LITERARY NOTES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 310, 16 December 1936, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES.

Books and Authors.

Present, indications are that Mr Noel Coward has had a full life to date, and has lost none of his literary energy. He has just completed his 180,000-word autobiography', and delivered the manuscript to his publishers, Messrs Heinemann. The provisional title for .the book is “Present Indicative.” * • •

Mr Zane Grey had a busy time while he was in Australia. He wrote two books and made two motion pictures and caught 70 big fish weighing 21001 b. And —4n addition, he .tells his publishers, Harper and Brothers, of New York—he was asked to autograph more than 10,000 books. But he does not say how many of them he really did autograph.

John Masefield’s son, Mr Lewis Masefield, is following his father’s footsteps along the literary road. His name appear/. on Putman’s list of summer fiction with a grst novel entitled, “Cross Double Cross.” It is a satiric tale of politics and armaments, in which a leading character is a Dame of the British Empire, who owns a private fleet, and likes to dress up as an admiral.

A correspondent to the London "Observer” raises 'the question of the extent of plot material to the hand of a novelist. He says: “I have often read a novelist has the choice of but 23 plots on which to base a novel, but I have never seen these plots outlined in print. Perhaps one of y'our readers will kindly supply me with them.”

Thackeray wrote a book without a hero, and now a book has been issued without a back, but to make up for this deficiency it has two fronts. The book, which has heen issued in England by .the Stationery Office, is a guide to the United Kingdom pavilion at the Johannesburg Exhibition. \lt is printed in two languages. The English and Afrikaans test begin at opposite ends — so .there can be no complaints by partisans of either language.

Like Kipling’s elephant that talked the curiosity of the reading public in crime is insatiable. Nearly 800 thrillers were published last y'ear; 65 a month, 15 a week, two a day. Mr W. Chamberlain, in the “Daily* Efpress,” London, estimates that while crime detection as a sociological necessity takes roughly £20,000,000 a year from the taxpayer, crime detection as a literary luxury' takes roughly £6,000,000 a year from the entertainment hunter. Dorothy Sayers, who has, in fiction, got away with more murder than any other woman writer, made a great success with “The Nine Tailors,” one of the most popular thrillers of the last five years, which sold 100,000 copies, taking about £37,500 of the public’s noney. It is strange, indeed, how