Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1927, Page 4

AUTHORS MISTAKES. To most authors it is a pleasure to answer certain Tetters, particularly the unsolicited tributes of appreciation peiu ilfcl by kind strangers. Unhappily there are others, the well-meaning ladies and gentlemen who point out negligible er--1 rors for which, often enough, the author is not responsible. It may surprise such busybodles to learn that no book with the possible exception of the Bible i —is entirely free from mistakes. Many years ago my publishers offered a handsome casji prize to tho person who could detect the greatest number of errors in a novel of mine. Tho proofreader and'l took great pains over the galley and page-proofs, and one reader (who had unwisely bought the hook) wrote to me indignantly affirming that thepe was not ope mistake, and that ho considered it a dirty advertising trick j on my part. Nevertheless, the man' who won (and earned) the prize discov- 1 ered nearly three hundred errors, most of them, it is true, due to faulty type or faulty punctuation t—H. A. vachell in “ The Evening Standard.”