LIBER'S NOTEBOOK.

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 257, 24 July 1920, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTEBOOK.

' To Correspondents. "G.P.8.": Thanks for letter. Hopo ; to find room ; .for sanie noxt / ■week. ■ "H.M.S.-";-. Sorry, .but hare no room for original Terse. • Send. it to . 'The Bulletin" or "The Triad." Both seem to favour : cxperiinenta in vers libro. "Reader" (Brooklyn): A nice little- edition (a .'Selection) of "Cowpor's Lettere," with introduction by E..V. Lucas,.,is published in "Thq .World's Classics" series. ■ Some Book Auction Prices. ]' At least-one local bookman secured a ' bargain at a recent book sale. This was ' acopy of the Kelmscott Press edition of Sir Thomas More'e "Utopia,"v in: the original full vellum covers with silk. ties. ; 'etc. 'The'price at which it was knocked ; down was thirty-shillings,-whereas tho • preront day ■ London valu'o is certainly ' uoji 1c63 than £8. On the other hand, pneos generally- ruled high, and certain ' Quito ordinary books reached astonishingly high figures. For instance,' -twentyeight', shillings was paid-for the single Tolumo of Boswoll's Johnson, edited by I'orcy Fitzgerald, and published by Sands and Co'.' at sa. It is good to an old book' lover such as "Liber"- to see how well, at iwent book sales, tho younger goner- ' atiori of readers wero represented. Quito

a number of young Wollingtomana seum to' be'bent; upon forming modest collections of Rood, books. -Thoy could not spend thoir money'more wisely. Compton Mackenzie's New Story. .English reviews of Compton Mackenzie's now .story, "Thq Vanity Givl, degcribo it as ''a. brilliant:-J>icco of'work, "a'..chnrmihc and intimate ■ story of tlieatrical lite/"* Some of the more horary "weeklies, ' liowovor,'doplor© fact.. that Mackenzie has, as they coutc-nd, studied • the' methods or tho "best sellers." Ho has, ■ they say, 'strayed .sadly away ;'from- the high standard of stylo set In. ]5.' 6 \® Street". and "Guy and Pauline. . As, howovcr, tho book is already ft big -sui> eoss,'"threo largo impressions' already having been 'issued, the author not, likely to worry'over tho charge of < sacri•ficintr .style to "big shle'V A colonial edition of tho story should bo out hero very soon. An Author-Publisher. Grant Richards, who rarely publishes a book which does, not count, and kte a knack of discovering new anc clever writois (as, for example, Gerald Cumberland. who wrofe that inVpudent but amusing book "Set Down ■in Malice, and tho pow-erfnl but repellent T »f a Cruel ), is himself an author. Eemcmboring, as I do, that ' llve \O o Z® l

"Caviare" arid its succeiwnv sweet," I am interested to learn that Mr.. Richards is shortly to make his third .ft novdis , wift story, entitled "Double Life. If it as. good lis ''Caviar/' contMS the best description of' Monte Carlo and the. famous gambling tables I have ever read (<! ne ..of. Willy'fi amusing novels always exceprca;, K«ro to be rail worth reading, it w. to La hoped a reasonably priced colonial SiSSy MNite2 ag New Zealand, readers of faction, neither can .nor Trill W: J* *&■ meaM Bs.- Gd. or 9a. here for a novel. De Maupassant in English. ■ ■ " A correspondent ("fe")' Tead Guy de in English, m flsts me: what'are tho beat of tho famous Frenchman. Well, wirn, the exception, of a volume cf rionM. published■'•in..Duckworth s Readers ■ Librarj /About«ss)» there is, no. good _ translation of De lmfr rican edition in- seventeen snlH liv a Sydney-farm, and may be .ob tained in New Zealand, but it » ■and.-.Yiilgar. piece of -woik. D p sant. should be read in t , ifrencli. No French writer .(unless it » Professor George Saintsbury, are fai and a'good translator into English. A Protest Against High Prices, .. { •r a m glad- to see that Mr. l-Gosso'has been .M°U6toß,,m a_ . •• Tiauor flsiiinst the . outrageously _ £ I' ffi afwMch certain English eirs are issuing books of relatively .minor new "Life of Mary Brawll--totted. i 1 ono volume at a pm «* .Wright's biography <> f Ni „|,L. Ywiirt translated tho Arabian ail£ Ei® nil ',wm' auite a minor literary 1 _ y*of 'the*" Victorian period, and there ; jvaa ■ ireaUy m neowsity for a new {v Vipt In any case twoly© sXwwould' have been fo'r 'ciuier of these books. I should like. ' 0 pS'Mr. Wright's T»oV fon somo 'verv piquant 'details are given «s to.tne waft ? unliftlie' book 1 is "remaindered," wMohls "tie general fate of relatively,uninipprtant b°°kß published at too high price. ' _______