HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 9 (Supplement)

HERE AND THERE.

The biography of Thomas Hardy now being written bv his widow, will deal with his early life only—i.e., tho period 1840-91.

Mrs. Ray Strachey, who is preparing a volume on religious fanaticism, has had an unusual career. Amcng other things sho stood for Parliament thrco times and built her own houco from prosscd mud.

Rebecca West, replying to Arnold Bennett's criticism of her new book, says: "The poor old chap has no approach; he knows nothing. His virtues are those of a very good solicitor's clerk." A London department storo recently sold within six months moro than .10,000 copies of a 5s edition of Shakespeare. It had bought them from a publisher who had been unable to dispose of them in tho ordinary way. W. J. Locke, tho novelist, has signed an agreement with Mr. Schonck, of tho United Artists Film Corporation, by which ho will go to Hollywood for six inontli3 to study film methods with a view to futuro scenario writing.

A lovo story by Signor Mussolini is being published in New York. It is the Italian Prime Minister's first novel, written when ho was 26 and the assistanteditor of a weekly Socialist newspaper in the Trentino. It deals with a love story, and tho scene is laid in the seventeenth century. From a statement recently issued by Mr. Thomas A. Collins, chairman of tho St. Pancras Housing Committee, it appears that Mr. Shaw was a member of tho vestry of St. Pancras for three years from 1897, and served on the first borough council for a further period of three years.

Although Samuel Butler's works are widely read in Spain and France, they are almost unknown in Germany. A complete edition is, therefore, being brought out in German by the PhaidonVerlag of Vienna. Herberth E. Hcrbitschka is tho editor, and has translated most of tho volumes himself.