Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

with his friends. It is an artistic more than an economic enterprise."

Mr. Henry Newbolt, the poet, delivered a short lecture on modern poetry during the afternoon. London Express, January 9.

Hints for Fiction Authors. The feud story: Take one family of Holcombs, one family of Hatwoods, a few slouch hats, some Winchester rifles, some "moonshine" liquor, a sprig of rhododendron; sprinkle well with "we-uns" and "you alls" and serve in 3,000-word lengths.

The "red blood" story Requirements, one civil engineer, an uncivil landowner, a deep gulch, a right-of-way, a railroad president and his daughter. Place all of these characters in a runaway train, have it blown up by dynamite, but get the first train over the new line in time. If illustrated, young engineer must be dressed in a khaki suit with a broad-brimmed hat.

The detective story: One shrewd detective, four stolid policemen with Irish names, three finger prints, three fingers of liquor, a stolen tiara, and a beautiful damsel.

Use a

desperate criminal if necessary. These characters in a successive setting of suburban mansion, police station, state prison, and the trick is done. Detective may or may not wed the girl, as may suit the whim of the writer.

The business story: Two young brokers, one young woman, a scene in Wall Street, a panic, two stock tickers and a bankruptcy proceeding. A new idea would be to refer to some stock as "P., D. & Q. Preferred." The newspaper story: First essential, gruff city editor. After that four "star" reporters and one unappreciated "cub. The conversation must be replete with "scoops" and "clean copy" and "throbbing presses." Let the "cub" get the big "beat" and have the story printed on the first page just as it comes from his typewriter "pulsing with human interest." On the strength of the story raise the "cub's' salary to seventy-five dollars a week. (Remember, we are speaking of fiction.)

The society story: Use most any character you can pick up, but not until he is manicured and attired in a dress suit.

[blocks in formation]

THE SUCCESS OF LESLIE'S WEEKLY. With portrait of John A. Sleicher. National Printer-Journalist for January.

MEMORY REPRODUCTION AND ASSOCIATION. Ernst Mach. With frontispiece portrait. Open Court for January.

MEREDITH HIMSELF. Illustrated. Joseph Warren Beach. Bellman for January 4.

VULGARIZING SPEECH. Richard Burton. Bellman for January 25.

MRS. CAROLINE WELLS HEALEY DALL. Rev. Christopher R. Eliot. Christian Register for Janu

ary 9.

ROBERT COLLYER Rev. John Haynes January 9 and 16. ROBERT COLLYER ONE WORD MORE. Rev. Henry G. Spaulding. Christian Register for January 23. HISTORY AS LITERATURE. Theodore Roosevelt. Outlook for January 11.

SAINT AND SEER. - I. and II. Holmes. Christian Register for

THE SUNSET YEARS OF AMELIA E. BARR. With portrait. J. L. Harbour. Christian Endeavor World for January 23.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC STYLE IN MEDICAL LITERATURE. Frank Place. New York Medical Record for January 25.

WHAT THE PLAYWRIGHT IS UP AGAINST. Illustrated. Charles Klein. Saturday Evening Post for

January 25.
THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF JOHN RUSKIN. Rev. James
Mudge, D. D. Zion's Herald for January 29.

NEWS AND NOTES.

Owen Johnson is in Italy, where he will spend the winter in a Florentine villa, working on a new novel.

Frederic Harrison is now more than eighty years old, but he is about to publish an important work, a "History of All Religions."

Richard Le Gallienne and his wife have sailed for Marseilles, where, with knapsacks on their backs, they are going to begin a tramp of 450 miles to Paris.

Professor Harry Thurston Peck, filing a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, says that all his property, including copyrights on his books, is worth $365. His literary assets consist of fifteen copyrights, collectively I valued at only fifty dollars; a contract with Dodd, Mead & Co. for royalties on "Hilda and the Wishes," Studies in Several Literatures" and The New Baedeker": and a contract with the Macmillan Company for - royalties his on History of Classical Philology," valued at $100.

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

In England last year 12,886 books appeared, of which 10,477 were new. Fiction heads the list with 2,290 novels. Then come religion and theology with 934; children's books, 821; biography and history, 674 ; and educational works, 522.

In this country, according to the Publishers' Weekly, there were 10,135 new books brought out in 1912, of which 960 were fiction, 865 religion and theology, 802 scciology and economics, 783 law, 631 science, 620 poetry and the drama, and 533 juvenile publications.

