BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1770, 7 June 1913, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK. Sir J. M. Barrie. ' Mr., or, as I suppose I must now call him, Sir J. 31. Barrie, is a well-established favourite with New Zealand readers, who must havo been well pleased to notice his name in tho Birthday Honours List tho other morning. Barrie is tho third prominent author to receive special honours from the Crown during recent years, the others boing Conan Doylo and' Quiller Couch ("Q"), each of whom, howover, was only knighted. ICipling, it' is well known, was offered and refused a Knighthood when tho last Conservative Ministry was in office, and Thomas Hardy wears, X believe, tho ribbon of tho Victorian Order of Merit. In tho days of his youth, or early manhood, Barrie, who ( put his early journalistic experiences to good'use in When a Man s Single," and; again, in "My Lady Nicotine," was for some time a leader writer on'the "Daily News," and also contributed, I believo I am right in saying, to tho "British Weekly." Sir Arthur Conan Doylo has always been something of a politician, and Sir Arthur Quillcr Couch was specially active in tho Government interest at the last general election, (The Late Poet Laureate. As a poet, tho late Alfred Austin was, It is generally agreed, "no great shucks" but he was an ardent Conservative, and it was probably much inoro on account of his leader-viTiting for tho "Standard" than for any special ability as a versifier that"' tho lato Lord Salisbury, appointed him to the position left vacant by tho death of Lord Tennyson. A much better choice would have been either Kipling or Swinburne, but it is said that in certain high quarters the flippant references in gome -of the "Barrnck-Room Ballads" to the "Widder at Windsor" prevented his receiving the offer subsequently made to Mr. Austin. . As for Swinburne, that true prince of Victorian poets, ho liad too eloquently praised republican ideas and heroes to be acceptable. Faute do mioux, tho selection fell' on Mr. Austin, who, from time to time, produced odes, etc., of most appalling banality of idea and expression. But tbpugh Mr. Austin's verse is doomed., I fear, to oblivion, ho wrote some very- pretty prose, notably "The Garden that I Love, which is well worth looking np. In literary circles there will probably be now. mucli debate as to who will get tho LauTeateship. Sir . Arthur Quillcr Couch will probably be in tho running, although, to my mind, his most successful efforts in verse have been in parody. And from tho . average Poot Laureate parodies are not expected, although .the Laureates generally keep tho parody-makers well employed.

