LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8538, 11 April 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Messrs. Cassell promise a small English dictionary based upon their " Encyclopaedic Dictionary." The Scottish Text Society have in preparation a critical edition of the entire works of Dfummond of Hawthornden. The Russian painter Krilof has for some time been engaged in painting the portraits of typical representatives of the various races included in the Russian Empire. A cheap edition of" Lux Mundi" is called for, and will probably be published some time this year. It is remarkable that the chief demand for it comes from the colonics. A new book by Mr. Goldwin Smith on " Canada and the Canadian Question" will shortly be published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. The same publishers have nearly ready for issue a biography of the late Mr. A. JM. Kavanagh, M.P., complied by his cousin Mrs. Steele. Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. are going to publish an English version of M. Irabert de Saint Arnaud's "Famous Women of the Fr.ench Court." The first volumes to appear—translated by Mr. T. Sergeant Perry—deal with Marie Antoinette, Josephine, and Marie Louise. Commencing its fiftieth volume, the Phonetic Journal, Isaac Pitman's shorthand weekly, has been enlarged to 24 pages. Several new features of an attractive kind are promised, including a Portrait Gallery of well - known phonographers, facsimile notes, and columns for typewriters. Messrs. MacMillan's announcements include " Landmarks of Homeric Study, with an Essay on the Points of Contact between the Assyrian Tablets and the Homeric Text," by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone ; and a volume on " The Oxford Movement," by the Very Rev. R. W. Church, Dean of St. Paul's.

The series of letters on the negro question in the United States that has been appearing during the past two months in the Times will be republished immediately, with large additions, by Messrs. Casselland Co. The author is Mr. YV Laird Clowes, and the title of his book will be "Black America : a Study of the ex-Slave and his late Master." Major Arthur Griffiths' now book, French Revolutionary Generals," will be ready soon. It deals with a stirring period, that between 1792 and 179t>. The men of war drawn are Dumouriez, Hoche, Jourdan, and Marceau ; and, as each man had a history that has not altogether been faithfully dug out, the writer has new facts to present and new incidents to relate. Professor Herkomer, R.A., has reprinted his autobiography for private distribution amongst his friends. The handsome volume is printed in "Gothic letter," and contains photogravures of himself when a child, of his portraits of his father, his mother, and his children, of his wife in character, and, besides other interesting plates, an etching of himself since his adoption of the razor. Dr. Smiles' most recent effort of biography, his memoir of the famous publisher ; the late John Murray, is announced for ; publication by Mr. Murray. The title is "A Publisher and his Friends," and, besides a life of the pulisher of Byron and Moore, it will contain selections from his correspondence. It is little over a hundred and twelve years since John Murray was born. Dr. Smiles will give an account, too, of the progress of the tirm from its origin in 176S down to 13. Mr. Hoi man Hunt has sent to a friend in Liverpool an account of his various journeys in the Holy Land in search of local details for his great.picture of " The Triumph of the Innocent." It was on the plain of Philistia, " about Samson's country," that he secured the background and surroundings which were to determine the finished character of the composition. On his first journey he met many native parties, in all of which there were features to be gathered of use for his object, as in the manner of loading the ass, the articles forming the load, the posture adopted by women in riding, the fashion of carrying tools used for the man's trade— when he was a handicraftsman—and the habit of saving the shoes when the traveller was not in a place where his feet might be defiled; Then there was the way of wearing the costume. When at last the artist had found the group of trees over the waterwheel which is in the central part of the picture —it being full moon at the timehe unpacked a portable canvas, and sat throughout the night painting this in complete form. These first steps being completed, Mr. Hunt returned to Jerusalem, there to work upon the large canvas, until, having gradually ascertained what further he wanted, he took another journey to the land of the "sloping firs" which figure on the right ot the picture, and there encamped, painting this portion of the work.