[ocr errors]

Referring to his "Recessional," the manuscript of which has been sold in London for $120, Rudyard Kipling says in a letter: Glad you like the 'Recessional.' These things come not from fasting or prayer. They arrive by themselves somehow. Evidently the idea must have been in the air, or men would not have taken to the rhymed expression of it so kindly."

"Sardou and the Sardou Plays," by Jerome A. Hart, is published by the Lippincotts.

"Wordsworth, Poet of Nature and Poet of Men," by Dr. E. Hershey Sneath, is published by Ginn & Co.

"John Forster and His Friendships," by Richard Renton, is published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

A piece of autobiographical writing by Henry James, a book called "A Small Boy and Others," is to be published by the Scribners.

The Naples Table Association for Promoting Laboratory Research by Women offers this year, for the sixth time, a prize of $1,000 for the best thesis written by a woman on a scientific subject. The thesis must embody new observations and new conclusions based on independent laboratory research in biological, chemical, or physical science. This prize has been named the Ellen Richards Research Prize, in honor of Mrs. Richards. The Association also maintains a research table for qualified women students at the Zoological Station at Naples. The chairman of the committee is Dr. Lilian The Welsh, Goucher College, Baltimore. prize is offered every two years.

"Edgar Poe," by Emile Lauvrière, is published by Blond et Cie., Paris.

The editors of the Independent (New York), now in its sixty-sixth year, announce that from now on contributors are to have a large part in the making of the paper, and to that end invite short articles on topics of present-day importance.

The New Review, just started in New York, is a thirty-page "weekly review of international socialism," with about 15,000 words of text devoted "to education rather than to agitation." Hermann Simpson is the editor, and the publication office is at 150 Nassau street.

The Woman's International Review (New York), edited by Anna Garlin Spencer and Clara Helene Trimper, is a dignified and substantial periodical which, its editors say, "will reflect the present status of educated women in the broad scope and trend of their activities, and at the same time appeal to that ever-growing feminine public that, in advancing thought and observation, has risen above the field exploited by the current woman's magazine."

The Eye-Witness, the radical London weekly started by Hilaire Belloc, has changed its name to the New Witness. It is now edited by Cecil Chesterton. The staff and policy will remain the same.

G. W. Arrowsmith, the publisher, who died in England January 19, was the discoverer of Hugh Conway, whose novel, "Called Back," achieved world-wide popularity, although it remained unappreciated until a favorable notice in Truth directed the attention of the public to the tale, which has since reached a circulation of 400,000. Mr. Arrowsmith also published Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat." On the other hand, he refused to touch "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" when Conan Doyle approached him with the offer of the book.

The curators of the University of Missouri have accepted the Eugene Field monument fund of $1,350 for establishing the Eugene Field scholarship in journalism.

The President and Fellows of Harvard College have voted to establish the Harvard University Press, for the publication of works of a high scholarly character, whether produced within or out of the university. This recalls the fact that the first printing press in America was a gift to Harvard College in 1642, and was set up in the house of President Dunster. Among other important books which were printed on it were the Bay Psalm Book and John Eliot's Indian Bible.

There is to be established in Leipzig, we are told, a library wherein will be collected the whole literature of the German Empire in German and in foreign languages issued from January 1, 1913. Those works begun before this year will be completed, so far as possible, by the addition of the parts issued earlier. Journals in the German language and pictorial representations, with or without writing, will be on file, music and daily papers being excluded.

The English Illustrated Magazine for January prints the late H. C. Bunner's short story, "The Love Letters of Smith," without change of title or text, and ascribes the authorship to "M. Northington."

"The Recollections of the Brownings," by Mrs. William Kinney, mother of E. C. Stedman, which are being published in Neale's magazine, are somewhat more candid and critical than most of those previously issued.

Among the death claims filed with United States Commissioner Gilchrist because of the Titanic disaster is one for $300,000 for Jacques Futrelle, the novelist, by his widow. She also asks $3,600 for manuscripts and manuscript material.

Will Carleton left an estate valued at $5,000.

Harry Peyton Steger died in New York January 5, aged thirty-six.

Harold Van Santvoord died at Kinderhook, N. Y., January 8, aged fifty.

Dr. Wolfred Nelson died in New York January 15, aged sixty-six.

Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr died at Rutland, Vt., January 18, aged eighty-seven.

