Byron in 1816, a bantering proposal was made that various members of their party should divert themselves with the composition of competitive tales dealing with the supernatural. Byron started a story about a vampire, and never finished it. Dr. Polidore, his

physician, wrote one on the same subject, which had quite a vogue and was at the time attributed to Byron. But Mrs. Shelley scored with "Frankenstein," the story of a scientific monster, which had a phenomenal run and has survived to the present day. Kansas City

Star.

A NEW DRAMATIC POET (Odin Gregory ). Righard Le Gallienne. Forum for May.

JOHN BURROUGHS. With portraits. Henry van Dyke. American Review of Reviews for May.

THE SEA AND CONRAD. William McFee. Bookman for April.

IS THE TRANSLATOR WITHOUT A LITERARY CONSCIENCE? Julius Moritzen. Bookman for April. DANTE AS THE POET OF THE SUPERNATURAL, With portrait. Current Opinion for April.

JOHN KEATS AS THE MASTER SPIRIT IN VICTORIAN POETRY. Illustrated. Current Opinion for April. PLACING JAMES HUNEKER AS A CRITIC. With portrait. Current Opinion for April.

JAMES BRANCH CABELL. With portrait. Current Opinion for April.

THE REDS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. John Bur roughs. Current Opinion for April.

NEWS AND NOTES,

The Authors' League of America has been reorganized and a new constitution has been adopted, changing its name to the Authors, Artists, and Dramatists' League of America, and establishing five classifications of membership, or guilds, the Writers' Guild, the Dramatists' Guild, the Guild of Free Lance Artists, the Screen Writers' Guild, and the Guild of Members-at-Large. A guild designed for newspaper men and similar writers. is in process of formation. The league is preparing for a fight in behalf of writers generally against magazine publishers to retain for writers the motion picture rights in their stories. All but two of the publishers are willing to leave to the author all rights in a story but the right of magazine publication.

"The British and American Drama of Today," by Barrett H. Clark (Cincinnati : Stewart & Kidd) contains biographical sketches of the leading English, Irish, and American dramatists, with a chronological list of the plays they have written and brief discussion of those that have met success on the stage. Among dramatists included are Pinero, Jones, Shaw, Galsworthy, Oscar Wilde, Yeats, Synge, Lady Gregory, Gillette, Clyde Fitch, Bronson Howard, Percy MacKaye, and Eugene Walter.

The sixth volume of the Collected Essays of George Edward Woodberry (Harcourt, Brace, & Co.) contains two extended works, "Appreciation of Literature" and "America in Literature." The two previous volumes, "Studies of a Litterateur" and "Literary Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century," consist of collections of short articles, many of them reviews of books contributed to the Atlantic Monthly or the Nation.

Charles Scribner's Sons publish the American edition of "Books on the Table," by Edmund Gosse. The book is an assembly of Mr. Gosse's latest literary papers, including essays and criticisms on "The Last Years of Disraeli," "Edgar Poe and His Detractors," Thackeray's Daughter," "The Essays of Mr. Lucas," and the "Autobiography of Mrs. Asquith."

"The Men of the Nineties; Being a Note on Some of the Writers of That Period," by Bernard Muddiman, is published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The biography of Wilmer Atkinson, the founder of the Farm Journal, has been published by the Wilmer Atkinson Company, Philadelphia.

A schedule showing liabilities of $1,542,758 and assets of $583,617 has been filed in the Federal court in New York by attorneys for the Leslie-Judge Company. It is announced that the company will settle on the basis of twenty-five cents on the dollar. If this offer is accepted, the present owner, Mr. Green, plans to reduce expenses still further and continue the business of the Leslie-Judge Com

pany.

The Christian Register (Boston) reached the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of its first number during April.

Colonel George Harvey, who has been appointed American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, announces his retirement as editor of the North American Review, and the suspension of Harvey's Weekly.

The Women's Press, a publication for nerly issued as a daily in Chicago, has been revived as a weekly magazine. The publishers are Mr. and Mrs. Ferd E. Fisher.

G. P. Putnam's Sons have withdrawn the sale of "Pearls and Pomegranates," a bock of verses, purported to be written by "Dorian Hope," whose real name is Bret Holland, because it has been found that twenty-six of the poems were written by Miriam Vedder, and the remainder by Augustin Lardy, who died a year ago. Holland, who furnished $500 toward the publication of the book, has disappeared.

Linn A. E. Gale, who moved his magazine to Mexico during the war, has been arrested as a draft dodger at Fort McIntosh, Texas, after being deported from Mexico by President Obregon.

In an effort to determine whether the public would prefer novels in paper covers at a saving in price, the Frederick A. Stokes Company have issued Gertrude Atherton's novel, "The Sisters-in-Law" in cloth covers at $2.00, and in paper covers at $1.50.

Doubleday, Page, & Co. have started a Spanish book department, with Harriet V. Wishnieff as manager. The Company will be the American distributors for a number of leading Spanish publishers and will handle a wide range of Spanish books.

Ernest William Hornung died at St. Jean de Luz, France, March 22, aged fifty-four. Eleanor M. Ingram died in New York March 22, aged thirty-four.

Charles Haddon Chambers died in London March 28, aged sixty-one.

Will Reed Dunroy died in Chicago March 28, aged forty-five.

Charles Stuart Pratt died at Warner, N. H., April 3, aged sixty-seven.

George Harrison Mifflin died in Boston April 5, aged seventy-five.

F. C. Philips died in London April 21, aged eighty-two.

Has any one ever read a pamphlet of the United States statutes bearing the title "An act to amend an act . . . and to codify, revise, and amend the Penal Laws of the United States (Act of March 4, 1909, 35 Stats. 1088)"? No one but the initiated knows the meaning of as much as the title; and the subject matter, being exceedingly complicated and wearisome, is not apt to make popular reading. However, the pamphlet evidently means something to those concerned, even if unwittingly concerned, and being among the latter class I found myself read it. rated eff award:

and s

nd that it has 4 in lotteries,

more par

No. 6.

ticularly the transmission through the mails of matter pertaining to such lotteries, gift enterprises, and schemes. And this is how I was unwittingly concerned, and how many others may be also.

A large and prominent musical club, with which I am affiliated, offers every year a money prize for a musical composition. This contest is open to all American composers, there is no entrance fee required, the compositions are submitted under an assumed name, and a board of judges (who are not connected with the club) are invited to pass judgment on the compositions. As the club desires to maintain a high standard of composition, the proviso is included in the announcements that "the club reserves the right to withhold the prize if no worthy material is submitted." Surely that is an honest announcement.

The postmaster, however, informs us that according to the laws prescribed and printed in the United States statutes (an act to amend an act, etc, 35 Stats, 1088, etc.) concerning lotteries, gift enterprises, schemes, etc, we are not permitted to include the proviso of withholding the prize in any case whatever, as we are using the mails to announce the contest to the unsuspecting public, and we are obliged to award the prize, regardless of the musical value of the submitted material.

Thinking the case was misunderstood or misrepresented, I wrote to the postmaster, who in turn wrote to the solicitor of the postoffice department in Washington, and again I received the same reply.

How can the standard of American composition be placed and maintained on a high level, if the awarding of a prize to inferior material is legally binding, and where is the lottery or chance in an honest competition