LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13390, 19 January 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Mrs. Ai.KO Twekoik has gone to Berlin, where a German edition of her last book. "Porh'rio Diaz." is being published.

" The English in America" is a work by Mr. John Andrew Doyle, which Messrs. Longman will shortly publish.

" Connis and Other Poems," by Milton, is a volume being added to a new series which the Cambridge Universitv Press publishes.

Mr. Willie Park, the goiter, has written his reminiscences, and they will he published this month by Messrs. Meihuen under the title, "Fortv Years of Golf."

Lord Avebtity has a book on " Municipal Trailing'' appearing with Messrs. Macmillan. His views on the subject are well known, but here he treats of its later phases.

The diaries of Hans Christian Andersen for the last years of his life, 1868-75. will shottly be published at Copenhagen, and form a third and last volume of his " Story of uiv Life."

Mr. A. K. W. Mason recently finished a romance entitled " Running Water." which is to appear in the Century. This magazine is also to publish a story. "Come and Find Me." by Miss Elizabeth' Robins. The scene of it is California, arid the. northern parts of the American Continent.

Early in January Messrs. Methuen "ill publish a novel by Mr. Richard Bagot under the title. "Temptation." He goes to Italy once more for his scenery and characters, this time to Mediaeval Italy. The story is more poignant in its development than Mr. Bagot's previous Italian romances.

Messrs. John Long and Co.. Dundee, have just published a book of humorous sketches, entitled "The People's Parlour Plays," which should find favour with amateurs, each of the plays being easy to perform, and no expensive accessories, such as scenery, costumes, etc.. being required. The performance of them is sure to give great pleasure to entertainers and auditors alike.

Some parts of the British Empire figure constantly in new books, others scarcely ever. There have recently been a. number of volumes on the Malay Peninsula the country or its people. Another Malay hook is forthcoming with Messrs. Blackwood, "In Malay Forests," by Mr. George Maxwell. Its contents are studies at first-hand of the wild life of Malaya, which has tigers, crocodiles, and other great game.

Books of historical memoirs have been much in favour in America during recent years —that is to say. of American historical memoirs. Mr. Unwin is to publish a newvolume of the sort, "Forty Years of Washington Society."' It consists of the letters and journals of Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, whose life began with the nineteenth century and closed in 1840. By birth she was a. Bayard, and her friends included J*fferson. Madison, and Claw

Most- authors get letters now and then from grateful readers of their hooks. One gathers from an interview with Mr. George Manville Eetin, which appears in the Book Monthly, that the writers of books for young people often receive such epistles. Mr. Manville Fenn mentions an Australian boy who not only wrote his congratulations on a story, but enclosed specimens of two Australian birds mentioned in it. And there was another boy who said: "1 like, your new book greatly, and so does my brother, and so does Edithbut she's onl'v a girl!"

It is interesting to hear that the "Ox- ; ford Knglisli Dictionary," ><> far .is it, litis been completed, includes 205,792 words. The main words number 145.081, the special combinations explained under main i words 26.400, and the subordinate words 56.311. The distribution. of the words according to tho letter of the alphabet is ! a.- follows: - A 10.123 .1 2.370 I! 16.131 K 3.136 C 29 2l L > I. 9.310 1) 17.0'.7 M Ma-naltv 9.273 li 11.983 X -.Niche .'.. '.{.906 K 13.607 <> 9.003 (i 12.85 i P—Piper ... 14.421 | II 13305 <J 2.321 1 13,669 11- Reserve 9.600 i I We had thought the Scottish |.eo])!o j very |sttriolic, bin" I'rofesor Hume Brown, of Kdiiibm _'h University, is inclined to think that they (In not read their own i history enough. He says, in effect, that no people are more ignorant of their history than Scotsmen are of theirs. This occurs; in a volume of "True Romances of Scotland.*' which Messrs. Blackwood .ire just publishing. Dr. Hume Brown goes on to point out that Scotland early came into relationship with her more powerful neighbour, England. As a. consequence Scottish history has rather been overwhelmed by that of the United Kingdom.

Mrs. Gertrude Atlierton, who is skiving at Munich, and whose new novel " id-za" nov"' is published by Mr. Murray, has written a letter wherein she expresses the hope that the Kn>_rlislt publishers will win in tin fight with the Times Book Club. She adds:—-"What does the Time's expect to profit if it pushes the publishers out of business? Can it intend to become the universal publisher? Talk about trusts.' f state.! before I left America that if all the publishers adopted the 'reformed' spelling 1 would buy a printing-press and publish my own books. And I would do the same, and hire .1 regiment to sell them from wheelliaiTows, before I would submit to tyranny of any sort."

The Alhciueum recently contained a, review of "Artillery and Explosives," bv Sir Andrew N'oble. The hook, it savs, consists of a reprint of papers read and lectures delivered to various scientific societies between 1858 and 1900 : and their value is enhanced by the circumstance that a. huge share in the progress of aitilleiy, and improvements in explosives, recorded in them, lias been borne by the KLswick firm, ol which, next, to the founder. laird Armstrong. Sir A. Noble has since. 1860 been the most. prominent member, and on Lord Armstrong's death in 1900 became the chief representative. These papers and lectures, indeed, extend approximately over the period in which the development of modern artillery has taken place; for it was inaugurated by the appearance, in 1856, of the first guns consisting of a wrotight-iron coil shrunk round a steel tube, and offering a much greater resistance to the pressure" of the tiring charge than a. simple thick tube. The researches also on explosives, second only in importance to the guns themselves. which, together with problems of internai ballistics, occupy a. huge portion of the book, ate based on the persona) investigations of the author, in conjunction with the late Sir Frederick Abel, who in his dav was the greatest authority on explosives viewed from a chemical and physical standpoint.

A writer who has come vapidly to die front is Fuller Robert Hugh Benson, the youngest of the famous literary trio of brothers who claim the Archbishop as father. Up to the present he has not ventured far from the it-tied atmosphere of historical fiction. At- last, however, he has given us a book dealing with the tangible present: and he is courageous, too, for |„, adopts as his theme what few novelists would rare to—the dangers and nit falls of the sentimental temperament. Frankly, iu other hands the treatment- would probably be •'nasty." but Father Benson, with the saving grace of gentle irony, essays to show how a thoroughly posing" and 'theatrical character can he made strong. fie proposes brutality and contempt, not the weak and elaborate cures prescribed In- convention and. of couj.m', readers of 'his previous books will not have to be reminded that to the task he brings a knowledge of character and a. skill of repartee that render this of tit least, equal merit. 'I he publishers are Sir issau I'ilmau ami fcjoas, Limit«i, [