LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12740, 17 December 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Tun Archbishop of Canterbury lias made a selection from the .sermons and speeches which lie delivered during bus American tour, and the volume will be published by Messrs.*'.* Macmillanunder the title "The Christian Opportunity." ■«

Two books relating to British literary celebrities tiro-' about to be published by Messrs. Smith, Elder. One, which is-edited by Mr. Horace 0. Hutchinson, consists of letters and recollections of Sh Walter Scott. The other is a two-volume work on Thackeray in the United States, and is by General James 'Grant. Wilson, who wrote the life of General Grant.

, "Br. Parker and His Friends" is the title of a book which Mr. Hclden Pike has written for, Mr. Uuwin. Although it is not a complete biography, Dr. Parker is portrayed ci« he lived and worked, and many fresh facte about him are given. Henry Ward Beecher, John Rylauds, of Manchester, and Dr. Binuey are anion;; " the friends" of whom there arc glimpse*.

We hear from Australia that Dr. Fitcheit has a large historical book in progress, and that it will be published by a London house in the course of next year. •' Another book to be looked for from Australia tins the title, " Democracy at Work ":i Australia." It is a study of the working of federation, and is bv a well-known Australian, journalist, Mr.* L. V. Biggs.

Dr. A. H. Japp, who knew Robert Louis Stevenson, has writtcr a book abcii* him, which Mr. Werner Laurie will publish. In the year 1881 Stevenson was .staying at Brnemar, and Dr. Japp visited him there. He. recalls how, after dinner each day, a chapter of " Treasure Island'' was read from the fresh manuscript by its author, and duly criticised by the family circle.

Among those who came to England for the King's coronation was the Katikiro, or Prime Minister, of Uganda. His secretary kept '_ diary, and filled it with note.* of the wonders of the journey. Now it has been translated into ivnglish by the Rev. Ernest Millar, and Messrs. Hutchinson are to publish it. Sir Henry Johnston, who was our pro-Consul in Uganda, contributes an intraduction-.

Fashion has a great deal to do both with the form and juice of modern books, especially novels. The .six-shilling novel has been an established institution in England. Rut on the Continent the same book appears at about two francs, in paper covers. This is the ca;e with Mr. Fisher Unwin's Contireutal Library. And a special colonial edition of new books is issued both by Mr. I'nwin and Mr. John Long.

Mr. Percival Landon, who was Times correspondent with the Tibet expedition, is well forward with a two-volume book describing its experiences. This book is in have an introduction by Colonel Younghusband, and the experts who accompanied the mission contribute appendices on the geology, politics, and natural history of Tibet. Messrs. Hurst and Biaekett announce the work, which, again, will be fully illustrated,.

It cannot he that golf comes from the East, for in that case one might well ask, "Stands Scotland where it did?" Nevertheless there is a reference which might suggest as much in a life of Omar, by Mr. J. K. M. Shirazi, which Mr. Foulis, of Edinburgh, is publishing. In giving some account of the college. life of Omar's time, the author draws- attention to* an old Persian game called " mazu, which was practically identical with our modern game of golf.

The experience which Messrs.' Black have gained in the making of colour books is to be applied in a new direction. They have projected a series of animal autobiographies for the amusement and instruction of young people. Each book will, 'as it were,' contain the life story of an animal, ar.d will be by an author who has made that particular animal a study. The series, of which Mr. G. E. Mitten is- the general editor, will have a variety of pictures in colour. * ;'■■'■'■'■

On November 10, the anniversary of- a great fight in which the British drove back the French at the passage of the Nivelie. appeared a book- called " Anecdotes of Soldiers" (by Mr. J. H. Settle):—" In the course of these operations," said Wellington, " we have driven the enemy from positions which they have been fortifying with great labour and care for three months,, in the course of which we have taken 51 pieces of cannon and 1400 prisoners." Messrs. Methuen are the publishers of the book.

TRc late Dean Bradleys" daughter has edited a volume of ".Innocents' Day Addresses" by lr.m, vrhich Mr. Murray is "about to publish. lie mentions that special InnjcentG' Day services for children were instituted at Westminster Abbay by Dean Stanley. These Mere continued by DeanBradley when he succeeded him, and only twice in 21 years was he unable himself to deliver the sermon. The book Into picture's of Livingstone and other -minded herpes referred to in the sermons. Ii will be ready before Innocents' Day (December 28).

Mr. Charles Whibley is editing the "Lives of the Kings'' reprints, which Messrs*. Jack are about to begin. These memoirs of the Tudons and early Stuarts have fallen into a forget fulness which they do not deserve. The first volume will he" " Edward Hall's Chronicle of Henry VIII." It is taken from"a book, first published in 15-12. which was destroyed by Royal order thirteen years later. Copiers of it are now extremely 'rare, and all the more coveted because its record of Henry VIII. is regarded as authentic. It does justice to the pomp and show which were at once Henry's delight and policy.

The plot, or story, of Mr. Stephen Phillips;' new poetic drama of Commonwealth, times is indicated in the following-,: — "Colonel Mai dyke, -a stern old Puritan, is married to a young wife. Miriam, a woman of anient nature, to whom the grcync:-.s and repression of bet home, life are intolerable. When Sir Hubert Lisle, commander of the Parliamentary forces in the Fcnland, makes Mardyke\s house his military headquarters for a time he and Miriam fall in love with each other." The book is being issued at once by Messrs. Macmillan

Mr. Lane has several, new books coming out. One is the volume in. which Mrs.

Idith Wharton writes on Italian villas and

their gardens. A great feature of it is a, series of pictures ii- colours by Mr. Maxfield T'arrish. A second book has the title, " Birds by Land and Sea," which describes its contents. The author is Mi 1 . Maclare Boras-ton, and it is illustrated From photographs that he has taken. Thirdly. Mr. I.in.- will publish Mr. Allan Pea's book, "Memoirs'of the Martyr King," which deals with King Charles I.' during the last two year., of his reign.

Americans .say " the United Stales is," thus speaking of a nation. . Their forefathers were in the habit of saving "the United States are"—so-and-so. The story of the national evolution which links the two phrases is told in a work about to appear with the Putnams. It is a new history of Hie United States, in which an effort is made "to trace the gradual evolution of a confederated republic under the laws of necessity ; to acknowledge that, racial departures have been' made from first ideas as a result of progress; to take into constant cr/usiocralion the underlying forces of heredity and environment." * '

It lias been generally supposed, says the .St. .Tunica' Gazette, that Mark Pattis'cm. as the learned, elderly, and passably disagreeable husband of a '.lever voung wife, suggested to George Eliot the picture of Mr. Usoubon, in - Middleware!! undoubtedly, by choosing the name " Casaubou," the novelist lent colour to the suspicion Yet it is scarcely likely that Dorothea was intended as a portrait of Mfe. Marl; Pattison (afterwards Lady Dilkc, whose death occurred recently). A chance phrase in the obituary notice of Lady Dilke in the Times suggests a comparison with the married life i of the Carlyles ; but the Mark Pattisoiis have been happier in their biographical destiny— possibly becau.se Mark Pattisons Memoirs" ' come to an end two- voire before the b° '' ginning of hi; married life. The death of Lady Dilke means the loss ot an industrious and accomplished writer on the history 0 French art. * i