Literature.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2125, 20 February 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Literature.

— Mndrtinc Minnie Hawk has trained great f.ivoiir with spn-ibli' pwiplo in New York by declining floral tributes. All bouquft* thrown ure loft unnoticed on the Htnirt>, aid «ro nfterwirris ignominiously swept up br the attendants. — A u°w initini'o of the fallibility of publishers is svn in thn fict th'ifc tho recent popul ir work "Booties' B.iby," was at first rejVted by si>venil in minces<ion. aii'l, in the word-; of th n author, only suv the lisht aft n r a two years' struggle for bare exist once. — Somo uiDii-oiiient has bnen caused by the discovery in tho publisher-. 1 warehouse*, of sundry for-rott^n volumes of " scarce" works— to wit, Mi-s Strickland's " Lives of tho Queens of England,' Count MontilembertV "Monks of the West, " Pmfoi»or C»-mr.s Innes's " Sketches of Eirly Scotch History," and Landor'rt "Works." Those who have given the hiyrh prices a*ked in book- I sellers' catalogues will wish they had not been co hasty. —Tho " American Eagle," which is devoted to subjects in counention with the forthcoming Amerioan Exhibition in Ijondon, has in its November number a useful table, showing the comparative areas of the States and territories of the United States and the countries of Europe, with'the agricultural products of the former in recent jears. — In an article on the late General McGlellan, The Critic (New York) says • "Beyond his reports on the European armies, the Pacific riilroad surveys, and the official reports of the war, his writings were confined to magazine articles. He has recently contributed to the war series in The Coutury. It is known that he devoted several years to tho preparation of his memoirs, which, when just finished, a few years since, were temporarily deposited with his furniture in a storage warehouse, and were there consumed in the flames. The loss is irreparable. He began again, with marvellous patience, to re-write them, but it w feared the task was never completed." — Some idea of the popular taste in poets is shown by a table of, the number of volumes sold during the twelve months ending last June, which has been given to a Pall Mall Gazette interviewer by Mr Routledsre, the publisher. Out of twenty -two British and American poets whose works are published by the firm, Longfellow heads the list with a sale of 6000 volumes, Scott comes next with 3,170, and Shakspeie, Byron, Moore and Burns follow with upwards of 2000. Milton and Mrs Hemans nearly approach this figure. Roger* takes the lowest position, with only 32 volumes sold, while strange to say, Keats is almost as badly off with 40. —The particulars giveu by Mr Routledge as to the sale of the works of certain novelists ia equally interesting. No leas than 80,000 copies of the sixpenny edition of Lord Lytton's novels were cold during the year. Of Scott's, with a cheap Edinburgh edition competing, 30,000 were disposed of. Marryat's works are also popular, as 60,000 have been sold, while the demand for " Robinson Crusoe " amounted to 40,000 copies iv eighteen months. Harrison Ains- [ worth and Fennimore Cooper sold well, and so did Dumas, who is apparently much more read than Eugene Sue or Victor Hugo. There is a brisk demand for English works of fiction of a bygone period, for 8,200 copies of " Tom Jones " were sold, 5,230 of "Joseph Andrews," and 4,900 of "Amelia," while "The English Opium-Eater" is sufficiently popular to yield a sale of nearly 2000 copies. "It may be regarded," says Mr John Monteith, in an essay on "Alice ami Phoebe Cary," "as gross and prosaic to measure a poet by the practical effect or territorial range of his influence. But this, again, is the view of cold criticism, and against good judgment. Alice Cary, by that exquisite lyric, • Pictures of Memory,' breathed into the soul of Mary Clemmer the first inspiration of her literary ambition. So has she given voice and lips to the dumb experiences of homely hearts ; and the sacred hymn of Phabe Cary, 'One Sweetly Solemn Thought, 1 has bound the whole world with a girdle of spiritual hope. Tt is this universal touch, alter all, that makes a great poet. Because they have it, we set Homer and Shakespeare higher ; and because he is without it, we. place Milton lower."