AMONG THE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15707, 8 March 1913, Page 14

AMONG THE ANNOUNCEMENTS

A study, of the English Novel, by Dr George Saintsbury, will forinthe next volume in Messrs button's series, " Channels of English Literature." Maurice Hewlett is about to publish, through the Jlacmillans, a volume of verse entitled " Helen Redeemed, and Other Poems."' "The TriaLof Mrs Maybrick" is the name of the new volume in notable English trials series which William Lodge is publishing, and which is edited by H. B. Irving.. "The Vicar of Morwenstow," by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, is to be added to Messrs Methuen's Shilling Library. This is a new edition of the life of the Rev. R. S. Hawker, the famous Cornish parson, poet, humorist, eccentric, and the idol of his flock. Hawker's ballad of Trelawney, under the title "Song of the Western Men," is the national anthem of Cornwall.

Macmillans are adding to, their Sevenpenny Series " Richard Carvel," by Winston "Churchill; "The Virginian," by Owen Wister; and " A Village Tragedy," by Margaret L. Woods. A rewritten and enlarged edition of " Lohengrin and Parsifal," by Mrs Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump, will bo issued by Messrs Methuen. Wagner's great mystical music-drama "Parsifal," hitherto confined to Bayreuth, willybo free to the world in 1914. _ This book gives the only complete description of the work, with Wagnor's own comments and explanations collected from his writings. The companion work "Lohengrin" is similarly, but more briefly, treated. At the earnest and repeated request of very fnany, Catholics and others, who heard them, Father Bernard Vaughan is publishing a series of his addresses under the title "Socialism from tho Christian Standpoint," The trenchant character of the addresses may bo anticipated .from the fact.that Father Vaughan holds that "Socialism is economically unsound,

philosophically false, and ethically wrong." Messrs Macmillan and Co. will issue the volume.

Mr G. K. Chesterton's famous detective story, " The Innocence of Father Brown," which had so remarkable a run, is announced for early publication by Messrs C'assell, in their shilling (net) series of cloth-bound novels. The figure of the little Catholic priest, who out-Sherlocks Holmes, and foils the most cunning of criminals by his sheer innocence, is one of Mr Chesterton's most interesting creations; and in its cheaper form the book ought to have a much wider circulation.

A hew volume of verse by Mr Robert W. Service, the most widely read of Canadian poets, will be published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin. The book will be found to mark a {treat advance in Mr Service's work, The poems now giveh to the public, while not less strong in elemental feeling than ''Songs of a Sourdough" and "ballads of a. Cheecllako," show greater refinement of technique and a fuller mastery of N form. Mr John Lane will publish "The Life and Letters of William Cobbett in England and America," by Lewis Melville, author of "William Makepeace Thackeray,etc. ; two volumes. This biography of William Cobbett is based mainly upon unpublished correspondence, gathered from many sources. Sir William Cobbett and Mr Richard Cobbett have placed at Mr Lewis Melville's disposal the letters and papers of their grandfather in their possession. Mrs Oliver Strachey, whose book "Frances Willard : Her Life and Work" has lately been published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin, has received an interesting letter from Mr Israel Zangwill. He writes: "Let me cordially congratulate you upon your 'Frances Willard,' one of'the best biographies I have ever read; truthful and critical, not fulsome and coloured. Particularly is it a masterpiece of condensation, giving in half the space of an ordinary novel not only an adequate biography of, perhaps, the' greatest and certainly the busiest woman America has produced, but also by its vivid glimpses of America in the making, something of the. real history of America itself. Nobody can read this book without becoming braver, bettor, and-wiser." No fewer than 12,886 publications were issued in England during the year 1912. Ten thousand four hundred and seventyseven bf these were new books, the subsequent balance being second editions or reprints. Novels take the first place, their total being 2290. Theology, strange to say, comes second, with 934, while children's books numbered 821, and biography and literary history 606. Altogether 1912 was a full" book year. Publishers generally have been very well satisfied, particularly with the winter season.

"Portraits and Sketches" (Heinemann; 6s net), Mr Edmund Gosse's latest book,, consists of assays on writers, practically all of them known to him personally, and some of them intimately. They include Swinburne, "Festus" Bailey, Anbrpy de

Vere, Tennyson, Mandril Creighfon, Andrew Lang, the Swede Carl Snoilsky, and the Frenchman Eugene Melchior de Vogue, and Andre Gide. Thus the subjects frajiently remind ub that Mr Goss« is not a young man, wMlst'the spirit informs us continually that lie is not old.

Messrs Macmillan and Co. announce that they will begin in April the publication of the Bombay editfon of the works of Mf Rudyard Kipling in prose and verse, newly arranged and corrected by the author. This edition will be limited to 1050 copies, and will occupy 23 royal Bvo volumes, two of which will appear every two months. The price ■will be one guinea net per volume, and the edition will be sold only in sets. The books will be printed by Messrs R. and R. Clark, of Edinburgh, in the well-knSwn Florence type designed by Mr Herbert P. Home, and lent by the owners, Messrs Chatto and Windus, for the purposes of this edition. The paper used will be real handmade specially manufactured with a distinctive watermark, and the first volume of every set ivill contain an autograph signature of Mr Rudyard Kipling.