BOOK NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18617, 12 July 1930, Page 15

BOOK NOTES.

“The only difference between a poet and myself” says Professor H. B. Charlton, “is that a poet can really feel a thing when it has not happened. It has to happen to me before I can feel it.” Mr W. T. TUden, the famous lawn tennis player, has written a novel, which will appear shortly under the title of “Glory’s Net.” Last year, Mr Tilden published an autobiography which he called “Me—the Handicap.” A copy of the first edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” printed in 1855, has been sold in London for £515 to Mr Gabriel Well, the American collector. At the same sale a first edition of Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre” fetched £420. The Keats House Museum, Keats Grove. Hampsteam, has been offered, for £l2O, the desk and instand used by the poet when he lived at Wentworth House (now Keats House). Miss Helen J. Niles, the owner of the articles, is a descendant of George Keats, the poet’s brother, by whom they were taken to America.

Few novelists, says an English newspaper, are able to keep their public as successfully as the late W. J. Locke, who, publishing his first book 35 years ago, still held at his de in May last his place in the hearts of countless thousands of readers. “The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne” and “The Beloved Vagabond” were perhaps his two most popular stories; his latest and unfortunately the last novel from this brilliant writer started in the London Magazine for May, published by a curious coincidence on the very day of Locke’s death.

A book which undertakes to throw new light on the historic PamellOShea love affair is announced by Thornton Butterworth. It has the title

“Parnell Vindicated: The Lifting of the Veil.” The writer is Mr Henry Harrison, who was the youngest of Parnell’s Parliamentary colleagues, and the only one who took a part in the settlement of his affairs, immediately after his death. He was then invited by the widow to write an official biography of the Irish leader, and everything was put at his disposal. He could not. at the time, do so, but now he will tell the inner story of the Parnell-O’Shea affair.

One of the most remarkable literary gatherings seen in London for a loAg time took place at the headquarters of the Society of Authors recently. Sir James Barrie was in the chair, and others present included Mr Bernard Sliaw, Mr H. G. Wells, and Mr Arnold Bennett. The chief business was to discuss a dispute which arose recently between Mr Wells and a collaborator of his in a new historical and scientific work, and which seemed likely at one stage to end in legal proceedings. Mi* Wells had previously circulated among the members a pamphlet vigorously setting out his case. In ilie end, it is understood, it was agreed to submit the matter to the arbitration of Sir Donald Maclean, a solicitor of renown, and a former leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons.