LIBEL IN FICTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 55, 19 October 1911, Page 6

LIBEL IN FICTION.

Recent decisions in tho law courts must have impressed editors, authors, publishers, and the public generally with, the-danger of writing and publishing fiction at all. It would appear to bo quite sufficient for a person of tlid same name as the “viiyah of the piecc ? ’ (and what is a ilovhl; -without a villian?) to claim ditriiiqres for defamation of character if he can go to court and say that someone or other thought the bad character in tho novel referred to himself! The position is a curious one. Peopldread d novel or a story as a Work pf fiction, and no. ono; with any intelligence would regard it as anything else. It is possible, cf course, for a n author to put a living person ihto a hovel and say libellous things about him, but no author in his senses would do such a tiling. If ho did ho would deserve to suffer. But; the.law does not insist on proof of : mhlifch.' ' If the libel is accidental —that is, if the author uses the name df' a person he lias never known to exist—he is equally liable to bo brought into court. Actions are usually brought against tho publishers of the work of fiction, but we use the word author in this connection as ap- . filying to either editor, author, pub- ' fisher or proprietor. The penalties fof accidental libel in fiction threaten to destroy all orthodox fiction, - because it is a risk that can hardly bo avoided without revolutionising tho writing of fiction. ' How Actions May Be Avoided. Oho. or two methods of avoiding an action for damages are obvious. The author mav make all his characters good people. (But how insipid tho book;) Of he may designate his characters by numbers or letters. Another alternative is the coinage of Strange names—but we will deal with that presently. Let us take the first alternative and see how it would look > in the following sentence: — ■... Mr , and Mrs Jones, accompanied . by Miss Smith, called on v Messrs Brown and Robinson, the lawyers, who informed them that Mr Arthur White had left fifty thouarid pounds to be divided between Miss Smith and her cousin, John Williams. Fancy reading it like this:— Mr and Mrs 1, accompanied by Miss 2, called on Messrs 3 and ■4b< the lawyers, who informed tnotri that Mr 5 had left fifty thousand pounds to bo divided beweCn Miss 2 and °ncr cousin 0. Substitute the letter of the alphabet fur numerals, if you like, and it , wouldt-ffe no more intelligible. Another alternative, as wo have said, is the coining of strange names, and anyone whomas gone through a London, .directory will realise that the nainbs must be strange indeed if the danger is to bo avoided. There is soMething unconvincing about this method, as one may see from this oxriniplh;— , f; Mr and Mrs Whew, accompanied by Miss Hallo, called on ,3Jeisrs 1 Fripsum and ForgetmeVuotj. the. lawyers, who informed ( them that Mr Snoemsby bad left ■'fifty thousand pounds to be-div-vtided' between Miss Hallo and her cousin John Whereabouts. If, ‘the hovel-, possesses fifty characters’, the ppsibilities arc immense. m jThia Coining of Suitable Names. The coining cf suitable names for our fiction is far more difficult -than aUfirst sight appears, because most things have already been pressed into the. service of nomenclature. Have you'ever thought of this? Como out of doors and look around. What do you'see? Nearly every object the .surname of someone. Road, street, lane, house, wail, stone, .brick,; wood, dust. You meet' a man, a carpenter, tailor, tilikbp, baker, butcher, draper, joiner, mason, and others. They are tall thin lean, fat, or small, and big, 1 broad, and stout. Seine are good, some have manners,: , but some are low. Are you in a country lane ? Do you see rqbadbws, wheat, barley, oats, hay, brook; field, water, ■ spring, vale,, bill, dole', mountain, waterfall, river, pond, orv'pool, tree, branch, bough, leaf, trunk,:' bark; ’ birch;' oak, ash, etc. ? What of the bird in the air—the fiawb, sparrow, crow, lark, jay, throstle;. nightingale, raven, rook”; or the gaifie... birds—partridge, pheasant, grouse, snipe, etc. ? What qf-trie air and siry, tno.Rim, moon, and stars? The colours—clack, crown, green,..white, lake, pink,?- Of met..is— Soldj silver, copper, brass, iron,, steel ? . beso.'aro only a few examples showing how every object in life has been ohifiloyed to name individuals. Verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech are - also adapted to surnames. It may be, argued that Dickens managed sucbessfiilly, to adopt fictitious names' fobiinis. characters. That' is admitted, but Dickens drew so freely from life ftritliliving men that it'was absolutely ftehessary, in his case. Moreover, no fefie> to-day wishes to revert to tho llehvy' stylo of nomenclature adopted by, Dickens—a, style belonging to a past, generation. V-' V a,pi Curious Names. i ;in a recent fiction libel case brought by'i.fi money lender it was argued by op tinsel that the editor had not taken sufficient precaution, inasmuch as he might' have consulted a directory of Money lenders to see whether the i name appeared therein. Imagine the poor author and editor surrounded with directories of every buiness and obciipatioiip and having to refer to fJfotn : pri' ©very occasion where some wicked character formed part of the story! Such a task would be unreasonable. The idea of a dictionary tbst ,is not, however, a bad ono if it could be regarded as Until, and confined,. say, to the London Post Office Directory. Then when the editor failed to find the name of the villian in; the directory ho could go homo , and sleep. At the best, the author can only hope to find an improbable name, since he has no means of knowing every surname in the land, and in his efforts to find the, improbable he may chance to hit upon a name actually in use, in which case the libel would ,appear to bo all tlie more deliberate. Hero art! a few uncommon names taken haphazard from the London Directory: Endean, Totman, Fage, Daggetter, Eye, Eyekilboscb, Freeborn, Freedman, Fullilove, Gallop,:; Grin, Macnab, Notcutt, Spitty, Stone'street, Stripling, Undermark, Vice, Yell. These names seem improbable enough, but the employment of any-.one or them might lead to trouble. We .have shown that accidental libel in fiction is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to avoid, and that brings Us back to our first alignment that there is no reason for anyone to re§ard a work of fiction as anything nt fiction.—Sheffield “Telegraph.”