BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3898, 27 November 1928, Page 72

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Dr Yuzo Tsubouehi has just completed the first translation of all Shakespeare’s plays into Japanese. * * * Richard Strauss is working on a new comic opera entitled “Arabella,” and is being assisted with the text bv Hugo von Hofmanstlial, the librettist of “ Der Rosenkavalier.” * * # Travels in Hope ’ is the charming title from Stevenson chosen by’ James Milne for his forthcoming book of travel essays, which Donald Maxwell is to illustrate. V * * * Sisley Huddleston is to publish another book about Paris, which he knows so well, containing stories of famous French. English, and American acquaintances he has met there. * * * A new play by Clemeuce Dane, who wrote “ A Bill of Divorcement" and "Will Shakespeare,” is to be given at the Old A ic. It will be called “ Adam's Opera.” * * * « C. E. Montague, the distinguished journalist and novelist, who for so long adorned the pages of the Manchester Guardian, left a series of short stories. * * * “ The Oxford History of Music ” is being thoroughly- revised for a new edition by Sir Henry' Hadow. Vice-Chan-cellor of Sheffield University. * * * Colonel T. E. Lawrence has written to Mr Raymond Savage, the secretary of his trustees, denying that he is writing a new book on the East. » * * A new portrait of Hugh Walpole, the novelist, is being painted by Richard Sickert. A.R.A.. P.R.8.A., who has recently executed portraits of Winston Churchill and Harry- Preston. ¥ * ¥ As a memorial to the mother of Robert Burns it is proposed to erect a cottage on the site Tit Grants Brae where Mrs Burns’s cottage stood, and in which she died in 1820. Sir Arthur Pinero, who is in his seventy-fourth year, nearly completed a now play on a “Ttekyll and Hyde”"J> theme. - ‘ * * * Hornsey, with a population of 87,659, borrowed 517.494 books from its libraries last year —a record for the borough. * * * Paderewski has accepted a German offer of £30,000 to play- the leading part in a talking film. The famous pianist and ex-President of the Polish Republic is. now in his sixty-eighth year. * * * A Document which shows that the first work of Caxton was printed in 1476, a year before the generally' accepted date, has been discovered at the Record Office. * * * The appeal for placing a stained-glass window in Croft Church, Darlington, to the memory- of Lewis Carroll (184318G8) has met with so little response that the scheme has been abandoned. Each subscriber will receive a balance sheet. * * * Owing to continued ill-health. Stacy Aumonier has taken a chalet at Montana, Switzerland, and hopes to spend the winter there with his wife (Miss Gertrude Peppercorn) and their small son. * * * A statue of Arthur Nikiseh, the famous conductor, is to be erected in front of the Gewandhaus at Leipzig That of Mendelssohn already- stands at the west entrance. Nikiseh’s son now conducts a jazz band !

“ The Bernard Shaw Dictionary and Bibliography,” compiled by C. Lewis Broad and Violet M. Broad, is being issued. The proofs have been read by Shaw himself, who made many suggestions for the book’s improvement.

. One regret of Henry Arthur Jones, the celebrated dramatist, who has just celebrated his seventy-seventh birthday, is that he lacks sufficient strength to complete his “ Life of Henry Irving,” which was begun many years ago. It is possible that another of his plays, called “ The Lifted Veil,” may yet be seen in London.

Colonel Lawrence, author of “ Revolt in the Desert,” who is now an aircraftsman in India, is bringing out a new book on the East under a nom de plume.

Barnet, where the celebrated horse fair was recently held, has at least one literary distinction, for it was here that Charles Lamb was put in the stocks for brawling ” during divine service.

s * “ The Early Life and Letters ” of Walter Hines Page, formerly American Ambassador in London, shortly to be published, deals with his achievements in the literary world as an editor and publisher.

In private life Miss Margery Lawrence, the talented author of “ Bohemian Glass,” is the wife of Mr Arthur Towle, controller of the London, Midland, and Scottish' hotel and catering department. She and her husband have been spending their holiday at Turnberry, Ayrshire.

Miss Helen Waddell has received the A. C. Benson medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature for her book “ Wandering Scholars.” The author, who is the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, is the first woman to receive this distinction.

There is likely to be much speculation about the identity of the editor who has been induced by Michael Joseph, friend of free-lances, to tell, in “ The Autobiography of a Journalist,” how he got there. He is said to be a prominent figure in Fleet street, who prefers to be anonymous, because he thus feels more free to tell the truth. The authenticity of this life-story is guaranteed by Mr J oseph.

We have just . had one book about Moses, by a Frenchman, M. Edmond Fleg. Now there is news of a novel based on the life of that great bibilical figure. The author is Mr Louis Untermayer, an American poet and critic who is fairly well known in England. He has taken liberties with the life of Moses as revealed in the Bible, and has introduced a number of characters from Egyptian history whom Moses might have known. And further light may be thrown on Egyptian history by “ King Akhnaton.” a novel based on the life of that monarch, by Mr Simeon Strunsky, a former editor • of. the New York Evening Post.

The Saturday Review realistically accounts for the recent outbreak of calumny against leading figures of the Victorian era by saying that contemporary biographers adopted as their motto: “De mortuis nil nisi bonum ” We are now passing through the period of “ blackwashing,” and it will be the turn of the Edwardians before long. While the journal thinks that the process of reconsideration, if done by scholars and gentlemen, is entirely salutary, it deplores the passing of the job from the scholar to the “ stuntsinan,” as has happened in the cases, of Gladstone and Dickens.

* * * An autograph copy of Poe’s “ Raven ” has been bought for the British Museum for £20,000. The only other example of Poe manuscripts in England, a holograph copy of “To the River,” was bought in 1916 by the present Lady Ludlow for £42, and the original manuscript of “ The Bells ” brought only £425 when it was sold in New York in 1903. Dr Rosenbaclr; the famous American book collector, tells a dramatic little story to illustrate Poe’s penury. One day while examining the manuscript of " EpiThanes,” which had been offered—to him for sale, he discovered one of the most tragic sentences he had ever read. Poe had folded over his manuscript several times. There were three tiny words inscribed in the lower left corner. One of the greatest masters of all time appealed to his editor, saying desperately, “ I am poor.” 4 * * * Mr Frank Shay, in an article in the New York Herald-Tribune, writes an illuminating paragraph about collectors’ editions: — First editions are what their name implies. They are the first copies of a printed book that are offered for sale. The term " edition " is an elastic one, and may mean only a number of copies sufficient to secure completion of copyright or it may mean 100,000 copies. The number of copies depends entirely upon the publisher’s estimate of the probable sale of the book. Good business judgment tells him what sale to expect, and he orders that number printed. He may print 5000 copies ,and bind but 1000. When the first lot is sold he will order the balance, or a part of the balance, to be bound and offered for sale. In such Instances the first thousand copies may be termed the first issue, and scrupulous collectors will insist that their copy of the book be one of the first thousand. The whole 5000, however, constitute the first edition.