NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

Mil. Hetxem.vn'N" has published a new novel by Mr. Bram Stoker, entitled "The Lady of the Shroud." >

Three thousand pounds has been given by an anonymous lady, say« the Paris Figaro, for the erection of a monument to the memory of Oscar Wilde at Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris, to which his remains are to be removed from Bagneux.

It is officiallv stated that volumes 1, 2, and o of the " History of the South African War have cost £32,102 of public money, and that volume 4 is still being prepared by the Imperial Defence Committee. The publishers pay a royalty on each volume sold, and the sum so received amounts to £1157. .

The eighteenth century is proving a most prolific field for biographical studies. A new book of this kind announced by Mr. John Lane is to be called, "Wits, Beaux, and Beauties of the Georgian Era." It is designed 1o afford a large store of the abundant bon-mots and witticisms of the period, not without a number of incidents of romance. ■ , '•.

The Louvre has acquired at the price of 120,000 francs (£4800), a complete series of 12 enamels by the Limousin craftsman Monvaerni, who was i the first to sign Limoges enamels. Until the present purchase Monvaerni was entirely unrepresented in the French national collection. The new acquisitions will shortly be exhibited to the public.

It is a piece of news with human as well as. literary interest that Sir Henry M. Stanley left behind him an autobiography. In this manuscript is to be found not only a full history of his career and extraordinary achievements, but something like a revelation of- the explorer's "inner self, and the motive power of his life." Lady Stanley has edited the book, which will be published in the autumn by Messrs. Sampson Low.

Two years ago Mrs. Alec. Tweedie wrote a life of President Diaz of Mexico, from his diaries and private letters. It has been •widely read in England and America, and has been translated into German and Spanish. Now President Diaz desires Mrs. Tweedie to bring it up to date, so that.it may become the recognised account of his life. He has ruled Mexico for 30 years, and before long will stand again for re-election.

A life of a missionary who has spent uxty years among the Indians of British Columbia and Alaska should be an interesting book. This applies to William Duncan, called in a volume by "the Rev. J. W. Arctander, which Messrs. Revell announce, "The Apostle of Alaska." The story of his work is so full of adventure that it is said to read like a romance. To his chosen people Mr. Duncan is known by the Indian name, Metlakahtla." ,

We have had an epidemic of " scareships " which nobody saw, but that is all finished. We have had an epidemic also of " scare novels," and it seems to continue. Some of the American literary papers are noting this and making fun of us gently. It is good they should make fun of the " scare-heads," literary and otherwise. But it is well they should understand that nobody in England pays any attention to scare yarns sold as books. Most of ■ them are stupid, mostly they are badly written, and they don't even sell. v .

As everyone must guess who reads his novels, Mr. Mason is a great traveller. Indeed, the author of "The Four Feathers," etc., confesses that he enjoys a nomadic life and perpetually seeing fresh people in fresh surroundings. He says he was never happier than in the desert with five Arabs and half-a-dozen camels, though he could not understand the Arabs any more than he could the camels, and therefore was practically alone. Mr. Maspn is a very attractive speaker, and, as one would expect, he is a most amusing raconteur. One of his stories is of a party of travellers at Niagara. They all expressed their wonder and admiration at the sight of the great flow of waters, all, that is to say, p but one man, who kept repeating to himself sadly, "What a waste! What a waste!" One of the travellers turned to this man and said: "I perceive, sir, from your depression at this waste of water that you are an electrical engineer? 1 ' "No, lam not," was the reply. "I am a milkman!" Among Mr. Mason's favourite re-* creations are mountain climbing and' boat sailing ; and once when he was indulging in the latter he had an amusing talk with an old skipper, who inquired ; of the rather boyish-looking novelist how he got his living. "Oh, I write," said Mr. Mason modestly. " How many letters a day do you writeV" pursued' the skipper. t "Three* or four, perhaps." " Well, you can't make much out of . it,' then, for 1 know a young man like yourself who writes over thirty a day, and he's almost a pauper," replied the skipper../..

Some reasons for the decline in the sale of 6s novels were given by Mr. William Heinemann at the annual banquet of the Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland. "Novels," said Mr. Heinemann, " are at times sold at the : full published prices, and nt other times , and in other places at discounts varying from 10 per cent, to .25 per cent.. I believe that this variation of the prices charged is one of the causes which have led to distrust and inclined purchasers to doubt whether they were really receiving adequate value for money." Other causes that had made the.public shy of purchasing 6s novels were over-produc-tion, the production of worthless books, and the fact that books were artificially spun out to bulk in covers at 6s, whereas they contained little more reading matter than the old-fashioned Is book. "It may be. objected that quantity is not a criterion of literature ; but a man who pays 4s 6d for a book and expects five or six evenings' entertainment from it feels cheated if he gets through that book in a couple of hours. There is m the whole range of commerce no commodity for which the public is asked to pay indiscriminately one price, whether it be a pound or an ounce that is offered. The public has become distrustful of a price that is fictitiously fixed and arbitrarily adapted to special and local conditions; distrustful 01 the article provided; distrustful because the quality is often: disappointing; distrustful because the quantity has sometimes been dishonestly small; distrustful because reissue at a very cheap price was threatened at so early a period that many buyers prefer to wait until j the book is available at not many more pence than the shillings asked for it on first publication." Mr. Heinemann recommended the adoption of a net price for novels, a differentiation in the price of long and short novels, and a close co-opera-tion between authors, publishers, and booksellers to see that in quantity as well as in quality the books offered to the public reresent value for money. " I plead for an honest article at an honest price," he said.