LITERARY GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5832, 24 February 1906, Page 16

LITERARY GOSSIP.

.Mr AH:, rj Di.rringion t.A-lh-t Doriani :;ri:c.. to the "Bulletin" of Feb. 8: An r he;.,. i,i stopping iiasenipuloit' v, : u -ing my mini*'l’ Ihwntlv one jor r-.... .'.isoriland pujinr.s have printed tuh . my ■ign:;lure at foot. Cur-r.-u. of "Bed Finiuel" print** lour I.nys.ii alleged -Antipodean Bohemian-i-i.i,” emioMning matter which will have a d--;n--,-,--h-g rile , upin llio l•e,!atlve.cf a *!*•;,-! i>-;et. I di- claim all know-l.-d-g - of th-* arthde in (pu-.-t.ioi). Hard mcug.i to !,-‘p ene’s own stuff tip to a. decent lev.; without having to father the spleen el other journalists. Mr Winston ClitiivliiH’s biography of hi-, father. Lord llandolph Churchill, published hy Macmillans in January, proves to he (jiiite an exceptional work. It is warmly commended hy all the lending literary and political critics. The -Time-.’' in the course cf long and favourable net ice says:—‘ It’s interest never flags for a moment. Xn cue who ear*-* for politics will willingly put it down when ir is once in his hands.” Mr Arnold White in the “Daily Chronicle” wii.e,; of Mr Winston Churchill's 'nook as "a biography which for sheer breathless inlcre-t surpass.-.-; any hook of tho kind published in our time.” A quotation given hy this reviewer from one of Lord HandolphV. letters is specially noted an marking his possession of “singular prescience."’ It is ns follows: ‘*\W nr.i r-orn! ntr TiimT. tr. ?i limet

when Jiahonr laws wjll no made by the Labour interest for tho iulvanlu(;e of Labour. . . Personally I can discern no cause for alarm in this prospect, and I Micro that on this point you ami I arc in perfect nstrocmeiU.”

Mr X'nwiu has in preoaration an English translation hy Father McCabe of a life of Haeckel, (lie groat German biologist, which lias been written by Horr HoLcho.

Baroneas von Suitncr has been awarded ouo of the Nobel prize**, and naturally the fact has directed attention to her writings. A second edition of her "Lay Down Your Arms!” is about to appear with Messrs Longman. This story, which partly embodies tho experiences of tho authoress herself, is a picture'of tlies horrors of war ns affecting both tho soldiers themselves and those whom they leave behind them at home. It also suggests the terrible depression into whieh Europe has been thrown by tbo constantly increasing armaments, and seeks- to awaken attention to the pcKsihility of iinding a remedy for this evil.

A pathetic story cf failnro in - the literary struggle in London was told at an inquest on the body of a young man of brilliant attainments, Count <le Lynar G-uernni. who, with a small allowance from his mother, s. lady-in-waiting on the Queen of Ronmania, name to England to make his living by writing. Ho wrote some novelettes, but his moans ran out, and ho complained of dearth of opportunity. His hotly was found in the Thames, and as ho had written to a friend .saying. *T shall deliver my soul from my body because I can not arrange myself,” ft was thought probable that ho had committed suicide. Tho jury, however, returned a verdict of found drowned. 1

Tho boys employed by Mossm Wyman and Son, the successors to Messrs W. H. Smith and Son as bookstall contractors on tho Great Western and London and North-Western railway lines, are furnished with caps of a somewhat striking pattern. Asked what ho thought of his head gear one of ,these nippers replied:—“l ain’t got no time to think of it. It takes mo all mo time to sell mo papers.” A ready retort and a good one.

For the life of his father (according to the London correspondent of tho “Manchester Dispatch”) -Mr Winston Churchill has received from Messrs Macmillan tho sum of £BOOO down, pins half any subsequent profits after tho publishers have netted £12,000 from the work.

Dr. Arthur Shadwcll, author of “Drink, Temperance, and Legislation,” has written a comparative study of industrial life in England, Germany, and America, which Messrs Longmans are to publish in two volume*, under the title “Industrial Efficiency.” The author is careful to explain that his new work has no connection with “tho fiscal controversy.” It was planned, and tho investigation on which it is based was carried out, be writes, before the present controversy arose. “But it was inspired by tbo Kamo circumstances —namely, the growing pressure of international competition in industry, which Is evidently going to be tho warfaro of tbo future. It essays to deal with the other side of that problem, and to examine the conditions under which industries are carried on in the three leading industrial countries, apart from tariffs.”

It -will Ik? recollected that one of<the chief troubles of Dickens’s literary life arose from people who identified themselves pcrsonnlly with the typos ho depicted. An American writer, Air W. X. Harben, the author of "Polo Baker," a successful novel of Georgia Mountainecr life, has mot with more pleasing recognition of his efforts, A friend of his youth, whom ho admits using ms a prototype, lately wrote to him ms follows:—‘‘Dear Bill: I believe folks are right, and that you meant that follow Baker for me. He's all right, but yon mado him quit drinking, and I haven’t done that yet; hut I may; who knows? It certainly paid in his case. Send mo a copy of my wife’s Christmas present, and write somotlung in it. She’s powerfully tickled over what the neighbours say about me and her being in the book. Folks used to say when you was a boy that you didn't have much sense, but I believe you bad as much as anybody. It was just covered up.”