LITERARY GOSSIP

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

LITERARY GOSSIP

“A Man of Kent” understands! that the “Musings Without Method” in “Blackwood’s Magazine,” the last of which appears to have given great offence, are written by Mr Charles Whibley,formerly of the “Scottish Observer.” Or was it “Scots Observer” ? Mr Whibley, of course, is one of the Henleyish braves of whom paragraphists had things to say in the ancient nineties’. “Vere is dot barty now?”

1 A well-known bookman says that the ! “Colloquies of Criticism,” published by Mr Unwin, which has been attributed to Mr W. H. Mallock, suffers from being in dialogue form. A dialogue on literary topics is, he feels convinced, not the best wav of approaching the public. Wo feel inclined to say with Mr Birrell, "Beshrew the general public! Wiiat in the name of the Bodleian has the general public to do with literature ?” Anyhow, if the bookman’s view is true, then “’tis pity.” The literary dialogue, well done, is one of the happiest and most stimulating means of criticism. It may be made pure litera- ■ ture, which criticism so seldom is.

I Mr Heinemann is about to publish, the first of twelve volumes descriptive of the physical environment of the nations, en_ titled “The Regions of the World, 1900.” The editor, Mr H. J. Mackin der, who is reader in geography in the University of Oxford, and principal of Reading College has written the first volume, which relates to Britain and the British Seas. Sir Clements Markham is responsible for the book on Scan, dinavia and the Arctic; Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich, R. E., has written on India; Dr. J. Scott Keltic has dealt with Africa; and Prince Krapotkin has nearly finished his contribution to the series, which, needless to say, refers to the Russian Empire. | Two books relating to hospital work in South Africa will be published next month by Mr Murray. One is enI titled “A Civilian War Hospital,” and j is an account of th 6 Portland Hospital, its equipment, cost and management. It is a joint production, the authors be ing the professional staff, namely, Sur« geon-Colonel Kilkelly, Grenadier Guards, Messrs A. A. Bowlby, H. H. Tooth, Cuthbert Wallace, and J. E. Calverley. The other book is called “A Doctor in Khaki,” and is written by Dr Francis Freemantle, who was on the staff of the First General Hospital in the war, and, after three months at Wynberg, was at Bloemfontein with a field hospital at the time of Mr Burdett Coutts’s report. An anonymous autobiography is not often met with in literature. Such a volume, however, is about to be published by Messrs Chatto and Windus. It is the life story of a well-known man of letters, and the title is “The Lover’s Progress: told By Himself.” He dedi cates it "To all who love.” There is a good deal said about the war of 1870, and besides stories of Napoleon 111., the present Emperor of Austria, Bismarck, Count Andrassy, Johan Strauss, Offenbach, Home the medium, and Dumas fils, there are numerous anecdotes relating to Bohemian life in London twen ty years ago. j Mr Morley’s life of Gladstone is so i far advanced that the American publishers have been able to decide on the j form in which they are to issue it. The 'American edition will be in two volumes, while the English one may be in three, though the point is not settled. “Up from Slavery,” is the quaint title given by Mr Booker Washington to his autobiography, which will be published !by Mr Fisher Unwin. Not long ago he ( visited England, and his desire to see ; Queen Victoria was fulfilled, as ha was ■“commanded” to Windsor Castle one afternoon. He was born a slave on a I plantation in Franklin, Virginia, but jhe does not know the month or the day, and is not quite certain of the year, though he believes it was 1868. Mr Washington states that he has writ* ten the book in trains and at railway stations-

Mr John Murray will have ready in a few days a book relating to the military life of Field-Marshall George, first Marquis Townshend, who wa shorn in 1724 and died in 1807. He took part in the battles of Dettingen, Fon tenoy, Culloden and Laffeldt, and in the capture of Quebec. The author, Lieutenant-Colonel C. V. F. Townshend. cf the Royal Fusiliers, who has had access to correspondence and documents preserved at Raynham Hall, Fakenham, is a grandson of the first Marquis,' and is the heir presumptive to the title.

Mr J. E. S. Moore has been inquiring into the Tanganyika “problem,” the existence of marine animals in the lake of that name in the heart of the African continent; and the result of his per

sonal investigations will be published by Messrs Hurst and Blackett. During his Tanganyika expedition he was able to correct many old maps. Afterwards he visited the volcanic region north of Lake Kivu, and ascended a volcano there 11,350 ft. high. He was the first European to reach the snow and high peaks in the Mountains of the Moon, and as the volume contains an account of his journey there he calls his book “To the Mountains of the Moon.”

Tho peerage given to Sir Alfred Milner will cans© delay in the publication of a book written about him by Mr E. B. Iwan-Muller. The volume .was to, have been called “Sir Alfred Milner and His Work,” hut the honour ecu ferred on him by the King will entail typographical alterations on nearly every page. Mr Iwan-Muller was a friend of Lord Milner before they both went to Oxford, and, curiously enoug'i, their names stand next to each other in alphabetical order in the First Class in Classical “Greats” in December, 1876. The book will open with an account of his lordship’s early career up to his appoinment as High Commissioner, and will contain a review of South African history to 1870.