A PUBLISHER'S FRIENDS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1714, 4 January 1905, Page 2

A PUBLISHER'S FRIENDS.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, Novemhef 18. In the course of a long and honoured career as a London publisher, Mr Edward Marston was brought into contact with almost all the leading literary figures of his time, and this fact lends especial . interest to the book of recolleclections ••• which, in his eightieth year, lie has just produced. 'lt is a delightful volume of- good-natured literary gossip, and anecdote.; • A few.-of his descriptions of celebrities with whom his firm had business relations-, may.be quoted. Clias. Reade as described by Mr Marston as <r a most interesting man. Tall, stout, florid, husky-voiced, with large, wide-open,. gentle eyes, Tike those of a cow/ as he himself would say/"’ Reade impressed the publisher, as an excellent man of business. So, too, did Wilkie Collins, for whom Mr Marston’s firm published "The” Woman in White/"’ Mr Collins, we are told, "had a perfect knowledge of .Ms own value; he needed no. literary agent to make bargains for him.” R. D. Blackmore's first book was published by Mr Marston, and the two became intimate friends. Blackroore “was very tall and of a large, muscular frame, but not. so broad- • chested and portly as he became in after years. He dressed very.plainly, and alto-, gethei looked very much like what he actually was by choice, a gardener and a vine grower. His voice was gentle, deliberate, almost timid, and yet manly.” Strange to say Blackmore always disagreed with the public as to,: “Lorna Boone” being his best work. He himself did not think it even his second best.

Many pages are devoted to the late Sir H. M. Stanley, who was a warn! friend of Mr Hurston's. The latter pays a tribute .to the' explorer .which is -worth quoting. : “I ceivtainly/-he-writes, ‘'can speak no ill of him, for I know nothing but good. In ‘his;'private life, and ip his dealings with me he was always . scrupulously;true and just,; he was tender-hearted, gentle, and kind, and -most generous and open-handed when any charitable object was presented to him.'” Let me quote in conclusion one or two of Mr. Mar stones little pen-pictures of. well-. knorvU authors (of authors, by the way, - he, has met some eight or ten thousand in his time)' ' , ”_ l Harrison Weir—There was always souaet.hing.; wrong in that vast i uteri or of Hi s'; gastric j u:ce "or something playing, the deuce. with him. But a jollier sick man 1 never saw. - ' ■ ‘ ~ ' 'Lord Lytton Very tall .and thin,- with a slight stoop. A most aristocratic man, dignified, pleasant, and courteous; but . very dlflicult to converse with. for. lie.was extremely deaf. ' - - ■ ■ ' y.-, W" . ." • <5-li vhir-yIW end el L Holmes—As brisk arid r lively seventy-seven as a young, man. 'He gripped my hand with boyish delight; Beecher Stowe A charming little woman, bright and pleasant in.cbnversat on, with an occasional air of abseutness. Her husband, white-bearded Professor Stowe, was a. fine" old, jovial; laughing; eyef-eheerfuL man, - .. --•/ - Victor Hugo—‘We wanted to see his work •.before speculating largely, but it was. ini--1 possible with so great an autocrat. Y\ e had ip buy a. “pig in. a poke.” Colonel Fred Burnaby— Well do I remember liis hearty grip of the hand, his /twinkling eye.; his lend ringing laugh. • There was a magnetism about him—but he had a keen eye to business, and liked ' vanquishing a publisher.