LITERARY NOT
In one "week John Buehan. aai'-. •'Greenmantlo" and ""The Battle . ; Somme,'-'- the new chief of the I - : > Foreign Office publicity deparv .. lost both -his brother and his bv •- partner in the flame of battle, brother, "Lieut. Alastair : ■ Royal Soots Fusiliers, only 22 old, went straight from college to . i: the army in the first week of the .» Capt. Nelson, John Buchan's pain tho publishing firm of Thomas son and Co., was tho most bril Rugby footballer of his time. Buchan was for a timo on the sta:; the British Army in France, and it in ono of official press dispat- ■ that he quoted Kipling's line, " captains and the kings depart, - ' wl - the field censor propliylactised by leting "and'the kings'-' and thus gr ed immortality. Lan Hay, who has spent sonic time America, lecturing and winning con; less friends not only for his cause b l ' 1 for himself, expects to bo on duty ■ i the French front during tho summci to spend some time on board the vessels of tho British Grand Fleet, and then—if there is a then—to go back • to America in the autumn. His newest book. ''The Oppressed English," is [ going through the press. Members of Maurice Hewlett's familj are doing their bit for their country. Tho only son of the family, Pligiit Commander Francis Hewlett, is" ono of the most useful men in tho naval air . service. Ho had tho. narrowest escape j from capturo by the Germans in. the history of tho war. For over a iveek England mourned him as dead. _ His adventures sineo • then aro as thrilling as any of his father's novels. .Mrs Hewlett, who was ono of tho first women in England .to tako np flyitig, and who • won her pilot's certificate, carries on an aoroplano factory in which aro mad© Government machines. Miss Pia Howlett, Maurice Hewlett's daughter, a capable translator, is now working at tho War Office. She, too, is skilled in tlio art of making aeroplanes. Sho was forewoman for some timo in her mother's factory.
Sunlight, moonlight, Twilight-, starlight— Gloaming at the closo of day, And an owl calling, Cool dewo falling In a wood of oak and may. Xian tern-light., taucr-light, Torchlight, no-light: Darkness at Ihc shut of day, And lions roarinjr. Their wrath pouring * Ie wild waste places far away. Elf-light, baMiglit, Touchwood light-, and toad light, And the scsa. a shimmerinp gloom of gray, And a. small faco smiling In a dream' 3 beguiling In a world of wonders far away. —Walter de la Jlaic,
C. K. Shorter devotes his page in the "Sphere" for Juno 16th. to ;ui account of the first, edition of Milton's "l'aradiso Lost," -\vliich is . now worth from £250 up. according to condition. A perfect copy l —if one bo in existence— could probably easily be sold for £1000. But it is not its vahio which makes the edition most remarkable. It appears, according to Shorter, who follows' bibliographical authorities who have devoted much time to the subject, that low first editions of great books have ever had so complex an issue. The publisher (whom, it is likely that Milton had some trouble in, finding and persuading to issue his poem, on account of the -Great .Fire of 1666 and other, circumstances) was Samuel Simmons, of Aldersgate street, transaction by which Simmons paicl the blind bard £5 for his poem down, and, agreed to pay £5 for each of tho next three editions, should' the hook ever go into them, is famous. - Simmons did not put' his own name on the title-page of that edition, although 'he did later. Tho book was issued in London in the last week of August, 1667, the selling price being 3s per copy, the equivalent of lialf-a-guinea at the present time. The first copies wore issued from' Parker's shop, or Boulter's in the of London, or from Walker's in the "West. Some 1300 copies, or 1300 at most, were printed, but Simmons • did * not think it judicious to bind them all up in fact, it took him nearly throe years and nine issues of tho book to exhaust his 1500 copies. These nine issues are all called the "first edition," as binding does not count in tho calculations of the bibliophile to any gTeat extent. Two of these suoressive bindings were dated 1667, four of them appeared in 1668, and three in 1661). For a second binding a new title-page was prepared, in which Milton's name appears m smaller type, that being the only variation but the sale being slow Simmons got it into liis bead that it was .tn 0 name of "John Milton", on the titlepace so intimately associated with tnc work' of the now. discredited Commonwealth, that injured the sale of tlie book. In tho third edition tWfore the book appeared as by J. M. • e fourth issue in the same year, lbbß, •was also by "J. M.," but with variations in tho size of the type.
One or the poems in tlie now volume of Swinburne's poems has been quoted as being almost prophetic. It is called "In the Twilight," and was written in 1567. Wc quote a few stanzas: Lord, is it day time or night? Failure, Lord, or success? Speak to us, answer us, Thou; Surely the light of Thy brow Gave üb, giveth 'us, light, _ . Dark bo the eeaeon or bright, Strong to support or suppress. ■Thou, with eyes to tho east, Beautiful, vigilant eyes: Father, Comforter, Chief, Joy be it with u-3 or grief. Season or fur oral- or feast, Careful of Thirc, of Thy least. Careful who lives and who cues. Soul and Spirit of all, Kecpin" the watch or the wot la, All through the night-watches, there Gazing through turbulent _ air. Staudeat; how fihall we foil? "What should afflict or ajipal, Though the streamers of etem be \\uxurled? • All the noise of the ni^ht. All the thunder of things, All tho terrors be hurled, Of the blind brute-force of the world, All the weicrht of the fight, All men's violent might All the confluence of kings. What it the morning awoke, Xever of us to be s£>cn? Yet, if wo die, if .we live. That which •we have will w<* give, That which is with us we take, Borno in our hands for her sake, "Who still be, and is, and hath been. Her, though wo die, we eh all find, Surely, though far she be fled; Xay, if we find not at last. I "Wc, though'we die'and eo' past, ! Yet shall wo leave her behind, i rljo»-e to the sons of our k'nd. "Si'en that come after ub dead, shall eay of ue then: tlie Cheedom they had ' not as we, conseqtfic- none of them slaves: "erms ».hey lie in their gTaves, flit-mf 'ther3, the ancient of men, tin (Xic- aW3ke not again, Usee pi"' living were free.™ and sa' , r —•
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Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15989, 25 August 1917, Page 7
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1,151LITERARY NOT Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15989, 25 August 1917, Page 7
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