BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 74

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

The reasons, good and bad, why people choose to look at certain pictures and not at others are explained by Miss Margaret H.. Bulley, in her book, “Pictures and Painting,” which is to be published as the next volume in the “ Simple Guide Series.” * * * The new volume of the Dictionary of National Biography covers the period 1912 to 1921. Among other notabilities dealt with are Lord Charles Beresford, General Booth, William de Morgan, James Elroy Flecker, and Henry James. It was only during the War that Henry James adopted British nationality and qualified for inclusion in this great work of reference. * * * According to Dr A. S. W. Bosenbach, the great American book collector, it will be impossible, a few years hence, to purchase the finest English books ; n London. American purchasers of our bibliographical rarities have certainly been very’ active, but one can hardlv foresee the British collector browsing in the shops of Philadelphia. * * * The tenth anniversary of the revolution which ended in the establishment of the Soviet Republic has been commemorated by Stalin in a book entitled “Leninism.” The book has been translated by Eden and Cedar Paul for an English edition. * * * “Armenia and the Near East,” is a book . by’ Dr Nansen, who has been studying the Armenian problem on behalf of the League of Nations, and has worked out a scheme for giving the Armenian refugees a home in Russian Armenia. ■Jr Jr * Miss Lillian Faithful, author of “ You and I—Saturday Talks at Cheltenham. ’ is a. former headmistress of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and her book is a collection of addresses delivered to the Upner School there during her tenure of office. ■3 -X- * The firm of Ernest Benn, Ltd., is being reorganised, and Sir Ernest Benn and Mr Gordon Robbins will henceforth take a more active part in the conduct of the business. It is rumoured that Mr Victor Gollancz, who is retiring from the board, will, in due course, start in business for himself. * * * Colonel Lawrence’s book. “ The Revolt in. the Desert.” in now out of print. His friend, Mr Robert Graves, has written an authoritative biography of Lawrence, and the book is to be published by Jonathan Cape. Mr Graves has had the assistance of manv of Colonel Lawrence’s colleagues of the Arabian adventure. * * * Was Frdncois Villon a rogue and a vagabond, or can research help to whiten

|he character of this fascinating poet and brawler of the Middle Ages? “ The Judgment of Francois Villon,” a pageant play in five acts, has been written bv Herbert Edward Palmer. The play seeks to tell the true story of Villon’s life, incorporates actual facts where these are known, and is an interesting commentary on the appalling conditions in France in his time. * * »

Miss Gertrude Bell was to have written {.he preface of “ Haji Rikkan, Marsh Arab.” The book describes the Arab of the great marshes in the south of Iraq, and the authentic stories it contains are woven round a pedlar, Haji Rikkan. The authors, who prefer to remain anonymous, call themselves " Fulanain.” Miss Gertrude Bell, whose letters have just been published, died before she could contribute her preface.

Those industrious collaborators, Beaumont and Fletcher, who contrived many lively plays for the audiences of Queen . Elizabeth’s days, have been occupying the mind of E. H. 0. Oliphant, and a book attempting to solve the problem of the authors’ respective shares in the writing of the play is to be published. This problem of authorship has been the subject pf Mr Oliphant’s inquiries for many ..* * * Virginia Woolf’s ‘‘Kew Gardens” is likely to prove one of the most-sought-jptTer limited editions of the season. The original edition had a most interesting history, and has for long been out of print. The forthcoming issue of the book is to be illustrated by the author’s sister, Vanessa Bell. Mrs Woolf and Mrs Bell are daughters of Sir Leslie Stephen. “ Kew Gardens ” was first printed on an old ?r nt x?T S press ia the cellar of Mr and . Mrs Woolf’s house. Review notices were po favourable that their letter-box overflowed with orders for copies. That was the origin of the Hogarth Press. * * »

The most noteworthy feature of the meeting of the trustees and guardians of Shakespeare’s birthplace in London on November, 1927, was the evidence of increased interest in Stratford-on-Avon. An interim report showed that since April 1 the visitors to the birthplace had numbered 95,653, an increase of 10,000 on the number in the previous financial vear. In the last seven years the number of visitors to the birthplace had practically doubled, the figures having risen from 52;000 while PlaCe had increased from 3000 to 21,000, and to Ann Hathaway’s cottage from 22,000 to 68,000. Visitors’ t e £8282 riSen that Peri ° d fr ° m £3669

Mr Arthur Wadsworth, librarian of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarv retired on December 31. The assistant librarian (Mr Kenneth Binns) has been appointed cnief librarian. Mr Wadsworth was a clerk in the Victorian Parliamentary Library from 1881 until 1901, when he bacame librarian. By agreement between t le Federal and State Ministries he acted as librarian to the Commonwealth Parliament from June 12, 1901. - Mr Binns was SrK a °? ner in the GommonhbraSnn “ 1911 ' and assistant librarian in January, 1918. He took Stherick PH A f U - stralian section and the rethenck Collection on the same date.

The success of “ Pickwick ” in New Cork is making ardent Dickensians ask Why we do not see more Dickens plavs over here (says a writer in the London Daily Chronicle). I count myself a Dickensian, but I am not surprised that producers have given up the attempt to get Dickens on to the stage. I have dutifully sat through a number of stage versions of the novel, I have tried to be enthusiastic, but the simple truth is that Dickens on the stage is just a crude mixture of melodrama and clowning. I do hot pretend to understand why Mrs Gamp, for example, should be a "reat comic figure in the book and a vulgar harridan on the stage; all I know is that the genius of the great Victorian dies in the theatre.

Lenin delighted in music, but was fearful that its charms would soothe his savage breast. A letter to Gorkv printed in Mr Rene Fulop-Miller’s Lenin and Gandhi,” suggests a diseased mind:

I know nothing more beautiful than the Appasionata.” I could hear it every day It is marvellous, unearthly music Every time I hear these notes I think with pride and perhaps childlike naivete that it is wonderful what man can accomplish But I cannot listen to music often, it affects my nerves. I want to say amiable stupidities and stroke the heads of the people who can , create such beauty in a filthy hell. But to-day is not the time to stroke people's heads; to-day hands descend to split skulls open, split them open ruthlessly, although Opposition to all violence is our ultimate ideal—it is a hellishly hard task.

. In the course of a discussion in the London Sunday Times on the taverns frequented by Dr Johnson Mr Frankfort Moore wrote:

The possible connection between Dr Johnson and the Cheshire Cheese is something that crops up every now and again, and invariably with the one result. Search as one may, no shred of evidence can be found in favour of the assumption that Dr Johnson ever passed through the portals of that tavern. But still “ the legend of a violet blows among the chops and steaks ” : though I should not like to have it laid on me to prove the aptness of the " violet ” in this Connection. In searching for material and colour” for my 10 or 12 novels and biographies of the eighteenth century I had to turn over a good many pages of contemporary records, but in none did I. find the L® ast \ thread to connect Johnson with the Cheshire Cheese.

Mr John Hodgkin,;-writing to the Lon- » don Sunday Times, gives some particulars of the famous. “ Art of Cookery,” and incidentally destroys a popular ber lief: i

The first edition was a folio, published in *747, and in the same year the second edi-

tion, an octavo, was issued (this is much scarcer than the first edition). The book was said to be "by a Lady," and the words "By Mrs Glasse " appeared first on the " New Edition, 1784." The name of Hannah Glasse first occurs in connection with the book in her " Trade Card ” inserted at the end of the third edition and at the beginning of the fourth. This “ card " Is not to be found in all copies. The sentence asked for is “ Take your hare when it is cas'd.” To " case " a hare was to strip oil the skin. The frequently quoted aphorism, " First catch your hare,” etc., is an amiable fiction, and has no foundation. Whether Mrs Hannah Glasse or Dr John Hill, or someone else, wrote the book is " wropt in mystery."