Literature

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Literature

A f sacred cantata, "The Crucifixion," is being composed by L)r Stainer for the choir of Marylebono Parish Church. A facsimile note from Mr Gladstone on "Books that have Influenced Me," appears in The British Weekly this week. —It is proposed by the friends of the late Randolph Caldecott to place a memorial tablet to his memory in the crypt of St. Paul's beside the monument to George Cruikshank. —Mr Edwin Waugh, "the Lancashire Burns," was entertained at dinner at Manchester, on Saturday, in celebration of the attainment of his 70th birti.day. —The editor of the Boston Home Journal has found a budget of unpublished Longfellow letters, which he will soon, give to the public in the columns of that paper. —A bill to provide a pension for Walt Whitman has been introduced into the United States Congress. He is entitled to such a recognition for his services as a hospital nurse during the Civil War. —Strange," said one author to another, " your works are only to be met with in your library !" " And in your works," was the reply, "one meets with nothing but yonr library !" —The Earl of Lytton has promised to preside at the annual banquet of the Royal Literary. Fund in Willis's Rooms "ii May 4, and Mr F. C. Burnand at that of the Newspaper Press Fund, on June 11. —MrS. R. Van Campen's biography of the Dutch historian Van Kampen is not likely to appear till the spring. It will contain much information relating to Holland and to Dutch literary names that should prove interesting to English readers. —The death is announced of Mrs Richard Jesse, whose maiden name was Emily Tennyson, and who was engaged to be married to Arthur Heury Halhim. The stanzas of "In Memoriam" in which she was described as makinir preparations for her lover's return are well known. —The Dickens Celebration took place on Tuesday, February 8, at St. James's Hall, but the "costume ball" part of the programme was not carried out. It consisted of an entertainment of songs, scenes. *nid monologues from or connected with Dickens's characters, under Mr Edwin Drew's management. —Tho library of Lord Colin Campbell hns been sold by auction in Edinburgh. The 043 volumes of which it consisted relate chiefly to the history of Scotlaud, and include many from the pens of members of the Campbell family, beginning with the Marquis of Argyle's "Instructions to a Son" (1689). —The cheap edition of Professor Drummoud's "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" consisted of ten thousand copies, of which eight thousand were sold to the trade before the day. of publication. It is a curious fact that this, one of the most successful books of modern times, was twice "declined with thanks" by London publishers.