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Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 27

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Mr Edwin Arnold Robinson, the American poet whose death was reported earlier in the'week, Was born in Maine in 1869, and for tWo years was at'Harvard College. His early work attracted the attention of Theodore Rposeyelt, who found Him (t plaep in the New' York Customs, which he held from 1905 to 1910. Writing of the pew.poetry ” of America (froin 1913 onwards), which already attracts less notice than when it had more claims to be new, Air Lords has said: Edwin 1 Arlington 'Robinson had _ already been .employing 'the sharp epithet, the direct and clarifying litterarico which wiis tb become part of our Rpescnt technique. As early as; 1897, in ‘The Children of thp Night,’ Rqbinsoii anticipated' the' brief characterisations and etched outlines of Masters’s * Spoon River Anthology ’; he stressed the psychological' element With" unerring artistry and sureness of touch. His sympathetic studies of men whoso lives were, from a worldly, standpoint, failures, were, a sharp reaction to the current, high valuation on financial achievements, ruthless efficiency, and success at any cost.” It was a small basis for a largo output of sober, accomplished, and generally prosaic verse.

‘ Samuel Butler; A Chronicle and an Introduction,’ by Dr R. F. Rattray, will be published in ample time for the centenary of Butler’s death, which falls in December. Dr Rattray, whose short book is both a biographical study and an essay on the writings, has been able to include a considerable amount of new material relating to Butler’s life.

Lady Conan Doyle confirms the London ‘Daily Telegraph’s’ statement of the comparatively small sum left by her husband, but points out that this amount (£30,000) is far from giving an adequate impression of his literary earnings. She explains that he spent more than £200,000 in in's efforts for the spread of spiritualism.

Mr H. A. Vachell lias written a successor to liis book. 1 This Was England.’ His new book is again about. Eng!isli village life, his type-village is named Venner, his new book has the rather awkward-sounding title, ‘ Arising Out of That ’; in it be deals with Venner as it was and as it is now, Messrs Hoddor and Stoughton publish it It is reported that Edgar Wallace’s •adventure and detective books are still •‘best sellers ” nearly three years after his death. Their sales in 1934 were considerably higher than those of 1933. Jn Great Britain alone between 15,000 and 20,000 copies of ‘The India-rubber Man ’ are sold each .year, and the annual British sales of many others exceed 10,000. Wallace’s novels arc still being translated into foreign languages. The continuing interest in Swilt, extending to everything that he wrote, has led the Ox/ord Press to_ publish finely edited editions of ail his major worts. The ‘Tale of a Tub,’ and ‘ Swift’s Letters to Charles Ford,’ have already been published, and are to be followed in May by ‘ The Drapier Letters ’ (attacking the policy of Wood’s Halfpence) and, later, the complete ‘ Gulliver,’ The editor is Professor Herbert Davis. In a series known as ‘ Biographv Through the Eyes of Contemporaries,' of which Mr Edmund Blunden's volume on Lamb was the first, the Hogarth Press announces ‘ The Brontes,’ compiled, with an introduction. by Miss E. M. Delafield. The method followed is to collect together all possible documents and descriptions, and let them tell the story.

Edison (soys tbe “ Bookseller ”) maclo many experiments,to substitute nickel for paper. He belli Mint paper is too expensive for printing. Moreover, it cannot be disinfected, and as it is perishable, immortal works may be lost. Nickel books would bo very cheap and conveniently thin’. A tbousnmlpage book would bo less than onefortieth of an inch thick. And they could be disinfected. But the very thinness of nickel leaves makes them awkward to turn over; and they are apt to cut the reader’s hands. Scientists are accordingly trying to find an alloy that would revolutionise the book world.