LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 77

LITERARY NOTES.

— "That President Roosevelt intends to. become a New York editor is the interesting rumour in Washington," says the Even, ing Standard. "It is ba:d the President has arranged to got control of tho New York Tribune and to assume its direction after he leaves the White House in 1909."

— One after another the okl-es'iiblishod literary magazines (unillustrated) are Temple Bar ceased publication ; then Longman's, which was the successor of the famous Frawr's ; and now MacMillon'* Magazine, which wps reduced >n sice some time back, is to disappear altogether. There is ari'announceniept that the October issue Was'' to oe'the last.

— There is a pretty story told about Mr, William de Morgan's successful novel,. "Joseph Vance." He wrote it, and sent it to a typing office. The lady at the head of the office observed that one of the girls typing it was weeping over the tale. Sh« mentioned this to a publisher, who insisted on reading the story, and secured its publication.

— Some literary reputations not only die, but rise again. Miss Burney's, Miss Edgeworth's, and even Miss Austen's rre all instances. When the present writer was a child an allusiop borrowed from any of thp«<f>' great wfiters would have passed undetected through a middle-class crowd, as a quotation from Horace would now. It would have been difficult to find a copy of any work of any one of them in any bookseller's shop, unless one wero a dealer in second-hand obsolete literature. Now every work of a.ll three can be "een, jn two or three rival editions, on e\ery railway bookstall. And, not only that, but they are vorv generally bought, and misappreciated. — Acadertiy. — Books of travel may, roughly sWakinjr, be divided into two classes— that which skives descriptions of place and people, and that which srives impressions of place and people. Nothing could be more valuable than the former, and nothing more enjoyable than the latter. This second class, however, is small, and the successes of even the number who easay it few; but this is not astonishing when it ie remombered that the writer must possess all the qualities of the essayist. There is Sterne's "Sentimental Journey," there is Kiniylake's "Eothen," and two or three more, including Stevenson's "Travels witß a Donkey in the Cevenne6." — Louis Melville.

— Lady Lugard, who recently accompanied her husband, Sir Frederick Luprard, to Hongkong, has a vnique personality. She was once Miss Flora Shaw, & iioted journal ist, and head of the colonial department of The Times. In that capacity «he undertook several special commissions,

which included trips to Tcuth Africa, Australia, Canada, and — m^st dar.ng of all — to the Klondike goldfw ids. And in those days she was much in the confidence of the late Mr Cecil Rhodes and of Mr Ohamberlain. and her' evidence at the Jameson Raid Inquiry Commitee made a considerable impressioa. Lady Lugard has also written several books, of which "A Tropical Dependency" is perhaps the most successful. Lady Lugard's English home, Little Parkhurst, is a glorified cottae^ near Dorking. In her garden stands an cpcu-air summer house^ fitted with desk an i ncokshelveJ, and in this retreat bhe devotes hersel* to literature.

— Haji A. Browne, the author of "Bonaparte in Egypt and the Egyptians af Today," died quite suddenly on,, the eve of the publication of this book. This most remarkable interpreter of Egyptian thought was the only Englishman who e\er set_ eyes on tbe throne of the Caliph Alraschid in the Temple at Meshed, where the hero of the "Arabian Nights" lies side by s : de with the Imann Reza. An Irishman by birth, and connected with tho Dublin press in his youth. Haji * Browne lived as a Mohammedan, among Moha^in}edan>> for many years in the <l£s^rMiss<=* of a Turk hence his title of "Haji." Then 4ie spent some years at -sea, after which he became a contributor to numerous Indian^papers, and later to the Egyptian Gazette. He was, during the laft years of bis life. socre- t tarv to tbe Signalling Department of the Egyptian State railways.

