LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2793, 10 June 1916, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Thomas Bracken—An Appreciation. , "Thomas Bracken—A Critical Apprecia- ' tlon" is the title of an interesting booklet, written by Louis. H, A'ictory, fellow of tho l?oyal Society of Literature. and published by Watkins, 'l'yer, and Tolan, .Wellington, Mr. .Victory is, 1 see by a; list oh the fly leaf; 3m author of some considerable experience, for the list includes thirteen separate publications (verses, tragedies, romances, dramas, essays, etc.), all of which are, however, "out of print," und with none of -which I have'been fortunate to make acquaintance. Mr. Victory, as befits an .author whose own contributions to literature appear to have been so voluminous, wnxca eloquent up»n the value to the world of what lie deems is too often the unrequited genius of its poets. There is, he contends," "something rotten," in that State which heaps all its honours on ■ soldiers' and statesmen und scorns its bards—"the unacknowledged legislators of the world." "Woo to that country which lauds its Premier and whips with scorn its Poet! The muaicmakers and the dreamers are the ' hne flower of the nation; without them we sink into a soul-destroying materialism."' The'author then proceeds to analyse and criticise Mr. Bracken's poetry from varl-. ous standpoints. Ido not always agree with Mr.. Victory's unmeasured eulogy of Bracken's verse, but it is good to , notice the generous, glowing _ enthusiasm of the poet's latter-day admirer,'and I regret that space limitations forbid nuotation .from .an aoDrectation which, though at times disligured by manifest extravagances, especially in its comparisons of Bracken's work with that of Rossetti, Tennywm, anil other -writers, contains many striking passages and does credit alike to tho heart and pen of tta writer. (Price not stated.) The Call of the Camps. TJndcr the alluring title "The Call of the Camps," a clever young . Wellington journalist. Mr. Leo. Fanning, liu« published an attractively-produced "booklet dealing with the training and camp lifo generally of our New Zcal'aud soldiers. In addition to his descriptions of the Tren : thnm and Featherston camps, the author gives;'a very- useful.'.suminary' of-tho history.of tho: Dominion's --piutlujsatinn iu. the war, together With much interesting information as to the various clul», Moieties,.and patriotic and benevolent _ movements which have come into ficjittenen in connection with the war. Tbo illustrations 'are numerous and very interesting. The booklet, which should bogfeatly in demand for sending to friends and relatives 1 in Great Britain and other .countries, has'W,een,'; admirably printed and tastefully got up' generally at- tho "Evening Post" office. A Famous Old Bookselling Firm. Many a New Zealand bookman knows, by name at least, the famous old London firm of booksellers, Henry Sotheran and Co. I have a goodly number of books in my modest library which have biien bought from tho Sotherans, and never yet have I found a' volume to have been ■wrongly described in their catalogues, which is a good deal more than cun bo said for some English second-hand, or—as tho fashion now styles them—antiquarian booksellers. Catalogue No. 701 has just been sent me by Sotherans. On the insiders an. interesting Jittle note entitled. "The Hundred Years' Mind of the Firm." .The firm was founded in 1816 by Jlr. ■Thomas Sotheijau, who : had come up to, London from his native city of 1.0r1c,. where his forebears had been booksellers in tho eighteenth century, and who net up for himself at No. 2 Little Tower Street,'a then narrow thoroughfare, which led'from •Ba'stcheap to Tover Hill. The writer of the Note continues: ■;Hefo in 1820 liis .son, .Henry Sotheran, was born, the father of the writer of theso line*?. As a boy ho had walked' over the London Bridge built by Father Peter of Colcchurch, in A.D. 1176. lie was present nt tho burning of the old- Royal Exchange, and died in 1905. The year of tho founding of the lirm was tho morrow of Waterloo. Its Hundred Years' jlind finds Eng. land .and nearly, all civilised Europe fighting the battle ot humanity against a criminal Power infinitely more degraded than the Committ-e of Public > . .Safety, whose victory would mean the end of a free and hopeful world for generations to come; As that long-prepared triumph, of the German. anti-God will never come about, it is both amusing and ufcful to .mark its vain boasting at this time. That tho good old firm' of Sotherans may live long and continue to prosper is tho pious Wish of one at least of its New Zealand customers. . . Billiards for Amateurs. There are dozens of books on-the everpopular' game of billiards, but there was room for the admirably-planned little handbook' "Billiards for Amateurs,"- by Charles Eoberts ("Vivid") (Werner Laurie, vLtdi)..' For Mr. Roberts,, unlike so •many experts who have written oil tho game, begins at the very beginning, and 'does"riot, assuriie even the utmost elementary preliminary of the game by his readers. A special object in writing .the book .was, the author tells us, "to eu- . courage ladies to shine at a game so eminently qualified to enhance the elegance of their sex," and he gives some interesting descriptions of how a lady member of the Roberts family—so famous in the history of' English billiards—mastered certain intricacies of the game. The b00k,,, which should appeal to the many New Zeala'nders who have of late taken to billiard playing in the h'ome; is illustrated by many useful diagrams. (N.Z. price,. Is. 6d.-), Stray Leaves. 1 . Boyd Cable, the clever ex-"Bullotin" contributor, who has.done such fine work ■ as. a war 'correspondent, and whose "Between. tho Lines" has been bo warmly praised by the Homo Press, has, I see, ,'a..companion volume,- "Action Front," almost ready for publication. '-"Horace"A. Vachell.of "Hill" fame, is now at the -frqnt, a fact , which has not prevented his a new story, "Tiio Triumph of Tim," which is the' longest novel he lias-yet written. The scenes are laid in England, California, and Brittany, and many of the incidents arc said to lie autobiographical. The fourth volume of the Life of Benjamin Disraeli;-'which Mr. G. E. Buckle is editing in succession to the late W. F. Monypenny, was to be published by Jlr. Murray'early last month, fn this volume the record of Disraeli's Jife is continued to the year 18G8, when lie boenme Prime Minister. There will be a fifth and final volume. How history and the German nature repeat themselves. In Mrs. Wragge's interesting little collection of "Letters in War Time" (Oxford Press, Is. Gd.) thcro is a letter written, in 1852, ■ from Sir Charles Napier, in which, as chance Would have it, lie quotes the following saying of Frederick the Great, which constitutes a timely reminder that the absenco of morality in Prussian 'statecraft which' has now set the world (-.blaze is no plant of recent growth." "Give-mo tho money .to.make war," said i-11-a great exemplar of" German diplomacy, "and 1 will buy a pretext for half-a-crown." Our local librarians and booksellers' assistants' could, 1 expect, make up a good list of "howlnrs" in book titles, but I-scarcely think they could find quainter examples than the following, taken from a list compiled by a London Iwokstall clerk. The first half of the list gives the titles of the books asked for, the second, the wondnrfwl names in which they were ashed for: ".J'Accuse"—"Jack Hughes." "Do I'rofuiulis"—"Deeper Fungus."' "Hunchback of Notre Dame" —"Hunchback of Rotterdam." "Tosephus's nistory of the Jews"— "Joe Sievers's History of the Jews."

"field Servico liegulntions"—"Field Service for Clalaticus."

"Marriage: Beforo and After"—"Mailiiors Bef«ro the Altar."

"Old St. Paul's"—"Horse and Pause." 'Tighter Days AVitli Troddles"—'"Light of Day With 'I'rouWes."

"If Youth but Knew" Ims already, I believe, been used for the title of a novel. Now, Mr. Bernard Capes takes what follows, "If Age Could," for a story of . his which .Duckworths are publishing.

Julia Frankau ("Frank Dauby"), to wlioso death. I alluded last week, left a posthumous novel, "Twilight." It was htly named, seeing the circumstances under which it was .written. Tho author had been suffering for. many months from an illness which .necessitated a morphia treatment. Writing to her NewYork publisher, -Mrs. Frankau said: "I knew my De Quincey pretty well, and perhaps this gave me the idea of writing my dreams. 'Twilight' , was written between 11 and 1' at night, after tho 'second'and beforo the third half-grain in. ieption of morphia. Perhaps it is moroid; perhaps, being a genuine personal 4 experience, it is only interesting. All my life has'been happy, successful; tho end has como hard and unexpected. Night and. day I wish it were over, but it iags." The letter ends by a statement that "Twilight" is the' author's "swan song," and with a pathetic "goodbye to my dear American public." The late Mrs. Frankau's three sons are all at the front.- .