Rene Bazin. A correspondent last week asked for. tho names of somo of Rene Bazin's novels. The following information may bo of interest.. Bazin's two most famous stories are "Les Oberle" and "La Terre Qui Meurt." Tho first-named is a story of an Alsatian family, and lias achieved an immense popularity with- French readers by reason of its strongly patriotic. tone. English translations of somo of Bazin's novels aro tho following:—"Tho Nun," "Tho- Penitent," ."This, My Son,". "Redemption "By"Faith Alone," and "The Rising Corn." Bazin write 3 mostly of country life. His works, though cot pro/ossedly religious, aro of a strictly moral character. In France his writings ore deservedly esteemed for "family reading," and their . author is a. speciallyfavoured novelist in ecclesiastical circles. / ''Tha Everyman Encyclopaedia." The third vflluipe, "Bri. to Chu"- of Messrs. Dent's excellent "Everyman Encyclopaedia," to be completed in twelve volumes at fifteen penco each, is to hand from Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs. Like its predecessors it contains 040 pages rf well-arranged information on every_ conceivable subject. As before, the biographical information is copious, end, as a rule, well edited. Thero is a specially good article, for instance, on Carlyle. Tho notice of Casanova, is inadequate in that it omits any mention of tho old aso experiences as librarian to tho DucdoLuyne of the famous Venetian adventurer and incorrigible amorist. Under tho heading "Cayenne" (French Guiana) tbero is a somewhat extraordinary statement;— "l'ho inhabitants live, on bread and wine, and aro subject- to attacks of yellow fever." Tho artiole on "Canal 3," especially that portion dealing with ship cunals, is lengthy and. well up-to-dats, and eive3 much. information of special interest now that the Panama Canal Is approaching completion. Unliko many similar works, tho "Everyman Encyclopaedia" includes articles on living men and women of-note. Thus an excellent three-column article on Robert Burns is immediately preceded by a short sketch'of tho career of John Burns, the famous labour organiser, and present Cabinet Minister. As I liavo Baid before,- tho "Everyman Enc.vclopaodia" should be a boon to the literary worker and the general reader whoso puna is nona too well filled. Tho work, when complete, will cost but fifteen shillings, and will contain inore than six million words: Tho print, though' necessarily small, is laudably clear. Hall Calne's Novels, Mr. W. R. Hearst, of American "yellow journal" notoriety, is a keen business man, and has no doubt made a gcod bargain by purchasing the sorial rights of Hall C'aine's literary projects (tiovels, I expect) during the next five years, for ',£20,000. Mr. Hearst owns four or five great dailies, ami has, I think, ii'torests fn several others, besides owning more than ono magazine. It is doubtful whether any English publisher or Newspaper proprietor would have made such an citer, for it is notorious that Hall Caiue's.last two or three' novels, liko those of his feminino prototype, Marie Corelli, liavo fallen very flat with English readers. For mv own-part, outside "The Deemster" and "The Manxman," I find the Shakespearean visage'd genius of Greeba Castle deadly dull. "The Master Christian" was surely tho veriest fustian. But Mr. Hearst knows tho special public ho caters for. and no doubt Hall Caine's cheap melodrama —of tho later novels—will be devoured with joy exceeding by a certain class of reader just as long as its author chocses to continuo its production. ''Phiz." All who, like myself, aro interested in Dickens and the early Victprian writers— 6omo of them most unjustly belittled nowadays by the "superior person"—will be clad to hear that wo aro to have a book, "Phiz and tho Early Victorians," written by ono of "Phiz's" sons. "Phiz," otlieririso Hablot Knight Browne, was a humorous artist, of half-English, half-French descent, who illustrated most of Dickens's novels, and nearly all Charles Lever's earlier works. Curiously enough, there is a widespread but quite erroneous impression that Georgo Cniikshanks, the Great George," as his contemporaries called him, illustrated Dickens's novels when they first appeared. As a matter of fact, Cruikshanka only did the. plates —they were etchings—for "Sketches by Boz" and "Oliver Twist." An artist named Seymour was engaged to illustrate ."I'ickwick"; but when only two of tho monthly parts had appeared, he committed suicide. Another artist, named Buss, was then engaged, but the only two plates he did were so bad that his services were dispensed with, and the plates cancelled. Needless to say, these cancelled platesone is of tho cricket match, "Muggleton Versus Dingley Dell," aro .much sought after by collectors. Next tamo Hablot K. Browne, who completed tho illustrations for "Pickwick," and who continued to illustrato all Dickens's books until "Our Mutual Friend" appeared. To Browno's disgust, Dickens entrusted tho Illustrating of this novel to Marcus_

VIEWS AND REVIEWS. BY "LIBER," Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read; 'And, his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —James Thomson.

Stone, a young artist, tho son. of "Boz's" friend. Prank Stone. Marcus Stone still lives, an honoured and prosperous Royal Academician. "Phiz" lived on until well into the early eighties. Some of his women in the Dickens' ■ books were terrible caricatu/res, but 'ha did some fine work for "Bleak House," and his illustrations for some of Lever's novels, notably "Harry Lorrequer," "Jack Hinton," and "Charles O'Malley," are most spirited, effective drawings.. "Punch's" Tribute. His life ought to bo well worth reading, for he was a genial soul, with hoops of friends. I have already extended this paragraph beyond the limit I originally set, but some, at least, of my'older readers will perhaps be glad if I reprint the lines (by Tom Taylor) which appeared in "Punch" on the occasion of Hablot Knight Browne's death:— Tho Lamp is out that lighted up the text ' Of Dickens, Lever—heroes of the pen. Pickwick and Lorrequer wo lore, but next We place the man who made us see such. men. • What should wo know of Martin Chuzzlewit, Stern Mr. Dombey, or Uriah Heep? Tom Burke of Ours?— Around our hearths they sit, ' Outliving their creates—all asleep! No sweeter gift ere fell to man than hi 3 Who gavo us "troops of friendsdelightful Phiz! 'Ho is not dead! There in the picturobook He lives, with men and women that he drew) We take him with us to the cozy nook ; Where old companions wo can love . lovo qnew. Dear boyhood's friends! We rode with' to. hounds; ' Lived'with dear old Peggotty in after years} Missed in old Ireland, where fnn knew no bounds; At Dora's death we felt poor David's tears! There is no death for such a man ' —ho is The spirit of an unclosed book, Immortal Phiz. Other Dickens illustrators there have been by the dozen—Fred Barnard, Charles Green, Harry Furniss, and quite recently Frank Reynolds—tho best of all tho moderns—but to me, although I frankly adinii'o some of their wotli, a Dickens novel minus the Phiz pictures somehow scarcely seems a Dickens botfk at all. So much for early associations and memories. They die hard.

Carlyle a; a Book Borrower. There are some good stovio3 about tlie early Victorians in Mr. Rental's recentlypublished book '"John Forster mid Bis Friends." Forster was naturally amcng the group which. feted Mazzini as a modern Rienzf. Carlylo himself also seems* .to have been brought within the charmed circle' of Mazzini's personal influence. On one occasion lie writes Forster, to borrow Barrow's "Wanderings in Lombard);" for his info's protege.'"" A' trifling'action, pethaps, but signifying much, seeing- who and what manner of man Carlyle really was. Carlyle, by t'lio .way, was a selfconfessed "libertine" as a borrower of books. .Tears before, in writing ti. Forster, he says: "I am a Eob Boy in becks, and levy blackmail on all my friends. Think of calling some day. to make a new forage among your bookshelves.' Whether Barrow's "Wanderings" ever found its way back to Forster's bookshelves it is impossible to say. Stray Leaves. A ■ new ■ book for musicians is • "Who's Who in Music," a biographical record of contemporary musicians, edited by H. S. Wyndham and CI. L'Epine (Pitman, 65.). The work contains over "1000 biographies of leading British, [American, Continental, and Colonial. musicians." But surely most of the really notable people in the musical world find a place in ordinary "Who's, Who!" Even works of reference are being rather overdone nowadays. ■ * s * Ellen Glasgow's now novel "Virginia" will shortly appear in Heinemann's' Colonial Library. - « ■ * * Hodders are publishing a sevenpenny edition of "The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford." -This has hitherto been a five-shilling book. A complete uniform two-shilling edition of "Jlark Rutherford's" books is also announced. # # Two Columbia University professors have edited, I see, some "selections" from "Rabelais" for Putnam's series of "French Classics for English Readers." If I remember rightly, the late Sir Walter Besant did tho same thing some years ago. But an expurgated Rabelais is not Rabelais at all. If your stomach bb not strong enough to swallow the grossncis of the famous Cure do Meudon, then leave him alone. Pantagruelism diluted is the veriest dishwater. #2 * ' Macmillans, who own tho copyright of 6D many notable theological works, announce a "Shilling Theological Library." "Ecco Homo" and Farrar's "Seekers After Truth" have already been issued in shilling form, but included in the first list are many works by Charles Kingsley, Dean Church, Bishop: Westcott, Phillip Brooks, and others, which have hitherto been obtainable only at a much higher price than tho democratic shilling. . English ■ papers to hand by this week's mail contain announcements of "A South Sea Saga," by "A South Sea Skalld" (S. H. Strong), a poetical description of tho development of New Zealand.

Tho flood of Strindberg translations is ever 'increasing in volume. Tho latest is "In Midsummer Days/' published by a firm, Howard, Latimer and Co., the namo of which, is now to me. Recent additions to Hcinemann's Sevenpenny series include H. G. Wells's brilliant, but weird, story, "Tho Island of Dr. Moreau"; "The Dancer in Yellow,'' by W. E. Norris; and Dolf Wyllardo'a "Uriah tho Hittite." Dr. Andrew White, the distinguished American, says that years_ ago he met Emerson on a train, at Niagara Falls. He was reading Carlylo's lifo of Frederick the Great. "Mr. Emerson," I said, "what do you think of that book?" "Oh, so far it is nothing but everlasting dry-as-dust." Tlks author of fchnt extraordinarily successful novel, a book that everybody likes —"The Harvester," lias written another, which is to bey published by Doubleday, Page and Co., of New York. Its title is "Laddie," and it is expected to bo as popular as any of Mrs. Geno nlrattonPorter's other stories. 4 * # , Through Edmund G'osse's "Portraits and Sketches" are scattered intimato little stories of. distinguished writers of yesterday. such as this of Swinburne, who it will be remembered, for all tho groat melody lie put into his verse, had almost no ear at all for music:—"A lady . . . told Swinburne that she would render on the piano a very ancient Florentine ritornello had just been discovered. She then played 'Thrco Blind Mice,' and Swinburne was enchanted. He found that it reflected to perfection' the cruel br-snty of tho Meilicis—which, perhaps, it dues." Somebody has been asking John M.'icefield, so says "The Book Monthly," how a man or woman should set abnut tho pursuit and exercise of the literary craft. Ilis answer is that th"V should lead the great masters continually. Tie f[»ote; n French sayifls ill support of this, "A.

bold design, constant practice, aDd frequont mistakes." Mr. Haselield adds: "A man's youthful work may bo worthless, but it is an excellent training for expressing one's self,"