— There is nothing more wearisome and objectionable in latter-day fiction than the rancorous sectarian or anti-sectarian tractate in thf> form o f a novel. Apnrt from '-•" fact that the authors of such work* hab'tuallv ronaril themselves as dispensed from the observance of the ordinary tenons of charity and crood ta=te, tho works themselves are. by the votv condition of iheir existence, bereft of all claims to consideration from the standpoint of literary art. A writer who deliheratelv set.s out with the preconceived iden that it is his mie.vVn to cover with unrelieved odium and contempt some particular religious creed of which he happens to diranprove not onl y renounces, of ncce*sitv. all the qualities which fo to the makins 1 of an artist in fiction, but incurs the inevitable nennltv of boring and disgusting all sare and liberal-minded readers, whatever their personal sympathies with regard to the matter in Question. — World.

— The Rev. Sila^ K. Hocking has confessed that, his first serious attemnt at story-writing was, a dismal failure He was 16 years of age when his oupiditv was roused by an <offejr of £100 by a temperance society for the best story sei.t ; n^ forih the evils of strong drink. H« quickly decided upon the plot of the story- but. alas! the embryo author's ekiU was of su"h an -.elementary character thfct by *ho time he reached. the middle of the eighth jhap<er his characters had got theniseiv"? into such, a rjopeless muddle that Mr Hocking gave up the, task in disgust. For years after be stubbornly resisted rhe inclined desire to be a writer of fiction. Plots evolved themselves unconscious!} in his mind, but he put them aside. Hoagvw, there came a day when he could resi-t the temptation no longer, and he sot down and wrote a story, which he thought *■> little of that, he allowed a fiend to publish it serially and anonymously for nothing, lhe story was sr> good, however, that a v.-ell-known London publishing house promptly secured the book rights, and asked for more work by the same author. Thus Jid Mr Hocking, whose hooks for over 20 \eaiN have been selling at the rate of a thousand copies a week, and whose circle of -oatJers in still increasing, abandon the pulpit for ..the, pen. —In the closing- decades, of the last Century the press of both Ensrl.and and Russia g».re.?wide publicity too the plucky deeds of' i, ■'humble seaman, 5 ta whom wai

-assigned the sobriquet of "the Columbus pf the North-Eaet Passage." It wa-> sj^nemHy believed * that the ice in tho Ttoni Sea rendered all naviggt ; on impossible. Joseph Wjggiqs thought o'herwiso. He bel.o^crl that the waters of + he Gulf Stream found their way through the Sfrnits of W'^israts Island, and opened a charnol for vo-«o's to *he mouth ef the Obi and the Yenospi. He proceeded to put his theory \c the test, and his voyage in the Diana, in 1875. conclusively proved that such a channel existed in the summer months. For more than 20 years — through f»vil report and good report, granplint; with difficulties, and buoyant even when hope and expectat'on proved illusive— he ppgwd away af his great scheme of 'esfablishing a r^srular sor-. vice of vessels between England and Siberia, via the KariL Sea. The bio.graphy <jf, CaotaLn Wiggins — and 'he cottainlv drscrvee one — Jias been written by Mr Henry Johns>on, -to whom we're entrusted the journals and letters .of the sturdy mariner. The volume will be published by Mr John Murray. ' — The great writer of sea -stories, Captain Marryat, bousrht a small estate at Lansjham.'.in Norfolk. It was near enough to the old coast town of Wolls to be within sound of the <-ea, and not .far away were the hirthplaces of Sir Clowlesley Srovei. Sir John Narboroucrh, Sir Christopher Mvng=, and Lord Nelson. Marrvat had some difficulty with his 'tenants. Writing to his brother-in-law he said, "I have just come back from Norfolk, where I had the pleasure of getting no rent, because why?— the tenants hadnlt. got none " At last, in desperation, he took to farming himself, built model cottages, and talked learnedly of manures : but, as his daughter says, he was more a farmer in theory than in practice. He delighted in ridiner and •hooting, ay v l. "as he was somewhat shortsighted," * usually wore a curious eyeglass surrounded by a strip of whalebone, the ends of which, bound together, formed a handle, which was stuck through a hole cut in the brim of bis hat." He scandalised bis neighbours by his Hieing for poachers, but he was wise enough to engage one of the worst of them as gamekeeper. The author of "Peter Simt>le" died at Langham in 1848. ciieerf«l. though suffering great pain, to tbe last. When he was drowsy with morphia he held imaginary conversations with his friend, Charles Dickens, or revived memories of his old shipmates.— T. P.'s Weekly. — Annie Steely 'whose tales of Indian life are so. widely ' read, writes in the London Reader : — My 'first ' literacy venture was a cookery book, which I published privately, and which was sold on a 15 per cent. royalty. I spent about £5 in preliminary advertisements. It ran through two '•xlitions in India, and I gained 4" 9<l on each copy, sold at srs. or 6s Bd. I then brought, out an edition in England. This 1 sold privately at 4s 6d, and on the major part

