BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2860, 26 August 1916, Page 6

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

(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.

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

TO COPJtESPONDEM'S. "Curious" (Kelburn). —Tho book do. Boribing Captain Voss's voyage round tho world in tho Tillikum was published in Japan (by, I think, Kelly and Walsh, of Yokohama).- It is somewhat expensive. There was also published, some five or six years ago, an account of a similar" voyago mado by Captain Slbcum. Inquire as to particulars, of your bookseller. "C.F.H." (Ekctahuna) is anxious to borrow or buy a copy of Jolmson's "Chemistry of Common Life," published about 1860, and long out of print. Can any reader lay him on to a copy?, •'G.F." (Wanganui).—Locko's latest is a volume of short stories, "Far Away. Storios." Your local bookseller could no doubt supply.

I am again obliged to hold over some • reviews of new books and several novel notices. I road, or rather, I ought more • truthfully to say, glance through" a- : good many English newspapers, re- ■.;.' views, and periodicals generally .as they arrive each mail, but I make it 1 a point never to miss a single issuo : * of "The Britisli Weekly." Not that I ', am greatly interested in the news of ' the various Nonconformist, or, as we : call them out here, the Free Churches, '■ but because the front-page leading article, sometimes on purely religious questions, but more frequently i deal.'ing with tho'war, and with various . political and social topics, invariably affords such a sane, broadly tolerant, and . _ eminently sensible outlook on the que& . tion dealt with. It says much for Sii .Wm.Robertson-Nicoll's sterling patriot- ', 16m, and power to grip tho real esson-, tials of the British people's connection . with the w'ar, that he has so eloquently , and_ forcibly expounded tho doctrine of' .'-' national and individual responsibility . with rogard to the war.

So many of the professedly religious weeklies have lent themsolves to' agitations against compulsory service, to' premature appeals for tho publication of "peace terms," to querulous, and profitless criticism —often vory illnatured, and sometimes most unfair— of Mr. Asquith'and his colleagues, notably Sir Edward prey, that tho "British Weokly" articles como a3 a most agreeable oontrast. Two-specially notable articles have recently appeared.' One set up a curious and cleverly/conceived connection botween. tho stars of the Southern Cross constellation and the special characteristics of the now famous Anzacs.' The second article (July 13) is beaded "Conscience," and affords food for some very profitable thought on that much-discussed subject.

For these front-page leaders by its editor, the "British Weekly" is • wcil worth the penny it costs, but/bookmen will also find * weekly feature, "The Correspondence of Claudius Clear," in' which Sir William Robertson Mcoll brings into delightful play his- vast stores of literary knowledge. Many dozens of cuttings has "Liber" made, in his time, from the literary essays of •"Claudius Clear," and ho feels it a duty to draw the attention. of his fellow bookmen to this rich mine of out-of-the-way literary information and pleasant gossip about books and bookmen.

" Among this year's birthday honours, some of the most important names on which were; I notice, not cabled out, was a knighthood for Mr,, now Sir Algernon' Methuen, of the well-known pubfishing. firm of Methuen and " Co. There is no business in which more useful service can be done for the public than that of publishing—tho publishing, of course, of really goad literature. The firm, of which Sir Algernon Methuen is tho distinguished head- has never descended to the publishing of trash. Even its .fiction is, nearly always, of a very high level of literary excellence— indeed,, it may be. said that one is al.ways "safe" in buying a novel with the Methuen imprint. The firm has a great reputation for its educational works, and has produced jsome fine series or standard works.. '

...The "Ardcai" Shakespeare, for instance, holds high rank for the accuracy of its text and the'excellency of its editing; indeed, it comes next in aimotative wealth.and critical value to the famous Variorum editions, edited by tho iFurnesses, of Philadelphia. I recall, too, Wiatnoblo series, "Tlie Ccainoisseur'E Library," and- that interesting series, "The Antiquary's Library," the famous _Bury edition of Gibbon, the Lucas feditionof Lamb, the "Wanderer" series tof travel. books of which Mr. Lucas k tho author, arid many other equally admirable publications. In according Sir Algernon Methuen the same honour as that given to the head of that older and famous publishing firm, the Mac•iriillans, Mr. Asquith has earned tho applause a of all who love good books and'have a personal respect for those who produce them. ■

Another new knight is Sir Arthur Pearion, famous in connection with his vanbus publications. I havo always held that the Harmswortbs and Pearsons havo done much to cheapen—in the worst . sense of the word; —and vulgarise English periodical literature, and oh his achievements as a publisher and newspaper proprietor I certainly should not . have held Mr. Arthur. Pearson deserving of knighthood or any other order. But in quito another, and under the circumstances, very pathetic direction, Mr. , Pearson has done splendid servico for tho State'which well merited royal recognition. This is in conneotion with the soldiers" who—alas, there are a very largo number of them—havo lost their eyesight" at tho front. Sir Arthur himself became almost totally blind two or- threo years or so ago, and his personal interest in our blinded heroes lias-moved him to organiso and subsidise' most generously a scheme under, .which the poor sightless fellows aro being trained, not only to read tho UlraibV type''books, which-aro such a '.'..boon,'to. tho blind, but for various'now avocations in. life. Ho has given up his splendid mansion as a home and training'instituto for tho blind, and his organising power lias done much (,o ■stimulato public interest in an enterprise whioh he assists most generously .out of his private purse. _ Far better Work this than tho publishing of catchpenny- "snippet" .weeklies and running ,','inissing- word competitions." ft "is good news to me, as it will doubtless be to a very largo circle of New Zealand readers, to learn that in addition to a volume of essays, "Sunshine arid Clouds," Mr. E. V. Lucas is shortly to publish (through Mctlmeris) a new novel, the title of which ,'is "The Vermilion Box." ft will bo r^,ter.esting :i Lucas |;siiJ;yFeviv,ei;lif)>y\o'f : '/liis' pldEc'haract&s, [■fjrjpinfvsay, Bemerfoh's,".. '.'Tho 'flngleside/"'^ahd 7 ;s'"Lo'ndoii Lavender." ;.jßut':-:,whatever. its'isubjeot, the new ; fetory is suro to be'readable, Mr. ; Lucas is ' singularly liioky - in. coming

across human oddities of all kinds, and ho writes with such unfailing good humour that his old admirers remain always faithful, whilst new ones swell his particular public with each successive volume. A third Lucas book announced for early publication is "Loudon Revisited." It is, I understand, a complement or sequol to "A Wanderer in London" by the same author.

I regrot' to read, in. "Tho Bookman," of the death of a very able English writer, Mr. John H. Ingram, tho greatest living authority on that curiously complex character, Edgar Allan Poe. It is good to know that a few months before his death Mr. Ingram completed a drastic revision of his "Life of Poe," which-will be published very shortly. Ingram wrote a most interesting volume on-the Elizabethan dramatists, ' 'Christopher Marlowe and His Associates."

Personally, I cannot join in the chorus of. admiration raised in certain quarters at Home over Mr. J. M. Hay's last novel, "Barnacles," but Scottish friends are, I find, most enthusiastic over the book, just as they wore over the author's ""first novel, "Gillespie,"published a couple of years ago, and, to- my mind, a much superior piece of work to its successor: Mr. Hay is at present engaged, upon a third novel, dealing with the : Churoh of Scotland and its failure, so Mr. Hay alleges, to reach'its people, and its need of another'reformation. The author of "Gillespie" and "Barnacles" must not bo confounded.with Mr. Lan Hay (lan Hay Beith is his full namo), the" author of "A Man's Man," and so many other wholesomely amusing stories, and of that remarkably, successful war book "The First Hundred Thousand."

In the Juno "Bookman." (Hotlder and Stougbton), the principal feature is-an interesting article on H. A. Vachell, the clever author of "The Hill," "Quinney's," and of many other capital stories. Mr. Vaohell's latest novel, "Tho Triumph.of Tim," is now on sale in Wellington, but for some curious reason his publishers, Smith, Elders, never 6end.review copies to-this journal. However that is their loss, not mine, for tho reviewing of novels is but tedious work.'._ Mr. Vachell spent some years in .California —his "Spragge's Canyon" is perhaps the best of his Californian stories—but in 1900, being then thirty, returned to England, ami now lives in a pleasant country home near Southampton.

A Japanese correspondent sends the "Bookman" an interesting account of the posthumous honour conferred upon Lnfcadio Heafn, who wrote so much upon Japan, and to whom tho Japanose Government of his day behaved with cruel ingratitude. (For further particulars see Henm's "Life and Letters," edited by Miss Bisland).. The house in which Hearn lived at the out-of-the-way port of Matsuo, at which he was so long engaged as a schoolmaster, has, it is interesting to learn, been religiously preserved as a sort of Hearn museum. . It is good to know that Hearn is now so much appreciated by the country whose national spirit and literature .ho didso much to interpret correctly: and sympathetically to the Western world, but I wish the Japanese had treated him better during his lifetime.

Our old friend "Dad," "Dad" of "On our Selection," blossoms fortE in Steele Eudd's latest book into "QrandI a." "Grandpa" is called to 'the Legislative Council, and insists upon taking a pair of blue blankets and a pillow when he goes to attend the meeting of Parliament. "Blankets," he says. "Yes, o' course, blankets. What. would be tho good o' anyone goin' to_the Upper Houso without 'em ? Daimmit, y' don't expect me to sloop in me clothes, do y'?" The Now South Wales Legislative Council may have changed, not a little of recent years, but on the one occasion "Liber" attended a meeting of that august body, the atmosphere was certainly not conducive to somnolence,, for a "scene" happened to be in progress, and the language use! by certain speakers was most "painful and free."

Amongst other Victorian celebrities, who figure in Sir Henry Lucy's latest volump is Charles Keone, the famous "Punch" artist, the greatest master of "lino"—Phil May not even excepted —that lias ever had on his staff. Keene was a man of very reserved manners, and I can quite understand that Lucy, who is popularly credited with being vastly impressed with a sense of his own importance, may have found the artist a somewhat unsympathetic person. Lucy relates how Keene would attend the famous "Punch" dinners, and as soon as. possible take to his pipe and silence, and was,never heard to offer a suggestion for the creation or the improvement of a cartoon. At one time he lived in a studio on, the attic floor of an ! old house in tho Strand.

"Here, amid dust and cobwebs, old costumes and properties, hung upon v a clothes-line drawn, across the room, he worked hard for his living. Ho would have no charwoman about his promises. Any dusting and cleaning required ho did himself. Also be was his own cook. This habit lie kept up to the end, Whon, in the course of years, ho reached his studio in tho King's Boad, Chelsea, ho took with him a gas-stove,' with .whoso dubious aid ho prepared his midday meal. Some men would have supplied themK>lvos with a better-equipped apparatus. The expenditure upon "gas was , quite enough for Carlos without running into extras in the way of plant. A cheap gas light sot nn a stool and connected with n chandelier by flexible tuba supplied the heat, whilst for cooking contrivance he ingeniously adapted thfl coiled spring taken from an old Gibus hat."

Keene loft £-10,000 and undoubtedly was a man of peculiarly frugal hahits. His extraordinary "homo cookery," of which a most amusing description, is given,'by the way, in that most delightful book, "The Life and Letters of Charles Keene, of 'Punch,' " written by G. S. Layard, had not a littlo to do, I fancy, with tho painful disease which caused bis death, fn Mr. Layard's pages ono gots the real "Carlo,", as his many friends called Koone, and a very lovablo though 'eccentric character ho was. So far from being tho miserly hermit that Sir Henry Lucy pictures him, he had a wide'circle of friends, not confined to artists, who greatly esteemed him. His two great hobbies were the .use of curiously shaped clay tobacco' pipes, of which ho had a largo collection, and playing the bagpipes, a pastime somewhat odd in ono who had no Calodonian blood in his veins. Ho was a member of a onco famous glee-society, tho Moray Minstrels, and a great collector of and authority on old ballads. It is worth recording that ho was a close personal friontl of "Omar" Fitzgerald, and .would often ,run down., to visit tho. "Laird of.Little Grange" at his homo in the sleepy old Suffolk town of Woodbridge. Li Fitzgerald's lotters, thofo are quite a number of references to Keene, who was clearly a very sterling fellow, although decidedly eccentric in

some of his habits. Mr. Layard's book on Kecno is not, I thinly so well known as it ought to be. It is full of good stories of Victorian artists, ospeoially the "Punch" coterie, and Keeno's letters are as almost human and interest, ing as thoso of his old friend "Fitz." himself. The book will specially do-' light thoso who aro interested in pictures, prints, and old china collecting. From Mr. Layard's book I copy out-a verso of Mr. "Punch's" own tribute to ono of the most brilliant and loyal of his staff: Frank, loyal, unobtrusive, simplo-hearted, Loving his book, his pipe, his song, his friend; Peaceful lie lived and peacefully departed, A gentle life course with a gracious end.

Lieutonant-Colonel Patorson, the author of that capital book, one of the best books on African sport ever published, "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" (Murray now publishos a cheap edition, Is, 6d., of tills book), had a queer experience at the Dardanollos. He was placed in command of tho Zion Mule Corps, composed entirely of Jews, which was raised in Egypt for service in Gallipoli. He has written a book, entitled "With tho Zionists in Gallipoli," which is not only a record of tho work of the corps, but describes the fighting generally, aud is a story of actual happenings as the author saw them.

Quito a new discovery is announced by Mr. Edwin Pugh, in a chapter on Dickens in his recent book, "Slings and Arrows." Enthusiastic Diokensians will be gratified to learn on his authority that "in English literature B.C. stands for 'Bofore Charles,' and A.D.. for 'After Dickens.' " This is surely pushing literary hero-worship to the extreme of rank absurdity.