AITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11950, 26 April 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

AITERATURE AND ART.

Mb. Hirst Hoixowell's pamphlet on " The American School System: How it Solves Problems of Race and Higher Education," is being widely circulated.

Mr. A. 0. Hales has published through Messrs. R. A. Everett and Co. a new novel entitled "The Viking .Strain." It is il-

lustrated by Stanley L. Wood, and publish ed simultaneously in England and America.

To their " Little Library" Messrs. Methuen are about to add the novels- Marriage." "The Inheritance," and "Destiny" — of Miss Susan Ferrier, the versatile and witty Edinburgh lady whom Scott called his " sister shadow."

The volume of lectin essays, and addresses by the lute Sir .fames Paget, which Messrs. Longman are about to publish, deals almost exclusively with medical and scientific subjects. The volume is a selection of Sir James' later professional writings.

Mr. Grant Richards will shortly publish the inaugural volume of a series on "The Music of the Nineteenth Century.' This first volume, by Mr, J. A. Fuller Mai lam), will be devoted to English music. Subsequent volumes will deal with musical development in foreign countries.

Dr. Margaret Todd's new novel, "The Way of Escape," about to be published by the Messrs. Blackwood, is likely to be one of the most prominent works of fiction issued this season. The following are the lines on the title-page: —

The Moving Finger writes, and. having wri Moves on; not all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel hair a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it

It has been arranged to accelerate the production of the remaining portion of the Oxford English Dictionary. The whole work will consist of 10 volumes (I he last to contain certain addenda), and of these the sixth volume is now in course of publication, * further instalment of L-M-N being due on April 1. Title pages have been prepared for those who wish to have the dictionary bound in half-volumes, and in future it will be possible to obtain it in this form.

The Week-End calls attention to the number of our clever authoresses who are either the wives or the daughters of clergymen. Mrs. Harrison (Lucas Malet), whose'latest novel, " Sir Richard Calmady," was, undoubtedly, the book of last year, is the widow of a clergyman, though few readers of that very pronounced story might suspect it. Mrs. L. T. Meade" is the daughter, and Mrs. Craigie the granddaughter, of a clergyman. Mrs. B. M. Croker, too, is a daughter of an Irish and Miss Mary Cliolmondley of an English rector.

"Maxwell Gray,'' the author of "The Silence of Dean Maitland'' and other wellknown works of fiction, has been telling a King interviewer that it would not matter much if no more novels were written for

the next fifty years. She is not alone by any means in this opinion. " People," she said, " write too many novels now, avid they write hastily and badly." And again— " Novel-writing has become a trade ; it is no longer an art. Writers ought not to live by literature. It should be a staff, not a crutch. The moment an art is pursued for gain it is lost."

Mr. Holman Hunt, who, though well advanced in his seventies, looks much younger, has for some time past been engaged writing his reminiscences, in which he will recount the story of his early association with Millais at a time when neither had much thought of Pre-Raphaelitism. The two young painters first met in the Academy Schools, and Holman Hunt frequently spent days and nights in Mallais' studio. As the only survivor of the little group of painters who founded the Pre-Raphaelite movement Air. Hunt's book will, of course, contain much that is of interest in that connection.