LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP.

Devout Tennyponiiuis must have rubbed their eyes on reading in the Literary Supplement of "The Times" the statement that "Tennyson, of all poets, needs a judicious and drastic editing, and that his poems, of all poems, can least stand the pomp and circumstance of a 'collected' edition," and the further pronouncement that "tho ideal edition would certainly not contain more than fifty poems, and these gathered from tho earlier books." Wo all know (the "Westminster Gazette" remarks) that Fitzgerald declared that Tennyson never regained , ' tho level of the volumes of 1842, but is it now to be suggested in all seriousness that wo are to jettison all! save, perhaps, fifty of those poems which so completely won our admiration? Surely not.

Some interesting statistics relating to the production of printed books are given in, the "Bulletin de l'lnstitut International de Bibliographic." It is computed that the total number of printed books in the world is no less than 11,638,810, and that about 8,714,000 of these have been published subsequently to the year 1800. From 1500 to 1535 the number of books produced annually averaged only 1250. It was not until 1700 that the annual average passed 10,000, and it was not until 1887 that it reached 100,000. From 1900 to 1903, however, the annual output averaged 174,375 —exactly 140 times the average output between 1500 and 1535. '

A window to the memory of Izaak Walton is being erected in Winchester Cathedral, and the dedication has been fixed for the twenty-ninth of the present month.' The author of "The Compleat Angler" died in Winchester in 1683, and lies buried in Prior Silkstede's Chapel in the Cathedral. The grave is marked by a black marble elab bearing an inscription by Thomas Ken,! "the hymn-writer and one of the "seven bishops." Izaak Walton used frequently to stay at Winchester as the guest of the Bishop, Geo. Morley, who was translated to the See soon after the Restoration. Tho library of Winchester Cathedral has many books formerly ia the possession of the literary ironmonger of Fleet street.

Mmc Susanna Ibsen, who died last month aged sevonty-eeven, was the daughter of Magdalene Thoresen, a novelist, with whom Ibsen, "as a young man, formed a close friendship. In 1858, the year after his appointment to be stage-manager to the Norwegian Theatre in Christiania, Ibsen, then twenty-nine, married Susanna Thore«en, who was twenty-one. He had not yet written any of the plays which aro now world-famous, but some of the most charming of the lyrics composed by him in his earlier years of authorship were addressed to the lady who became his wife. She= was his companion during tho many years of acute struggle with poverty through which the dramatist had to paes before he achieved fame. Ibsen died in May, 1900.

One A>i the early novelists with whom Edward Marston, the well-known publisher, whose death was announced recently, had direct dealings, says "The. Times," was Lord Lytton (then Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton), whose "Strange Story" was issued by his firm after running its serial course in "All the Year Round"; but the book was only moderately successful. Of all the literary associations which dated from his early publishing days, Edward Marston valued most highly his long and intimate friendship with R. D. Blackmore. Both men were horn in the same year—Marston was just four months older than Blackmore; they were brother anglers, and had many other tastes in common; and the novelist always felt that ho owed a debt of gratitudo to the head of the only house which had ventured to accept his second novel, "Lorna Doone." "But for you," ho wrote on one- occasion, " 'Lorna Doono' would never have seen the light. All the magazines rejected her. and Smith and Elder refused to give £200 for the copyright,"

In the seventies Mr Marston's firm published William Black's "A Daughter of Heth," and nearly all his later novels passed through hia hands. For many years Mr Marston's firm issued Mr Thomas Hardy's books, but when the novelist wrote "Tess ,, and "Tho Group of Noble Dames," regarding his old publishers—as Mr Marston himself tells us in his reminiscences—as too conservative in their ideas to iake such works, he handed them over to Mr J. R. Osgood, who was then starting the publishing business in Albemarle street in connexion with Messrs Harper and Brothers. Another novelist closely associated with Edward Marston and his partners was Wilkie Collins, whose "Woman in White' , and other novels they published. Charles Jteade. whose "Hard Cash ,, came through tho same house, was also, in Mr Marston's words, "an excellent man of business, juid very careful of the commodity whicH furnished the title of his book.

A scheme is afoot to organise a British Book Fair, on the lines of tins {ireat Book Fair at Leipzig (says a London paper). The opinions of the leading publishers are said to be in its favour. Mr John JLane thinks that the first attempt is hardly likely to be a success, but that it might develop into a useful institution if organised by an expert. "What is •wanted," he says, "is an opportunity for printers, booksellers. and_ reviewers to learn all

the troublo and work that go to produce a good book. Six shilling novels sometimes published in hideous sty»o evoke no protest, and really beautiful books, unon which the' publisher has expended* much thought and-Jabour : pri- allowed to pass without praise. If the Book Fair can help to educate those who should, and do not, know anything about book production, then it will bo excellent. In any case we are quite prepared to support the scheme." Mr Werner Laurie thinks it would he a sre-at thing if English publishers combined more, as the Americans andGeimans do. In America, he points out, the publishers have show-rooms in every town, where they send batches of book.-, not necessarily i'oc sale, but to let the public see what they have to offer. "In England, '■ ho laments, "wo publishers arc too jealous of each other. But the scheme i* splendid if it can only be carried out."