he died. The children of Hooker, whoso ■ Ecclesiastical Polity ’ brought him fame, wore left “ beggars,” ns a contemporary records.

An Oriental scholar, Sale, the translator of the Koran, was often indebted to his friends for a meal. It is pleasant to tnrn to the other side, Even in the days of patrons and of publication by subscriptions of friends, a popular writer could accumulate considerable sums. Pope made about £6,000 by his ' Iliad,’ but it cost him, six -years’ labor. Ho had found that original poetry did not pay: he received but £32 5s for his long poem, ‘ Windsor Forest,’ and only £7 for his first version of ‘ The Rape of the Lock ’ I Mrs Elizabeth Carter, the translator of ‘Epictetus’ (1758), made £I,OOO from her book, Hawkesworth, her contemporary, was paid £6,C00 for- his ‘ Account of the South Sea Expedition,’ tha_ largest sum given for a single book in the eighteenth century. Very early in the nineteenth Hayley is said by his biographer to have received £II,OOO for his ' Life of Cowper,’ a statement which Sir Leslie Stephen finds incredible. Dr Young had £3,000 for his ‘ Satires,’ besides a present of £2,000 from the Duke of Wharton. Fielding had £I,OOO for ‘ Amelia,’ Against these wo may put the sixty guineas which Dr Johnson obtained for Goldsmith’s 1 of Wakefield,’ a sum which Johnson thought a fair one for a not-well-known author. Fanny Burney wrote her 1 Evelina 1 in secrecy, and sent it to a publisher in fear and trembling. That generous man gave her £2O for her work; a sum which she accepted "with boundless surprise at its magnificence, ’’ Jane Austen was more fortunate with her venture, receiving £l5O for 1 Sense and Sensibility.' She thought this "a prodigious recompense for that which had coal her nothing"—a way of looking at it which will not commend itself ■to the members of the Authors’ Society. Byron received large sums for some of his poems, but Scott was the great moneymaker of the beginning of the last century. For ‘Marmion’'ho received £I,OOO, “ ft price which mads men's hair stead oa

NOTES,

Beginning with high hopes of raising by public subscription a sum sufficient to erect a statue of Shakespeare, the executive of tho Sydney Shakespeare tercentenary memorial fund recsivod only £1,3-50. It is now proposed to purchase a collection of books for tho Public Library to provide facilities for Shakespeare study. Tho Phoenix Society recently produced Ren Jonson’a ‘ The Alchemist,’ and tho following perfectly genuine letter was received from a correspondent in Kent: — “To Ben Jonson,—l am writing to you to ask you if you a son to Ban Jonson who died the year tho war broke out. he left 4, Childrcu at tho time the names wa-s Ben—Jack, Isabella. "Willie was the baby when his mother died, well I hav*e being trying to find them for a long time as they are cousins to me. &it is many years ago since wa have seen each other & as I saw the name Ben Jonson in the Paper I thought there would be no harm in writng to you to find out & would would you kindly write Back & lot Me Know if you are Related to mo as I am very anxiousd to find out. I hope ther is no offence in writng to you.” Mrs (Dr) L. A. Starr, the medical missionary who heroically rescued Miss Ellis from lihybor tribesmen who had abducted the girl after murdering her mother, has written a book called ‘Frontier Folk.' She tells tho story of the mission, and describes many interesting experiences. One custom is thus alluded to:—‘‘The Kuchis have n . . . curioub custom as regards their clothes. Their women have a new dress at the time of marriage, after which it is considered disgraceful to have another which is wholly new. They therefore patch and repatch . , . using any odd piece of cloth which they can bog, borrow, or steal. The dress, unlike tho short full tunic of tho Afridi, is long to the ankle, and its many colors make it picturesque. This is a custom which, if not altogether sanitary, is highly economical, and might with advantage, though in a lesser degree,, be copied m these expensive times by the '--omen of tho West.”

There are quite a number of books this year in connection with the tercentenary of Shakespeare's First Folio. A London publisher estimates that there must bo more volumes written about him than about anybody or anything else in the world, except the Bible. Mia only competitor, he thinks, is Napoleon Bonaparte. A rather unusual volume with a Shakespeare interest is •oming from the Oxford Press, for it is a study of the ways in which, in his works, he used songs. Tho author, Mr Richmond Noble, has bad the songs in Shakespeare sot to tnnsio and sung to audiences throughout tho country. The following prices have Lately been paid in tho auction rooms of London for objects of interest:—A fifteenth century Bible, £47,100; four portraits bv Gainsborough, £11,970; portrait by Bomney, £3,78(3; Cries of London, complete sot, £.1,980; ‘Pickwick 1 Papers,’ fires edition. £920; a panel of sixteenth-century wool work, £294; Kipling’s ‘ Schoolboy Lyrics,’ first edition, £230.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has written his ‘Reminiscences,’ which will (\npoar in duo oonnso in the ‘Strand Magazine.’ Sir Arthur gives a full account of his early life —of his setting up as a doctor without patients, of his living on a shilling a, day, of how he began to write, of his early failures, of the celling of Sherlock Holmes, and all his subsequent success, Hia reminiscences of George Meredith, Barrie, Lloyd George, Lord Balfour, Rudvard Kipling, Henry living, , .Bernard Shaw, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others mako absorbing reading.

A bank clerk writes to a Homo paper; “ I am often amazed by tho cool and exasperating ignorance of banking rules and customs displayed by socond-rato and occasionally oven front-rank writers. The hero cashes his cheque at tiny branch of any bank with charming ease, and often ho succeeds in obtaining credit upon tho flimsiest pretences. In one book trio hero keeps his account at one bank, enters a second, and cashes a cheque drawn on a third. Again, in Gilbert Qwman’a ‘Pink Roses’ tho ailing Trovor signs a cheque illegible. The bank, we are told, returns the cheque unpaid, marking it ‘‘lt.D.” (refer to drawer), an "answer” (in bank-, ing parlance) only used when tho drawer has a lack of funds. That would not have applied in Trevor's case, for ho seems to have hod a lot too much money to f>pend in purposes of a doubtful moral nature. The banker would mark such a cheque with the answer “Signature illegible."

Tho other day I wan in Paris, where I found literary people interested in the fact that Mr Rudyard Kipling is visiting, the South of France (states a writer in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). French readers have an enormous admiration for Mr Kipling, and his works, cither in English or translated into French, sell more copies in Franco perhaps than those of any other three living English writers counted together. Perils his constant sympathy with France has something to do with this, but his charm to Fronchmen is his originality of thought, his brilliance of stylo, and that something indefinable in it winch Is very near to tho French mentality.

Blasco Ibanez lias written a novel called ‘La Tierra do Todos/ based on his experiences In Patagonia. It is said that 40,000 copies of tho Spanish edition have already been sold.

Shortly we shall have Mr BaringGould’s early reminiscences. They cover the period from 1834 to 1854. “It is with diffidence and hesitation,” he says, “ that I allow my early mninisoonces to appear in public. Being in my eighty-ninth year, and having spent much of my life in youth abroad, I venture to think that some account of the social changes that have taken place there, as well us in England, may eventually prove of interest. , Mr Baring-tkmld has'written some good novels. ' John Herring ’ probably achieved greater popularity than any other of his works,

Readers of light literature have an abundant choice—when it comes to magazines. There are many people who find a great relaxation and pleasure, after aha,rd day’s work, in sitting by the fireside with a collection of short stories which convey every phase of Hie, and every department of human activity. A _parcel from Messrt Gordon and Gotch includes tho ' Red Book Magazine,’ an American publication ? illustrated in tho best style, and containing, contributions from tho pen of American and English writers of the front rank. ‘My Magazine,’ under the direction of Mr Arthur Mce, maintains _ its reputation, and in tone and the ability with which it is conducted is quite unimpeachable. The. ‘ Red ’ and the ‘ Yellow,’ two magazines which feature the short story, are specially adapted for travellers, being of a size that fit nicely into the pocket. Tho doa.th was announced recently, in his seventieth year, of Lieutenant-colonel A. C. P. Haggard, D. 5.0., elder brother or Sir Rider Haggard. From Westminster School he joined tho 25 th Regiment (King’s Own Borderers), in 1873, and ton years later transferred to the Egyptian army. Ho had command of the Ist BatLilian of tho Egyptian array in 1884, and took part in the operations on the Kilo, including tho Battle of Ginness, and afterwards commanded the Egyptian troops on tho frontier. Ho was a prolific writerot novels, poems, and historical works, which give vivid pictures of the social life and of the great political intrigues of the periods of French history with which ho dealt. His first novel, ‘Ada Triscott,’ written in 1881, was published nine years later; and among his other works were ‘Dodo and I,’ ‘Under Crescent and Star,’ ‘Hannibal’s Daughter,’ ‘Love Rules the Camp,' ‘Lotus XIV. in Court and Camp,’ 'The Real Louis XV,,’ ‘Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette,’ ‘The Amours of Henri Do Navarre and of Marguerite Do Valois,’ ‘The France of Joan of Arc,' ‘ iho Romance of Bayard,’ ‘Louis XL and Charles the Bold,’ ‘"Women of the Revolutionary Era,’ ‘ Thereto of tho Revolution,’ and ‘ Madamo De Stacl: Her Trials. and Triumphs.’ Shortly before his death ho completed ‘ Victor "Hugo ; His Work and Love,’ tho MS. being m the nands of the publishers when ho died.

