LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 305, 20 September 1919, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Answers to Correspondents. . A.E.M. (Auckland): Tlinnks for kind " appreciation. C.E.S.P. (Wellington): ■ will try mid deal with subject next week. J.R.L. (Kflburn): Letter, .only reached me Thursday. Next week. Some Forthcoming Art Sooxs. New Zealand art lover.-i, v/lio properly TOioiced over the appearance of that excellent publication, "Art in Australia"— its only, fault is that New Zealand art is left'unrepresented—will l )e interested to hear that-Angus and Robertson, of Sydney, will shortly publish n .monograph on "Tho Art of Arthur. Streeton," /similar in form to that delightful volume, "Tho Art of J. J. Hilder." Interest in local art and nrt publications is evidently growing- in Australia, for I hear of a forthcoming hook, on tho work of Max Meldrum, who, with (ho exception, perhaps, of.Berunrd Hall, of the Melbourne Art Gallery, has done more than any other man to put young- Australian artists on the right track, and ; kecp them there. "The Philosophy of Bert-and Russell." In a recently published book, "The Philosophy of Bertrand,' Russell," an American writer, Philip E. B. Jourdain, poke 3 some merciless fun at the pompous English "philosopher", who during the war. displayed such a perverted ingenuity in proving that'' ais country w»s always in the wrong, -ami argues in. favour of the cowardly .'docrrriie. that a nation should shirk its duly of. discharge if that duty involved participation in 'warfare. An American niviewer of Jourdam's book—it is really an elaborate skit,'with frequent; reference to Lewis Carroll's writings—hints that the huuting of tho "Snark," concerning which the author of "Alico in Wonderland" discoursed so amusingly,' can be paralleled by the average man's search, for anything real and satisfying in Riissell's intricate arguments.. Ho says:— ... Suarkß have tlieir day, evanesce and recrudesce. And ltusaellism is nothing if not sna-rky. Tho philosophical essays of Bertrand'aro immortal! through sheer ponderosity, uvoirdupolsity, aud opacity. It was the feat of 11 great genius to put no many words one alter tho other without meaning anything, Wo deny, after reading .his works,'that all nature abhors a vacuum. If Bke did the vacuum cleaner would never have been invented. Henry James at his-worst .translated by Kant into medieval .Pennsylvania--Dutch would bo clarity itsetf compared to Bertrand Hussell. Mr. Jourdain'B little book makes good summer reading. After golug through with it you aro free forever of the transcendental Which. , The Prolific and Versatile H.G.W. I A stray copy of one of tho first' issues of Mr. Wilfred Wiiitten's new popular 'literary magazine, "John O'London's Weekly," reached "Liber" the other day from a kindly correspondent. The' new magazine seems, to be very much on the lines of our old friend "T.P.'s Weekly," which fell off so terribly after Tay Pay ceased lo own it. Tho number that has reached mo contains a capital article on H. G. Wells, by Mr. St. John Irvine, a clever young liish writer. Mr. Irvino confesses' himself fairly staggered by the amount and variety of the work Wells manages to get through. The author of "Joan and Peter" and "The Undying Fire" (when, I wonder, will copies of this latter book reach Ihe New Zealand bookshops?) is, says Mr. Irvino, "Probably tho most prolific writer of his quality in tho world, and if I had exact knowledge of all tho world's eminent authors, I should probably say that ho ia the most varied of them. Consider the variety of Mr. Wells's stories. Ooueider that tho man who wrotn 'The Time Machine' wrote also 'The Itlistory of Mr. Polly' and 'Tho Undying Fire.' Can ono think of a, writer who has displayed such remarkable variety as the author of 'The War in.the Air,' 'Kipps,' 'Tono-Buugay,' and 'The Soul of a Uishop'? At one moment Mr. Wells is' writing 'llealby,' and at the licit ho is writing 'God, tho Invisible King.' Queen Victoria, having been enchanted by 'Alice in Wonderland,' sent to the bookseller for the remainder of Lewis Carroll's writings, and was considerably disconcerted wien she received 'Plane Trigonometry' ant! 'Ouriosa Matliematica,' by the Itoverend Charles Imtwidgo Dodgson. What that excellent old lady would have thought, if, having read "WlO Wonderful Visit' v.'ith delight, she had been supplied with 'Joan and Peter' by the same author, 1 cannot imagine." I am surprised Mr. Irvino does 'not 1 montion that almost diabolically clever book "Boon," as monknt a satire as anything Voltaire or Swift ever wrote. Tho Mellstock Hardy. Mnr.millan and Co. send me a prosuectua of a new edition de luxe, to be

called tho, "Mellstock" edition, of Thomas Hardy's novels and poetry, about to bn nublished bv thorn. Tho edition is to he in thirly-eight volumes—the louder novels in two volumwi—and will include Hardy's wonderful Napoleonic drama. "Tho Dynasts," iilso "Time's LnuL'liini? Stock." and (he Inter war verse. Tho format is lo be the same as that, nf the editions do luxo of Tennyson. I'atnr. Kimalcv, and other authom riiiblishml hv tho same firm, and the nrice is \o be eighteen shillings a volunio net which means, of course, quite anound a volume bv the lime tho books reach a New Zealand buyer. It is dillicult to uerceive any good raison d'etre for such a costly edition, for a very hue librnrv edition of Hardy already exists in the "Wesses" Edition in thirty odd volumes at. 7s. (id. 11 volume not, in big, Iwld. very black tvoe on a line opaque, touL'h nniier. #hicli was published only four or five years ago. For my own nart. I am .unite content with the ordinary o.rnwn octavo edition, which originally cost New Zealand purchasers 3s. Gd. a volume, but is now, I suppose, priced at ss. or (is. a volume. The print ol this edition is delightfully clear, and the volunips urn of haiidv size, whilst at the same Uiiin wvsontine a sufficiently digiu- > lied amw.i.rance on tho shelves. Most of I these editions de luxe of English novel--1 ists decrease ureatlv in value after a few years, although there are notablo exceptions, such as the Swanslon Stevenson, which, originally published in.twenty-five volumes at. six shillings net, is now worth from .£l7 to .£3O. Book lovers with well-filled'nurses may speculate 111 the "Mellstock" Hardy, but I, for one, shall not envv (hem.