LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 19

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Mr; Sinclair Lewis, the winner of last year's -Nobel Prize for Literature, is spending a holiday in Europe. He hopes to,include London in his travels.

The first festival of the English Verse-speaking Association, which ,was held-at Oxford, was so successful that it will, be repeated next year on a larger scale. ' ; ,

Miss-Mary Brooke Stoker, who has written a novel}e'ntitled "Doomflower," claims: reldtioriship with Bram Stoker, the author of "Dra<?ula" and Irving's private secretary for inahy years. •She is twenty.'■;'•',_■:..•■■;:' r ■' ; ; ■

Ati a recent sale a'collection of Gordon relies, including a 'survey of the Nile,,several, drawings^ and letters-the size* of postage 'stamps ' Which were hidden in a quill/in' a ' camel-rider's headdress, were sold for \& 355. . ,

The next-performance of the Obcrmmergau, Passion Play v i 3to be held in 1934. \ As -the last perf prmari.ee -was in 1930, another is not due until 1940, but the extra one is in connection with the tercentenary of the play's inception.

:; San Diego, California (according to the "Christian Science Monitor"), won the world's record ,in 1931-32 for the most library books read per capita. The 147,000 citizens read a little more, on an average, than 11 books each.

Mr.'H'.G;.Wells's new work, "After Democracy," which has just been pub-lished;-consists mainly •of essays and addresses written or1 delivered during the ,past" three years.' There is also a "Memorandum on the World Situation," originally intended only for private' circulation.' '> ;'-. ' •■ f :

.A recent publication is-"The Next Boer War," by; Leonard 'Barnes, scribed" as 'fan attempt to-show what the people .■ and 'the •'. Government of Great Britain might.still-;da to avert the. crisis in.; the .relations" between .the "white and black "races, toward which events in'South^.Africa .are rapidly^njoving." ■■."■."■ ■~'^T^-i'" ---''■ -•• "/-.■•■

In connection -with the Scott centenary celebrations a' small exhibition of manuscripts^; books, and portraits has been opened' ins the King's Library at the British Museum. : The manuscripts include the corrected pages of,"Kenilworth," and';in'.ono letter, dated 1821, Scott denies" tKat ; he chad, anything to do with the^iWaverley novels;.;-' ■

Amongst Messrs.- Hodderjand. Stqughton's new book's ;is f'The Magic, Walk•ing Stickj" 'a book',for- boys, 'by Mr. John f Buchan. It is a-story. of magic and the most sensational adventure, and it should be classified with "Aladdin and other stories of amulets with unusual powers;. ■ -V.'••-.'■ ;.. - :': •■ ; ....

The "American Spectator," a literary newspaper, was founded'last month. It has five editors—Messrs.' Georgo Jean Nathan, Ernest Boyd, Theodore Dreiser, James Branch Cabell, and Eugene.O'Neill. They describe the aim of the new journal thus:—" To provide America with a new,'stimulating^ and galvanic critical organ, quite' unlike anything that has heretofore .been attempted in this country." .''

The Soviet State Publishing.Company has been commissioned to prepare a limited edition' of 1500 copies' of Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" in the English^ Ja'nguage, iir!two, volumes,' on especially; flne; paper. A" JTew York firm,-called Editions. Club," lnitiatedthe plan of publishing in English the best literary, work of every country1 in limited ;iedition:.of high quality. The ■.debatable : qufestion: of what constituted Eussia's . greatest literary work was decided'inlfavour of "AnnaKarenina," '■■-;••

-The "Prager Press ".gives, a modern anecdote based iipon theide'a of Goldsmith's "Elegy v on the Death of a'Mad Dog." -. Translated; the • story'runs:— 'My mother-in-law,.' * .the'/•.';son-in-law relates,1 ' \ used to be always kissing: the fox terrier L. which ? I • gave her .in autumn." "Is:it possible?" asks the family doctor, shaking his head; "the gravest, and even mortal diseases may be contracted .by that means." "Sou are right," says the son-in-law, "shortly before Christmas the dog was dead "