Mrs Gertrude Atherton tells a story which emphasises the vir.uo of perseverance. Her husband, - when a magazine editor in 1910, received tho MS. of a story which ho promptly rejected. Two years later, when ho wOs on the staff ot another tho same story—unaltered as regards the subject matter, but travel-worn—-was again submitted, and this time accepted, at. a very small price, for Ferial publication. When published in book form it sold to tho extent of over half a million copies, was dramatised, filmed, and ended'by netting tho author more than 100,000 ‘dollars.

‘ Gems of Chinese Literature/ collected by Professor Giles, are published by Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai. Dr Giles tells of tho poet Lin Ling Circa, 300 years b. 0., who was a member of a little band of seven hard-drinking poets who formed themselves into a club, known as the Bamboo Grove. Lin Ling was always accompanied by a servant carrying a wine flask, and he gave orders that if he fell dead in his cups he should be buried where he lay. In this respect he was, perhaps, out-Herodcd by another famous tippler, who left instructions that ho should be buried in a potter’s field so that “ when time into clay might resolve him again ” ho would have a chance of reappearing among men under the form of a wine jug.

Mr W. H. Davies’s ‘Collected Poems’ (second series) is a volume marked by rr-eat lyrical beauty. Both beauty and philosophy are found in tho little poem ‘A Thought’s

When I look into a glass, Myself’s my only cave; But I look into a pool For all the wonders there, "When I look into a glass, I soe a fool; But I see a wise man When I look into a pooh

HEW BOOKS.

v A FRIEND OF INDIA.

‘ Sir William Wcddorbum an_d tho Indian Reform Movement,’ by_ S. K. Ratcliffs (George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.), is a book that fulfils two purposes. _ It relates the life work of a devoted friend of tho poverty-stricken people of India, and it records the progress of tho Reform movement in its successive stages down to tho in trod action of,tho Montague Act and the initiation of the present scheme of parlffi! self-government. Politically and economically, there has been, always a. disposition by Governments, politicians, and by the British people themselves to ignore India. The problem is so vast, £0 complex, and In some ways ■so hopeless that it is not hard to understand the attitude that has bean content to loavo matters in tho hands of tho officials. Tho activity, however, of men cl tho type of Sir William Wcddorbum. who, in tho face of great difficulties, have persevered in their efforts during tho last quarter of a century, has been responsible for important changes. Whether these reforms aro on right lines, and whether they will colvo tho problems which they were intended to meet, is another matter. Their authors, however, wore men of singleminded purpose who sincerely desired to usher a brighter era into a land of widespread poverty, whoro tho shadows of famine and disease aro never far away. Sir William Wcddorbum was for over thirty years tho most distinguished representative in England of .the Indian Reform Party, Before that ho »was for twenty-soven years a member of tho Indian Civil Service, and rose to high office in Bombay. For almost sixty years, till tho day of his death in 1918. ho was an ardent advocate of tho self-government measures and rural instruction that have been carried into effect. His old friend, Frederic Harnson. wrote of him: “For sixty years he gave the cause his whole (strength—-his time, his fortune, his wise intellect, his immense palicnoo, sagacity, and courage.” Sir William Wcddorbum was of tho typo who regarded public service as a religion. Ho was a man of unblemished character, simple and sincere, with a deep and abiding pity for the condition of tho Indian rayat and a desire to see it changed for the better. As a Civil servant, as a member of tho House of Commons for years, and as a private individual he Labored unceasingly for India. In polities he was a Gkdstonian Liberal. Ho "was a friend and admirer cT Lord I Upon, a Liberal Viceroy, and he cot operated heartily with Dadahhai Naorogi. W; C. Bonncrjeo, G. K. Qckhalo, and other prominent native Indian reformers. This is a book to bo read without prejudice, and it is well worth reading. Primarily, it is the story of “tho dedicated character, tho dedicated life.”

‘SAILOR TOWN DAYS. 1

Miss 0. Fox Smith is well known as a writer of vigorous sea verso ; astonishingly accurate in its use of technical terms and inspired by the spirit of tho sailing-ship era. These days aro passed. Wo roe them now, as wo sea the faces of tho dead, purified from eordidness and brutality, retaining only the imprints of courage, of loyalty, of endurance, of all that goes to constitute romance. In nor present volume Miss Fox Smith writes pleasantly and sympathetically about some of the places where the oldtime vessels lasted for a little beibro (or after) their tussles with tho ocean. Naturally, much of the space is devoted to tho Thames, and wo imagine that most Londoners could learn much that they do not know about their river from the hook. Liverpool, Southampton, Falmouth, and the Pacific Coast are; described from trio Bdiaring point of view; and the names of famous ships crop up on almost every page. Perhaps that of tho Antiope will most interest New Zealand readers. Tho book is well printed and bound, and has six very delicate illustrations by Phil. W. Smith. Our copy of ‘Sailor Town Days’ is from iho publishers (Methuen and Co., Ltd.}.