made 3s lOd, the printing and binding coating 1- 2d. The lvmaln-Vr was ,o.c .ii India at srs 4a, which gave me a ivont of about 3s Bd. The number sold thus. without the intervention of a pub'iehor, was 3700. and the onU expense of advertisement incurred was the "sending jut' of about 50C reply post-carets. Rega-diMjr mo c literary work, I found time hang Icaij after my return from India in 1889 So qtute 'de'.ibertely- I wrote a story called "Lai." It was returned with thanks, either read or unread, by almost every editor of note in England, except by the editor of MacMilia-n's-'-Magazine. He at- once accepted it, and asked for more. To him, therefore, and to him alone, belongs the doubtful merit of having introduced yet one more writer to 'the British '-public. I cannot absolutely, tertder him my personal gratitude. It. does not sweeten life—personal life — to write what is invariably mis ■understood, but the opportunity he gave me of an audience has certainly been a means* of teaching me the futility of words.

— t About three years ago Mr Fisher Unwin initiated a first novel competition, offering a prize of £100 for the best story by a writer '»who had never had a novel 'pubKsh&d As -will be remer.iberod, the prize was won by Mrs Baillie-Saunders with her book, "Saints in Soc ety.'' Now Mr Unwin is starting a second ?ompetit'on on similar lines, for a prize of 90 guineas. For the first competition a huge pile of manuscripts was sent in. amounting in all- to fooie 20,000,000 words, or, to use another standard of measurement, approximately 12| miles of typewritten pages. To judge from the names attached to the manuscripts, the sexes were prettily evenly balanced among the contributors, but the judges had reason to suspect *hat the modesty of many of the lady novelists had led them to adopt manlynames, and that there was after all a preponderance of lady writers. This has certainly been the case in Mr Unwm'.s first novel library, in which. ou< of 14volumes, only three have been written V - men. One or two points noticed by "readers'' for the first competition may perhaps be -worth mentioning, since they give some guidance to eompetitoss as to what to avoid. Firstly, many authors failed to " distinguish between the novel proper and the newspaper serial. Thus many stories came in which might probably have been knocked into shape for the columns of periodicals, but were in no sense novels. Second, many write.-s had an idea — some of them an excellent idea — for a novel, and began admirably, but would not remember that -their business was to exhibit a situation and foil jw ifc out to its conclusion. Thu* their construction woulct fall to pieces ; they would fly off at tangents, would start new interest* towards the end of their books, and lo«o all sense of unity and proportion. vTot in. spite of all defects, enough promising work was sent in to encourage Mr Unvin and his "readers"' in their belief in the beginner.

In the ancient cathedral of Genoa « m»# of immense value has been preserved for six centuries. Cut from a single emerald. it« principal diamoter is 12£ in and its hoight 52in. It is k/?pt undor several lock.«\ the keys of which ar«? in different hands. When shown to the public, it is suspended round the neck of a pr.'ost by a cord, and no one elee is allowed to touch it.

■