PUBLISHING NOTES.

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1924, Page 9 (Supplement)

PUBLISHING NOTES.

Copies of Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" have arrived in New Zealand, and there seems to be little doubt that it is one of Shaw's greatest works. The long preface gives an illuminating history 0 f Joan of Are, and Shaw describes her at the opening as "the queerest fish among the worthies of the Middle Ages." The play is designed to run for three and a half hours. * * * * Mr Franklin M'DufEee, of Dartmouth College, U.S.A., who won a travelling scholarship in English literature to Balliol College, Oxford, has been awarded the Newdigate Prize for a poem on Michael Angelo. He is the first American to' gain the distinction. * * * * "Elizabethans" is the title of a volume containing a series of lectures and essays of the late A. H. Bullen. Mr Bullcn has been recognised as tjiemost eminent authority of his " time upon the Elizabethan strige and Elizabethan literature. Among the poets dealt with are Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, George Chapman and Thomas Campion. It is worth noting, that the books published by Bullen at the ,Shakespeare Head Press arc now going up in value. c # « « Miss May Sinclair has recently published "The Dark Nfight," a short novel in blank verse. The .first edition is of nine hundred copies, but a bigger one will be brought out if the book gets a favourable reception. Miss Sinclair regards the work as an experiment.

Gordon Bottomley is a poet whom the collectors might well keep open eyes upon. He thinks apparently that his plays are the only works of vahie that he has written, «nd he has had his volumes of poems withdrawn from circulation. His plays certainly show an extraordinary strength of. mind, and the poems of his that are published in the anthologies prove that he is able to strike the true poetic note. * » • * Roy Campbell, a South-African, has written a poem which is causing a fl-roat deal of talk in England. Its titleis "The Flaininrr Terrapin," and all the 'reviewers have gone into mild eestacies over it. A Christchurch school master, says the "Star, ,, recently received a letter from Edward fifarnett, the famous critic who discovered Conrad, and Garnett said that the poem was the best work that had enmo his way for a loni? time. It had

crnne into its second impression two months ago, and that is probably exhp.nstpd now. A good long poem is something the Georgians are sadly in need of. •» * ■ • « ?.fr Geoffrey Keynes has been at work for 15 years upon an exhaustive bihHotrmphy of the wfnks of Sir Thomas Browne, which has just been published by the Cambridge University Press. Besides its special subject, the book will contain bibliographies of all works written in imitation of "Religio Medici" and "Pseudodoxia Epidemical 1 and of the works, of Dr Edward Browne, together with a history of Simon Wilkin's great edition of Brotone's works. The volume contains many illustrations, and" facsimiles of 56 title-pages. • » • • There are now available four more volumes in the British Empire Series, namely, "The Dominions and Dependencies of the Empire," containing a foreword by his Royal Highness the | Duke of Connaught; "Native Races of ' the Empire," by Sir Godfrey Lagden; '' i The Press and Communications of the Empire," by J. Saxon Mills; and '' The Universities and Educational ■ Systems of the Empire," by Professor A. Newton. * •» ■' jk * Messrs C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. have in preparation for early publication the authoritative "Life of Sir Robert Baden Powell, Bt., Chief Scout," written by E. K. Wade. Every assistance lias been afforded by Sir Robert in compiling the book, and he has given access to the family archives and permitted the use of a num'ber of unique photographs. Many 1 , of Sir Robert's own sketches are also included in the volume. The title of the work is "The Piper of Pax." The Cfyief Scout is a piper who has found the tune to which every boy will dance —"a tune that sings the song-. , of manliness and pluck, of advttnturfe., and high endeavor' nf rffirfnTirit iTlflliS