PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21952, 13 May 1933, Page 4

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

A frank and in some respects disturbing examination of matters affecting the present and future of the New Zealand dairy farmer is made by Professor Riddet and Dr Marsden in “ Problems of the Dairy Industry” (6d net), which is published by the New Zealand Dairy Exporter. The authors make many recommendations for the improvement of the quality of the Dominion’s dairy produce, and appeal for the co-operation of producers in introducing changes which, it is said, would improve prices by several pounds a ton. As usual, the Home_ sets the standard for Australian periodicals, both in the quality of its photographic reproduction and of some of the advertisements. The May issue contains, in addition to photographs of social, athletic, and general interest, and interior decoration, many bright articles. For those with the aspiration to use pen and pencil skilfully in the depiction of their friends’ and enemies’ weaknesses Mr Tom Shield has prepared a small handbook, “ The Cartoonist ” (Robertson and Mullens, Is net)._ In this he demonstrates in line, and with terse precepts, some of the principles of cartooning. The twelve plates contain some 170 drawings. _ The April number of the Christ s College Register deals fully with the activities at the school during the past term, and contains the usual notes concerning old boys. Some of the illustrations are distinguished by a nice sense of humour. . Messrs Hardy Brothers, of Alnwick, have forwarded a copy of the 1933 issue of their catalogue supplement, which contains articles and other items of interest to anglers.

Fergus Hume’s Secret Drama Among the papers left by Fergus Hume, who died last year, the Southend correspondent of the Evening Standard has found the MS. of a drama of ancient Roiqe. It has never ■ been produced, and only a few people knew of its existence. The Standard’s contributor learned its history from Hume shortly before his death.' He told him: “The sale of my first book, ‘ The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,’ ran into half a million copies. Its success was my undoing. People clamoured for more detective'stories; it was useless to say I wanted to write serious stuff. I was like a comedian anxious to play the tragedian, so I adopted a penname in writing my drama. Sir Henry Irving liked it and was going to produce it. He died on the eve of its presentation.” The play Mr Hume bequeathed to a friend in Hadleigh. It tells of the conflict between a captive Gaul 1 and an ascetic, proud Roman nobleman for the love of a vestal virgin, with a background of a Rome falling before the Gauls. It is called “The Vestal,” by “ Angus Gordon.” One half of the manuscript consists of a printer’s proof, the rest of foolscap sheets as typed by Fergus Hume. Irving was to play the part of the Roman, and his pencilled alterations mark many pages of the script.

A Tragic Success The English papers report the death of Jonathan M. Denwood, whose “Red Ike,” based 1 on the life story of his father, was a recent success. The novel was written years ago when Mr Denwood was a middle-aged man. It was hawked from publisher to publisher, and when finally it was accepted, and fame came quickly with the sale iq a few weeks of 30,000 copies, its author was already a dying man. A working tailor, Mr Denwood regularly engaged in poaching by night, when he was not occupied in writing prose. The disillusionment and bitterness with which he greeted his sudden fame is tragically shown in the reply he sent when invited to dine with a literary circle in London, He wrote: “ Dear -Although I thank you with a full heart for your invitation to London, I cannot come. I, who have spent a lifetime as strenuously as any man, surviving the hard-bitten eighties in America and the poacher’s usual tendency to ‘die from the middle ’ —i.e., from chills due to constant immersion—l am now so ill and crippled that I cannot enjoy the luck or success that has come so suddenly. Fate has a way of making sport of us all, and success is ashes in the mouth. As butcher’s boy, emigrant, journeyman tailor, and poacher, my material needs have always been few, I have never been more than a little above the poverty-line. But in the last two years, when my novel was being kicked about from publisher to publisher, I desperately needed money for the first time in my life, money for the skilled medical attention that would have arrested my malady. Now it is too late. Nothing can be done. You say nearly 30,000 copies of the book have been sold since June. If you had said 300,000 copies it would have made no difference.” The Hawthornden Prize The award of £he Hawthornden Prize to Mr Charles Morgan for his novel, “The Fountain,” is one of the few adjudication's of this nature which will, I imagine, be generally acceptable, (says “Janus” in the Spectator). Mr Morgan’s progress to the front rank of contemporary novelists has been amazingly rapid. Although he has in fact written four novels, his reputation is mainly founded on two. His first book, “ The Gunroom,” which was published in the year after the war, was virtually suppressed by the Admiralty and is now the quarry of collectors. His second, “My Name Is Legion,” which appeared in 1925, attracted the notice of the discerning but failed to. achieve a popular success. He first attracted genera! attention in 1929 with that .brilliant novel, “ Portrait in a Mirror.” Last year came “ The Fountain,” which, but for the protestations of a few disgruntled dramatic critics, received everywhere the praise it deserved. Its sales, large in this country, were phenomenal in America, where for more than a couple of months it sold at the rate of a thousand copies a day. Hollywood, influenced, I am afraid, rather by the alarums and excursions of a popular success than by its own critical discernment, has succumbed to it and will shortly issue its own —very definitely its ownversion of the book. Mr Morgan is at present at work on a new novel, and is, of course, the official biographer of the late Qeorge Moore. Monetary Systems The Oxford University Press will publish shortly a volume to be entitled “Monetary Policy and the Depression,” in which a of eminent authorities under the chairmaiiship of Sir Charles Addis surveys and analyses the bearirfe of monetary policy on the present depression, and describes and discusses various proposals put forward for the better ordering of .-the world’s monetary system. The book throws light on the controversy surrounding monetary problems at the present time, and is issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. , Books in I 932

Those who pride themselves that "they read everything” will be interested to learn that, according to the Publishers' Circular, 14,834 books were published in 1932 —146 more than in 1931.