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE TO INTEREST AND HELP ALL LITERARY WORKERS.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The Authors' League of America (Incorporated) is the result of a preliminary meeting held at the home of Owen Johnson a year or more ago, when a number of active literary workers to whom the matter had been suggested gathered to take some action on a plan for protecting authors' rights. At that meeting several committees were appointed and plans of organization were discussed, the possible scope of such a league receiving the greatest attention. A proposed plan of organization was later printed and circulated among those already interested, but summer took a number of the most

No. 3.

active believers in the plan abroad, and in their absence little progress was made.

In November, 1912, some of the original proposers of the League still being abroad, and delay seeming unnecessary, Arthur Train called a meeting, which was well attended, and the proper steps were taken for the organization and incorporation of the league and the compilation of a constitution and by-laws and a prospectus that should set forth the intent of the league. A charter of incorporation under the Membership Association Law was granted by the state of New York December 18, 1912, and the first regular meeting was held December 27.

The objects of the league, as stated in the constitution, are to procure adequate copyright legislation, both international and domestic, to protect the rights and property of all authors of literary, dramatic, artistic, and musical compositions; to advise and assist authors in the disposal of their productions, and to obtain for them prompt remuneration therefor, and to disseminate information among authors as to their legal rights and remedies. In no sense is the league a profit-making scheme. It is an association of authors for their own protection.

The membership comprises three classes, and males and females are equally eligible for membership and office. The newspapers have had some joy in joking about the three classes of membership, merrily proclaiming that the league would now separate all authors into three grades - good, bad, and indifferent. This is good fun, but not good fact. The three classes are: Life members, regular members, and associate members. Regular members must be persons actually engaged in literary, dramatic, artistic, or

musical composition, must pay annual dues of ten dollars, and they have a vote at all league meetings, and are entitled to all the privileges of the league. Life members are regular members paying one hundred dollars, this payment exempting the life member from any further dues or assessments. Associate members may be persons engaged in active literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical work, or they may be editors, or publishers, or lawyers, or any other persons wishing to take part in making the league a success. They are entitled to the same legal services and advice as regular members, and, in the discretion of the executive committee of the league, to the use of any other bureaus the league may establish, but they have no vote in the affairs of the league. This is in order that the management of the league may remain in the hands of the authors themselves, for whom it was primarily intended. Associate members pay dues of five dollars a year. There is no initiation fee in any class.

The officers of the league are the usual president, vice-president, honorary vicepresident, secretary, treasurer, and a council. Until the duties become too large the offices of secretary and treasurer will be vested in one person. The council is the governing body of the league, and is composed of thirty members (all regular or life members), who are elected by the voting members of the league at an annual meeting, ten councilors retiring at each annual meeting. This council has the general control of all the affairs, funds, and property of the league, and it elects the other officers. On account of the difficulty of securing a quorum of thirty councilors particularly in the summer months, and also because the council may be composed of authors from all parts of America - it has the privilege of delegating its powers, between its meetings, to an executive committee of seven. This is done because, if the league is to be of value to its members, some official body must be frequently in session to consider claims and complaints, and to carry on the work proposed by the league. At present the executive committee consists of Rex Beach,

George Barr McCutcheon, Gelett Burgess, Rupert Hughes, Ida Tarbell, Arthur Train, and Will Irwin, the secretary-treasurer being an ex-officio member. Meetings are now being held weekly, claims are being adjusted, preliminary investigation of the copyright laws is under way, and the work of the league in other departments is going forward and the league is already proving itself of value to its members.

66

The need for such an organization must be apparent to every author. The beginner, anxious to sell his productions, and in most cases absolutely unacquainted with the business he is entering, goes it blind." He lets his manuscripts slip from him to any one that will send him a letter of acceptance. He knows nothing of the responsibility of the publisher until he learns by experience. He does not know that he has any rights. The fact that the big majority of publishers are equal to, and superior to, the average business man in honesty, only makes the game of the dishonest publisher the easier. The reputable publishers, we believe, will be the heartiest supporters of the league.

The average author does not know what rights he has under the copyright law, and if his rights are infringed he cannot afford a suit to recover, when he may first have to establish a general right under the law. The league means to establish the rights of the author under the law in such a way that it cannot be mistaken, and if the decision is against authorship in general it will attempt to have the law altered so that it may properly protect the author. It will advise the author against dishonest publishers, if there are any such. It will maintain a periodical bulletin or other publication to advise the author of his rights, to warn him against his dangers, and to keep him posted on the work of the league. It will suggest proper forms of letters in submitting manuscripts for sale, and proper contract forms with book publishers, looking toward the adoption of a uniform style of contract that will protect author and publisher alike. It will try to discover all the fakes and frauds, and let their work be known. It will try to establish uniformity of

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »