LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 74, 20 December 1919, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Stray Leaves. Christopher Morley (the young American writer-whose delightful Ixioks, 'T,irnassus on Wheels," "The Haunted Bockshon," and "Shandygaff"—the 1 a collection of essays in which there is a utronj; "booky" flavour) has ;> new Ixsok coming out very shortly, bearing; the quaint and nlluring title, "Mince Pie." It is n collection of essays and "humorous appreciations of famous people." "Kit" Morley, m his friends affectionately call him, is- still under thirty, and promises to become one of tliß rnost widely rond ox preseut-dav American essayists. Ilia work has manv of those qualities of genial humour, whimsical fancy, and fine flair for choice literature that eo ninny of us have lon£ admired in the writings of Mr. E. V. Lucas. Good Scots should note the forthcoming publication (by Maolehose, Gksirow) of a book entitled "The Pipes of War," a record of the achievements of pikers of Scots and overseas regiments during the Great War, 1914-19IR, by Colonel Sir Bruce Seton and John Grant, with contributions by Neil Munro. Boyd Cable, I'"' <n Ci ]ib<, and others. Tlie October "Bookman" (Hoc!d«r and Stoughton) is an Autumn Double Number, with an illustrated supplement in tvhich much interesting information is given as to tlie best now books of tho autumn and winter publishing season. Amongst the special articles are appre* ciat ions of W. 11. Hudson, tlie famous naturalist (by George Sampson), and tho popular playwright and novelist, William Somerset Maugham, There is also a delightful article on Edmund Gosss and his work, by "that' iine critic, Lauroncp Binyon. Miss Mary L. Pondered figures in the "Bookman 1 * Gallery, Mr. S. M. Ellis contributing an informative article on tho work of a novelist whose books aro not, I tear, so well known to New Zealand readers as they deserve to mi' i' le prober' s copiously illustrated. J.ho November issue of the "Bookman" is to be a special George Eliot centenary number, Ex-Londoners who enjoyed thoss remarkable books on London life, "Nights in Town," "Limehouse Nights," anil "Out and About," by Mr. Thomas Burke, will bs interested to learn that <i new book of London studies and sketches, "Tlie Outer Circle," from the same clever pen, is duo very shortly, Booklovcrs who have tho pretty pockot edition of Thomas Hardy's novels on their shelves should note that itardv's last contribution to fiction, "A Changed Man and Other Talos," has at last been added to this edition. Tho Hardy poems arc noiv also included in the same series, That clever writer, Maurice Baring, tho £reat authority on Russia, but whom 1 many New Zealand readers will know best by his literary skits and travesties, 'Dead Letters"Lost Diaries/' and "Diminutivo Dramas," all most excellent readings luw a new book, "liound tho World in Any Number of Days," just out 'with Clwttos, I wonder' whether the book refers to tho author's visit to New Zealand a few years back, when lie was a guest of Lord Islington. Two of Baring's books, by tho way, were dedicated to Lady Islington. Now that'so many bocks are published in plain cloth with paper labels and sans that often awfully tawdry gilt so-called "decoration" favoured by so many Englinb publishers, and, bo I fear, by so many "book-buyers, I do wish it could bo made compulsory that a duplicate title label should be provided—pastel lightly bv ono corner on tho end fly leaf. For tlio paper title label, though undoubtedly n neat and comely addition to tho plain cloth binding winch I personally favour, has a very awkward knack of "peeling" off, partially, or wholly, or of golfing so badly so'led as to demand replacement. Tn tlieso days of quadrupled printing charges, to have a new title lnbol specially printed is inoro than tho average book-buyer can afford, and he is therefore reduced—l speak from sad experience—to using a typewritten title rabel of his own manufacture. I think I ill,ill send a marked copy of the paper containing mv comp'nml—and suggeition—to the Eugl'sh Publishers' Circular," or some other" bonk trade When the first label is being printed it would not cost more than an additional penny or fo to provide, not merely one, but three ir four duplicates, which could be roughly affixed, like stamps, by ono edge, on tlie

end fly leaf, and bo used when found necessity. Chattoß have. I notico, added that excellent book of Arnold Bennett's, '"Books and Porsons." to their tastefully produced St. Martin's Library in vrhich thev linvo published so ninny of tho R.L.S. books. Bennetfa book contains more sound, ripe, and helpful criticism of modern lxioks tliat really count than docs any similar collection of literary eshvs I know of. As to ccrtnin other books which don't count, Bennett pokes some capital fun at them. Tho essays oricinallv appeared, between the 'years 1908 and 1914, in "Tho New Age," a weekly paper conducted by Mr. W. Orage. The "New Ape" is, I believe, strongly Socialistic in its political outlook. but these essays of Arnold Bennett's are intensely individualistic. Last Whit Sunday there was celebrated the cenletiarv of Bishop Ileber'n famous hvmn "From Greenlano's Icy Mountains.'' It was first sung in Wrexham Church on Whit Sunday, 1819, having been composed tho previous day at tho vicarage. England does not impose virtue without: sho lights the flame within. England's discipline is tho discipline of the individual 6oul; it is tlm discipline of personal character; it is life left to itself.—"English Family," by Harold Begbie. Stanley Werman. who-has been silent (as a novelist) for twelve years, now returns to the field of his old Biiccr'ssas with a new historical romance, "Tho ■Great House." It is a tale not of medieval France, but of England during tho Com Laws agitation, and has been well reviewed in many leading journals. According In a contributor to ".Tolm O'iondon's Weekly," most. of tho characters and incidents in Hardy's novels were taken from real life oriijinnls. It is stated that "Tess of the D'fyrbervilles." owed licr stormy, unhnppy, traffic existence to the ncciilcnt of a talk Mr. Jlaruy once had with an old verger of tho church at Hero Regis (tho Hero of tho story). Wljile going; over the church, lie noticed how many and how curious were tlin tomba ot thi> Durbeytielrt family. Tno verger was garrulous, and had a turn for T'icturcfique narrative; he told his visitor of a romantic episode in the family of ono of the Durbeyficlds. and out of tho telling of that episode 'less emerged. When, in lDCfi, "Liber" toured the Hardy conn try iii company with nil English friend who knows-hi? "Wessex" like a hook, he visited Bore liegis. But, alas, ho found no agreeably "garrulous verger," but a deplorably donso old man, who evidently regarded the task of showing "Americans"—for as such ho classed us—round the church a great bore, but was none the loss palpably and greedily expectant of the inevitable tip. An unconventional portrait of Tennyson (from Edmund posse's recently-pub-lished "Diver.'-inns of a~sJnn of LetttyV): "A gaunt, black, tnuzlcd man. rough in speech, brooding like an old gipsy over his inch of clay pipe, stuffed with shag tobacco, and sucking in port wino with gusto." , Those who enjoyed those two vory amusing (and thought-provoking) Jwoks "A Dominie's Log" and "A Dominie Dism'ssed," by A. S. Neill, will be interested in the author's new book, just published by Iferlie'i Jenkins, of Bindle fnnio. entitled "Tho Booming of Bunkie.' Mr. Jenkins tells the publi.c that no fewer than 3(1,000 conies of Mi". Neill's books luive been sold. I notice in the book show a new novel In' 13. Temple Thurston, "Tho World of Wonderful IJonlity." It is, T understand, n sequel to the same writer's well-known "City of Dwnitiful Nonsense." Viconto Blasco Ibanez, tho great Spanish novelist, whose "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" has been described as the greatest war novel since Zoln's "Debacle." is lecturing in America. So, too, is Maurice Maeterlinck, who. in one of his lectures, "Tho Unknown Shore." delivers, it is claimed, a "message from the spirit world." An opera founded oh his famous "Blue Bird" has recently been produced in New York for the benefit of the people of devastated regions of Franco and Tlelgium. A Calhol'e history of the later Tudor writvl is being given. I notico, in "The 7',>Hi<oi Catholic.