BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 69

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Dr Robert Bridges, the late Poet Laureate, who died last April, aged eighty-five, left £0771.

An uncut copy of the first edition of De Quincey’s “ Confessions of an English Opium Eater.” published in 1822, has been sold in London for £l2B.

Mr John Drink water has gone to Germany, where he is to write a book about Carl Laemmle, the German-American film magnate. His wife, formerly Miss Daisy Kennedy, the violinist, is with him.

Mr Caradoc Evans, who has a new novel, “ Nothing to Pay,” ready for publication, must be one of the best-hated men in Wales (says an exchange). Tn his earlier books, such as “ My People.” and in his play “ Taffy,” he told us what he thought of his native land.

The famous Bedford Book of Hours, a wonderfully illuminated manuscript completed about 1’415, has ben saved for the nation. Mr J. Pierpont Morgan purchased it on July 29 last year for £33,000 but agreed to part with it to the British Museum at the same figure if they could raise the money within a year.

Mr E. F. Benson has edited, the text of a number of letters from Henry James to A. C. Benson and Auguste Monod, and has written an introduction to the book, which will be published in a limited edition. None of the letters has ever been published before.

Miss H. Du Coudray, whose second novel, “The Brief Hour,” appeared recently, won the University Prize Novel Competition in 1927 with her book, “ Another Country.” A town in Burgundy is the scene of her new book.

A tablet to the memory of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning has been placed on the facade of the villa at Bagni di Lucca, near Florence, where they spent the summers of 1853 and 1857. The tablet is the gift of members of a Texas University, which has what is believed to be the largest collection of “ Browningiana ” in the world.

The criminological library used by the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for reference in writing his Sherlock Holmes stories was recently bought in London for £95 by Dr A. S. Rosenbach, the American book collector. The books are autographed by Sir Arthur, and many contain notes made by him in their margins. Some of the volumes once belonged to Sir William Gilbert.

“ Mi- George Preedy,” who has succeeded in guarding his anonymity in spite of the continued efforts of many critics, has two volumes coming. One is a book of essays, “ Bagatelle and other Diversions,” and the other is -“ Captain Banner,” a play which Londoners saw a year or so ago. “Mr Preedy ” is one of the new’ school of historical novelists.

Mr Dashiell Hammett, whose new detective novel, “ The Maltese Falcon,” was recently reviewed in our columns, has himself been a detective. Although he is an Englishman, he was brought up in the United States, and joined the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency. After the effects of war service had made it impossible for him to carry on this job, he started to write novels.

Miss Mildred Cram, who recently published a new novel entitled “Madder Music,” is an American by nationality,

but she knows Europe well, having lived there from 1908 to 1914. Her father is an editor and publisher, and most of her relations are either musicians or artists. The title of her book is taken from Ernest Dowson’s line: “I cried for madder music and for stronger wine.”

“ Thirty years have passed,” writes Captain Harry Graham, “ since the Eng-lish-speaking world was startled by the publication of a first volume of Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes. In the opinion of my publisher, another shock of" this nature is now due.” The publishers, then, must take the blame for this new assault upon tradition. From the first volume one recalls this sample of Captain Graham’s ruthlessness to warn all readers of what is probably coming in the next: —

I had written to Aunt Maud, Who was travelling abroad ; When I heard she’d died from cramp, Just too late to save the stamp. There will be illustrations and an index

A new’ one-volume edition of “ A History of English Literature,” by Emile Legouis and Louis Cazamian, hitherto available only in two volumes, has been published. For readers who are anxious to possess a comprehensive, wise, and yet concise account of the development of our literature from earliest times to to-day, this book can be recommended. M. Legouis, who has made himself responsible for the account of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is a Frenchman already honored for his critical work on English literature, and particularly’ for his studies of Wordsworth.

Four novels for the price of one is the bargain offered in a single book to be called “ Famous Novels of To-day.” Into this book, in a bulk hardly greater than that of a single volume, the publishers intend to pack Lady Eleanoi Smith’s “Red Wagon,” Mr L. A. G. Strong’s “ Dewer Rides,” Mr Richard Oke’s “ Frolic Wind,” and Mr Martin Armstrong’s “ St. Christopher’s Day.” The same publishers also announce that they will publish five detective stories only betwen now and Christmas—by J. J. Connington, Dorthy L. Sayers, Milward Kennedy, Ellery Queen, and Anthony Gilbert —a good list.

“Vallejo Kitty,” a novel by’ Miss Ann Knox, which was prepared for publication last April and then withdrawn, is to be issued. The book has already received high praise in America. Miss Knox has had a series of interesting and unusual experiences. Having decided to go to America, she set out with her passage money and £5O. The £5O was stolen on board. Miss Knox set herself the task of regaining it at bridge on the way over, and her skill enabled her to land in New York with what she calls “ quite a lot of money.” There she succeeded at once, selling her first booK (“Vallejo Kitty”)and since then three others. She found herself suddenly a successful author. “ Flowerdown ” was the second of her books. “ Vallejo Kitty,” though the second to be published in England, is her first.

After 200 years “ The Moral and Religious Aphorisms” of Whichcote are to be reprinted, with an introduction byDean Inge. Whichcote, who never wrote or published a book of his own, was the leader of the Cambridge Platonists, ana was widely respected and much sought after in his own day. He held various livings, and was for some time provost of King’s College, Cambridge; it was in and around Cambridge that much of his preaching was done. These aphorisms, as well as his sermons and his letters, were all collected and published by enthusiastic friends and supporters. His fame began when he entered into an argumentative correspondence about Puritanism with the master of Emmanuel College. But although he was responsible for much religious discussion, he was loved as a man of peace. He was an early believer in the value of universal education. Of his services in the little parish of. Milton, Cambridgeshire, Tillotson said: “He preached constantly, relieved the poor, had their children taught to reade at his own charge, and made up differences among the neighbours.” Yet he was one of the most brilliant thinkers of his day.