FROM . . . Bookstall and Study.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18088, 23 February 1927, Page 10

FROM . . . Bookstall and Study.

LITERARY NOTES. j Mr Compton Mackenzie has a new novel, entitled “Rogues and Vagabonds,” in the press. « « Mr E. V. Lucas, the famous essayist, is just recovering from a serious operation. The original MS. of Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native,” in the possession of the late Clement Shorter, has been bequeathed to the library of Trinity College, Dublin. It is said to be worth £I6OO. The original issue of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence,” containing only seventeen pages, was recently found in an old library, and has b?en sold for £3OO. Only six copies are in existence. a The autobiography of an American • professional thief, who has relinquished his profession for perhaps the more lucrative one as a San Francisco librarian, will shortly be published, j under the title of “You Can’t Win.” 1 M. Andre Simon, the author of thatl bibulous book, “Old Bottlescrew,” is' the London manager of a famous champagne firm. lie has a marvellous collection of old bottles, ranging in date from Elizabethan times. . i Edna Berber’s new novel. “ Snow Boat,” is easily the best seller in the United States at present. Other popular books are Ellen Glasgow’s “Romantic Comedians,” Van Veehten’s “Nigger Heaven,” Professor Erskine’s “Private Life of Helen of Troy,” Hamilton Gibbs’s “Labels,” and William Beebe's “Arcturus Adventure.” Jerome K. Jerome, the well-known writer, says, “Next to Hardy, I place Eden Phillpotts as the greatest of living English novelists; and Hardy has not his humour. But I take it he will have to wait till he is dead before full justice is done to him.” Mr Phillpotts, who has produced about sixty volumes of prose and verse, has .made a big hit with his comedy, “The ] Farmer’s Wife,” taken from an episode * in his most popular novel, “Wide- . combe Fair.” A story of Patti, from “The Passing ' Show%” by Mr Henry Russell;— Patti, who was nearly 70, and really looked much older, dressed and behaved like a much younger woman. Her voice was still marvellous in the medium, but shrill and unpleasant in high notes, and when she repeated smilingly to the Roman public the dominant phrase from “II Bacio,** “Give me a kiss on the lips,” there came from the gallery shouts of “Too late, my dear, too late.”

| The “Sunday Times,” London, prints j a schoolboy “howler” vouched for by ! a correspondent:— A boy at one of our x great public schools was asked to translate a French sentence into English. The ’ sentence given to the class was: “ Ah, oui! Voila I ’Anglais avec son sangfroid habituel.” This the boy translated: “Oh, yes! , Here comes the Englishman witji his usual bloody cold.” It is said that when Mr Max Beerbohm succeeded Mr George Bernard Shaw as dramatic critic of a well-knowa publication, he was told by the manager what salary Shaw had received. “Of course, being comparatively inexperienced,” the manager added, “you can scarcely expect so much.” “Oh, . yes, I shall,’ rejoined Mr Bcerbohm decisive!}' —“indeed, I shall expect more! You see,’ he explained, “as Shaw knows the drama thoroughly, it was perfectly easy for him to write about it. Now, as I know nothing about it, it will be awfully hard work!” | Some of the “woman problems” of the late Victorian period are recalled by Mr Jerome K. Jerome in “ My Life and Times”:— “Should a lady ride a bicycle?” It , was some while before the dropped bar i was thought of, and so, in consequence, she had to ride in knickerbockers; very fetching they looked in them, too, the few who dared. But in those days a woman’s leg was supposed to be a thing known only to herself and God. “Would you like it if your sister showed her legs? Yes, or no?” was always the formula employed to silence you did you venture a defence. Before that it [ had been, “Could a real lady ride outside an omnibus?” or “Might a virtuous female ride - alone in a hansom cab? . . . It was at the old Holborn Restaurant that first one dined to music. It was held to be Continental, and, therefore, immoral; and the everlasting woman question rose again to the surface: Could a good woman dine to the accompaniment of a string band? One of the most memorable moments ' in literary history was when the boy, I Walter Scott, himself destined for fame, | came face to face with the poet Burns in the house of Professor Adam Ferguson in Edinburgh. A 1 writer in “Speed,” the journal of the Edinburgh Corporation tramwaymen, complains that the site of this historical meeting lacks a distinguishing mark of any kind. Sciennes Hill House has degenerated since the brave days when r erguson held his literary dinners them About sixty years ago it was turned into working class dwellings, and now forms part of a terrace in the working class quarter of the Scottish capital.

From “Riverside Nights,” by Messrs A. P. Herbert and Nigel Playfair:— Thank God for the aspidistra. Three cheers for the antimacassar, I’ve three pink, stocks in the window box. And I’ve called the house Belle Vue. For the backbone of Britain, Brlttanla’s vertebrae. Old England's spine, is me and mine. So God bless mine and me. Thank God for the Albert Memorial—■ Three cheers for Lipton’s tea. If His Majesty the King wants any little thing He has only *to come to me. For the backbone of Britain, In my considered view. Is the unassuming cuss in the corner of the bus. So God bless me and you! Samuel Pepys* heir, the son of his sister Paulina, is now represented by the family of Pepys-Cockerell, who continue to pronounce the name “Peeps,” as undoubtedly the diarist did himself; the rest of the family all pronounce it “Peppis,” which is correct, from its original French form “Pepy.” Mr Henry Wheatley, F.S.A., in his “Pcpysiana, says: “No member of the family is known to call himself ‘Peps/ and yet that is the pronunciation most generally favoured by the public.” X 55 5* Books autographed by their respective authors fetched the following prices at an auction held in connection with the University College, London, Arts Department Bazaar: Rudyard Kipling, 245; G. M. Trevelyan, 21s 6d; Sir Oliver Lodge, 21s; Lord Darling, 21s; Philip Gruedalla, 15s; Sean O’Casey, 13s; Ramsay MacDonald, 12s 6d; Dean Inge, 9s; Walter de la Mare, 8s 6d; Gilbert Frankau, 4s; William le Quex, 2s 6d.

Jlillllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllll A fine collection of seven letters, signed by Mary Queen of Scots, and 29 signed by. James I. and the Regents of his minority, has recently come into the possession of Mr W. H. Robinson, bookseller, of Newcastle, England. He is now negotiating for the sale of the documents to a Californian collector, who has what is stated to be the largest private library in the world. The collection was discovered in the Charter Chest in the Muniment Room of the ancestral castle of the original Sir Patrick Spens, where the letters had lain since the days of Mary. The documents came to the notice c>f Mr Robinson when he was purchasing the library at the castle. Some of them are from Mary’s places of imprisonment and are extremely pathetic. “Master and Men: Pink ’Un Yesterdays,” by Mr J. B. Booth, contains just as many good stories as “Old Pink ’Un Days.” He gives a new “Babu” story. A servant who had overstayed his leave of absence wrote to his master follows: “My absence is impossible. Someone has removed my wifqi My God, I am annoyed ’’ Another story con-

cerns the tour of Lewis Waller, the actor, in Australia. On someone asking, in a London bar, what had become of Waller, a friend replied: “Oh, he is doing record business in Melbourne. Giving them a brand new ‘Henry V.’ Actually played to an overflowing matinee in Melbourne raceday. and, when the big race came up during the afternoon announced the winner of the Caulfield Cup at the Battle of Agincourt! ” 55 X X Go, then, thou little lovely boy, I cannot, must not, hear thee now; And all thy soothing arts employ To cheat my Delia of her woe.” These two verses are a fair sample of the whole poem. It will be seen that Scott picked out the only gem in it. Saint Saens, the great composer, in his “Musical Memories,” has some interesting reminiscences of Victor Hugo, who was an old man when he knew him, but who seemed “rather like an ageless and immortal being whom Time could never touch” — “Time, alas I goes on, and that fine intellect which had ever been unclouded began to give signs of aberration. One day he said to an Italian delegation, ‘The French are Italians; the Italians are French. French and Italians ought to go to Africa together and found the United States of Europe/ “Victor Hugo’s credulity was astonishing in a man of such colossal genius. Hearing that the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau had been exhumed and desecrated he wrote a wonderful account of it. When the coffins were opened, the two great men were peacefully sleeping their last sleep. “He believed in the most incredible things, as the ‘Man in the Iron Mask/ the twin-brother of Louis XIV.; in the octopus that has no mouth and feeds itself through its arms; and in the reality of the Japanese sirens which the Japanese were said to make out of an ape and a fish. He had some excuse for the sirens, as the Academic des Sciences believed in them for a short time.” When the great struggle between North and South America was being “Punch” was strongly Southern in sentiment, and was very bitter in its lampooning of the Union leaders. The assassination of President Lincoln startled the world, and “Punch” cried peccavi, doing penance in a poem penned by Shirley Brooks — You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln’s bier. You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace . Broad for the self-complacent British His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face. Beside this corpse, that bears for winking sheet The Stars and Stripes be lived to rear anew. Between tho mourners at bis head and feet, Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? Yes, lie had lived to shame me from my sneer, To lame my pencil and confute my pen— To make me own this kind of princes peer. This rail-splitter a true-born king of The recent raiding of the Kit-cat Club in London will, no doubt, revive interest in thc famous Kit-cat Club which was founded in 1703. and which became a hotbed of political enthusiasts interested in the question of thc Protestant succession of the House of Ilanover. The club used to meet at the Cat and Fiddle tavern, kept by one Christopher Katt, whose mutton pies made him famous. The club first consisted of thirty-nine members, but was later on increased to forty-eight members, among whom were many famous men, including Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and William Congreve. ’* The

club,” says a writer of the period, “ is supposed to have derived its name from Christopher Katt, a pastry cook who kept the house where they dined, artfl excelled in making mutton pies, which always formed part of their bill of fare; these pies, on account of their excellence, were called kit-kats.” There was a rule in the club that every member required to have his portrait painted. Sir Godfrey*- Kneller, the artist, was a member of the club, and undertook to paint the forty-eight portraits, and it is from the size at which these portraits were done, a three-quarter length, that the word kit-kat came to be applied to pictures. It was the custom of the club to drink toasts to the famous Whig beauties of the day, and often these toasts were engraved on the wine-glasses. Lady Mary Worteley Montague records that when she was a little girl she was introduced to the club by her father and was gravely saluted by thc whole of the members. Jacob Tinson, the bookseller, was the first secretary-

It is now almost an established practice for American and European “Kings of Sport” to rush into print when their sporting prestige is definitely assured, and Steve Donoghue. the world famous jockey, has proved no exception to the rule. His first effort, “Just My Story,” was well received by followers of racing for its faithful record of “Steve’s” wonderful racing career, and for his descriptions of the great races in which he has ridden. His latest however, is a novel of thc turf entitled “The Luck of the Genjle Grafter,” and deals with Miss Nancy Gordon and her horse Gentle Grafter, and Peter Shane and his colt Humble Pie, with the jockey Frank Wevland and his sister Betty also taking prominent roles. The Story is quite readable, ana some of the incidents are sensational enough even for the multitudes who enjoy only “a thriller.'’ Thc most appealing features of this book are the fine descriptions of race finishes, and tho author’s impressions of Epsom and Longrhamps en fete. To be perfectly frank, however, “Steve” Donoghue will probably continue to be known rather for his wonderful association with the turf than for any great literary achievement, (Our copy from Simpson and Williams, Ltd. Publishers: Hutchinson and Co.. London) ____________________