* in the I'cign of Queen Elizabeth," by the Fev. ,T. 11. Pollen, R.J. It will 'be interesting to compare the author's narrativo of certain events with that given hi Fronde's famous work' on I^l"■ «.i.u''e neriod. American humorist*; continue to poke fun at iho "dry" regime. Thus, one Faitdolph AV-alford Smilh having published a bonk entitled "Tho Sober World," which is being boomed as "a big blazing history of the ruinous rule of King Alcohol," it is stated that oiio of the firs'i orders rpceivejl by the publishers came "by wireless, from the most populous of all resorts for tho victims of the. Appetite." It callcd for "a special edition bound in asbestos." An inquiry, in "automatic writing-,'* for the book is also said to have been received from Omar Khayyam, Esq. Aiter Ludcndortf and Tirpitz it is the turn of Count Czcrnin, tho once famous Hungarian Foreign Minister, to give us a book on the war. Cassells will shortly publish tho Czcrnin book, which will, I it is said, give the inside history of ocrj tain mom/nious episodes of the war, and will record some sensational interviews between the author, and tho German and Austrian Emperors, the German Crown Prince, Bethmanii-llollweg, and other famous or notorious liuus. Dcspits tho fact thati Miss Daisy Ashford, tho author (at nine years of age) | of that delightfully amusing l liitlo hook, "The Young Visiters" (no bodsido book- | shelf should bo •without a copy), has been ' proved to be a real and living personage, ; thp American papers continue to credit I Sir James Barrio with its authorship. Bar.ric wrote the introduction, but Miis Ashfold has assured an English interviewer that the story was actually written by her when a little girl. She is now thirty, did war work in Switzerland, and says she can neither write another book nor wants to. There now! Those who, like "Liber," have found such excellent entertainment, in the stories of Irish life and character by E. E. Sonurvillo a:i,i MarUin, Hots, will be glad to know t..ac an entirely new story ' by the:V deligauul humorists is about to be published by Longman's. It ua« projected some years before tho death of "Martin Itoss" dissolved a literary partinership which was lvsponsiblo for such rich result, and takes its title, "Mount Alusic," from tho old house which is tee background' of tho tale. Henry Van' Dyke, one of tho elder school of American litterateurs, defln.'u Oho vers libro, which Amy' Lowell and other latter-day trans-Atlantic poets have made so popular, r.s "the BoUhevikisw of poetry." On the other hand, 1 notico that (JUment Shorter, back in London from an American, lour, is quite enthusiastic, in one of his "Literary Letters" in the London "bpliere," over Miss Lowell's work. Vet another new publisher has commoneed operations in tlv person of Mr. Cobden Sanderson, for many years with Mr. I. Fisher Unwin. It is not stated as yet in what particular class of literature the new house will specialise. •- The death is announced in recentlyreceived English papers of Mrs. Euith Alice MaiUand, who to have beon the original of Alico in Lowis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." "As a Tale That is Told" is tho happy title of a volume of reminiscences by the l(ev. Frederic Macdonald, which in published by Cassclls. The author, who ia a Yorkshire man (born in Leeds in 18-12), is an uncle of Mr. Rud.yurd Kipling. Ono of his sisters married Burnc-Jones, the famous painter; another married Sir Edward Poynter, president- of the Koyal . Academy, and n third was Mrs. J. Lockwood Kipling, tho novelist's mother. Mr. Macdonald, who for many years was in tho Wesle.van ministry, was afterwards secretary to tho Wesleyan Missionary Society. A few years ago ho visited Australia and Now Zealand. JIo is a great booklovor. A. copy of his "Kecrcations oi a Booklover" (rendered more interesting to in« iu that it contains a long and very genial letter from tho author), has lohr been ono of "Liber's" treasured nos. Bt'ffiions. "Mr. Jollybrand, tho senior curato, lmd Iron alraiii of dogzj over since, as an infant, ho had been mistaken snr a bono by n largo retriever."—"Joremy," by Hugh Walpole.