LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2603, 3 February 1904, Page 70

LITERARY NOTES.

—Mr Bart Kennedy's ''Tiamp in Spain fiorn Ar.daJusia to Andoira" irs about to be pjbhshed by George Ncwnes, Limited. Ir, ji3 t.ie record, wntiea with the intention .if gning a \ivid impression of tho real S2>ain away fiom the beaten trade, of a journey on foot through the Penineula. Sleeping m ccuiitry posadas, and mixing with the people, die author penetrated to places wlicrri an Englishman is as seldom seen as 111 Thibet. Of tho author's many experience's, the mo-t remarkable aio his ascent of Muley Hassan, the highest mountain in Spam, and his visit to the strange little .Republic of Andorra.

— The taste jn literature (says the Academy) throughout all the South African colo-nc-s i-i quite lamentably poor. Indeed, for ii-'e-iatiue. ;n the strict sense there eaeras to be absoiut-flj- no demand whatever. Poetry — rave hero and there a volume by Mr Kipling — does not sell at all. BOOL 3of a. teientifie, historical, or critical character arc in \ery eight request; books of a re-ligiou-i tendency stand at an absolute discount. Amongst modern novelists, stories by Miss Marie Corol'i and Merers Stanley We-yman and Anthony Hope sell best. But the branch of fiction which enjoys the widest popularity belongs to that special cla«s do&cribed to us as "novels of fast life." It muot bo remembered that an "educated" native community does noif exist in South Africa So that the demand emanates entirely from the colonists. This is surely to be- regretted

— Messrs ilethucu have added to their dainty "Little Library" the famous "Lyrical Pailads, 1798-1805," of Wordsworth and Coleridge, with an introduction and notes by Mr George Sampson. The gem of the \oluiiv i~, ol course, "The Ancient JSlarincv, ' planned during a walk taken by Wordsworth, his sifter Dorothy, and Coleridgo on-5 spring afternoon in 1798, from Alfoxden to Walchet As their united funds weie i-mall, they hoped to defray the expenser- of thedr tcv.r by writing a poem. Then, according to Wordsworth, " 'The Ancient Maiin-er' grow and grew till it becamo too important for our first object, which wai limited to our first expectation of £5, pud we began to ta'k of a, volume which wa« to consist of poems chiafly on natural subjects taken from common life, but looked at. a? much as might be through an imagmatno medium"

—T t is cstaied by a London contemporary that Mr Sue ad Cox, who has been entrusted v. itii the task of writing a biography of the late Cardinal Vaughan, findc moro material to his hand than anybody expected to be in existence. The Cardinal, who was the re\crse of sentimental, had, neverthe-le=-i, recourse to that refuge of the sentimental — the keeping of a diary In early life he wrote comparatively few letters, but as time, went on these increased in numbers and ako in freedom of expression. The biographer, who is the late Cardinal's kinsman, and edited his newspaper, the Tablet, foi him, is knov. n to the outside public by occasional articles in the Nineteenth Century and other periodicals. He now takes in hand a task for which he ifl particularly well equipped by clo<~e association -with the Cardinal anci by intimate sympathy with hi* tf mperam-snt aud career.

—In the December National Review Sir I/relic Stephen rpccuiit'« i~omc of the difficulties that beset the 1 * "Dictionary of National Biography." Thero w&re contributors who had to bo watched. On© of thorn, now dead, saved trouble by "copying modern and stitl copyright books" : — "When I informed him that I no longer re-quired his sen ice, ho wrote a reply which I remember ac a model of episto'ary dignity. I \va<3 oppressing him, it appeared, because he was a poor man, .and might as well have struck a woman or a child ; but the paddast part, ho concluded, of all thia sad business was that it destroyed the ideal which he had formed for himself of Mr Leslie Stephen." What the "Dictionary" taught the editor was that "the wholo art of writing concists in making one word suffice where other ordin^iy men use two." —M. Frederic Masson, who was recently elected a member of the French Academy in the. place of M. Garton Paris, is fairlywell known in England by his bookj on Napoleon. j\L Sor&l give? in "C4il BW ecno interesting particulars of hv caipo*-, which was firr-t that of a journalist, and was marked by a1!a 1 ! the vicissitudes of journalism. "Wh?n on yh» staff of that gay weekly, "La "Vjo Pa,risienne," ho onft day intioduced political opinions into hi.3 article, and in conspque-nce wao dismissed upon the spot. He then became collaborator in an evening paper, working like a nigger m order to earn enough subsequently to treat himself to a holiday tVc-us/i fjwilzerland. Unfortunately, as he v,-os or.lv paid a farthing a hue. the holiday in Switzerland dwindled to the suburbs of Paris, and even this was not attained without difficulty For ecme time, Tsrheiiev-.r M llisson prose-nied li!:nat the oftio^ for payrcent, he was either just too ca^'y or 100 late, or had chesen tho day in the we<'k when salaries were net paid oni". After more o'lan^os of aspiration and v.ircv.m-tp.r,?rs, "\I. "Masir.n'a °phius for lii-to:- 1 - came into victorious play. —

—Mr Marion Crawford, though he seldom figures in the columns of peisonal gossip, can certainly pride hirnrcJf on being ono of iho half dozen most popular novelists in England, America, and tho colonies. Though still in tho pi-iino of life — ho will not be 50 till n^Afc year — ir is just over 20 yoai'3 sinoj. -Mr Cruyford published his fi.pfc story — namely, "ilr I-aac«" ; and, curiously enough, the foundation of his great literary fame was laid in 55 d&ye, for he be^an and finished tho book in jut over a month It should, liot c-, c-r, he- «iid that the. writer had done a good deil of journalism before ho di£co\ered the gold mino awaiting him, and was a fa\ oared contnbutor to the heavy and serious American Bankers' Magazine. Of cour62, Mr Marion Crawford's ir.ost tsucpcrfaful group of ftones is the "Sarscin^sca" Series. Mr Ciawfoid and his clever si9ter, Mrs Hugh Fra.v~r, al=o a writer of distinction, woie brought up in Rome, and go are intensely familiar with cveiy twist and turn cf Roman life. The famous novelist (says Iho Sketch) b.Rc, a remai'kable personality; he is a great athlete, and an adept at every form of outdoor sport. Ho ia fond of travel, and has wandered much in the immemorial B.ist ; indoed, it was in Constantinople that he wooed and won his beautiful wife. Mise Berdan, tho daughter of an American General.

—In a lat'*' number of Chic "Rita" contributes an article on American literature-, from which the following pungent extracts are taken: — Although Ameiica produces and ppparently 'devours an enormous quantity of literature — of all aorta — I should hesitate to call tho Americans a bock-loving nation. Th-e strenuous o::oitoment, th-a perpetual rush, fuss, and "go" of their life, is a death-blow to that studious, cultured leisure which alone produces great work and appreciates it. American book-3 are cheap, ac a mle. So are their contents. The etyle of binding and printing is flashy and noticeable, bul, not lasting. 1 possees a small library of American authors, but they hava all had to be put into durable English covers after a firs f reading, unless copyrighted and published in this countrj'. . . . Th-ere ie a wide difrcrp'nee between writing book 3 that will live, and earning a livelihood by work that pays. The commercial instinct and the artistic cannot b& harnessed together. An American author is judged by the amount he can force from a publisher. He rarely annotmees a new book by any other metl od than. "I have, raked in so many thousand dollars from so-and-so." Then his friends will road the book to sc>e if it was worth paying so much for ! The moro money ho is paid, the greater his popularity. But popularity i<3 a doubtful blessing. "Which, perhaps, explains why a few American novelists prefer to live cut of America !

— How is it that D^ember seems alway3 to bs a month so fata! to well-known people, and especially to literary men? In December, 40 years ago, I remember well the pang with which I heard tho news of the "death of Thackeray, and ever since then thero have been fow "dark months" that havo not brought with th-em fresh losses of the fame kind. "Within the^ last fow weeks we have had to mourn the death of that delightful novelist Mr H. S. Merriman. certainly one of the best writers of fiction of our time, though he was never puffed by the foolish paragraph writers in the London newi-panors, who try to set themselves up as the creators of public opinion on literary matters and the makers and immakcrs of reputations. Then, a little later, the-r' 1 . passed awa3'- one of the soundest and ablest journalists I have ever known, Sir John Robinson. He was a man whoi-e intimate friendship I had enjoyed for nearly 30 years, and when I remember what he wae and what he did I wonder where men are to be found, connected with the press, who can compare with him. And' now the s?r?at name of Herbert Sprncer ia to bo added to the lift of those whom we have lately lost. Mr Spe-ncer was not a popular Wiiter. I claro srv that to tiie majority of the reading public he was nothing more than a name. But ho was one of those rare men whe pr^ able to add to the thought ond intellectual knowl-cd-je of mankind, and his influence was felt by a far wider circlo than that of his own readers. We make, a great commotion over the deaths of politicians and people of rank and fashion : but we ar^a too apt to allow great novelists like- Seton Merriman, great journalist 1 ? lileo Sir John Robinson, and! great thinkers like Herbert Sp°ncrr to drop into their graves almost unnoticed Sur&ly this is wrong. The men who feed our fancies and our minds with wholesome and useful thouerhls are of not less value to us than the solt'iors and politicians and people of fashion upon vrl'^m ?o much of on* attention is fixed.— "Jackdaw," in tho Lee'l9 Mercin y.

— Ono of the nior;t ciinov.s ord-"-6 criven in the Royal Naw is, "All hands black faces!" And in order that this order may Ih> adequately fulfilled each of our warship? carries amongst its stores a supply of such pigment as is used for tho fame purpose on the stage. This order is only given during rp.anccuvres as a rule, for when a night surprise is intended it is not on^y tho vessels that are made ais litde visible as possible; rven the faces of the men must be blackened, for, when powerful nightglasses are twed, tho showing of a whit© face is far more palpable than any JandsmaM would suppose.