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is new, one has only to express it quite simply." Nietzsche says: "The misfortune of lucid writers is that people think them superficial, and consequently take no trouble in reading them; while the chance for obscure writers is that the reader has to labor hard in order to understand them, and credits them with contributing the pleasure that he derives from his own diligence."

Andrew Lang wishes the world to understand that he is industrious and not above detail work, however little he may like it. It is better, he thinks, to be a novelist than an historian. The latter, he says, may make money enough to pay his typist and consider his labors!" Mr. Lang adds:

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"I speak feelingly indeed, sorely having written an historical book of about the length of a common novel. There are some fifteen hundred references to anthorities,' as my printer ingeniously misprinted the word. First, I put them into the manuscript as they occurred, and then twice compared every mortal one of them with the volumes and pages to which they referred. Then they were all typed separately, and were again verified for the third time. Then they were printed and verified for the fourth time, in print, which yields six thousand cases of looking up a passage. After all, it is certain that some numerals will be wrong, and then the critic will come and raise an outcry."

Mr. Clemens's move in creating the Mark Twain Corporation, with a view to securing to his family and heirs the profits of publishing his books after the copyrights on them have expired, has aroused general interest. The New York Times doubts the efficacy of the scheme. "As the law stands," it says, "we cannot see that the Mark Twain Corporation will serve the designed purpose of giving to Mr. Clemens and his heirs and their heirs perpetual and exclusive power to draw profit from his books. It is not easy to say why they should not have it, but somehow there seems to be a general feeling in all countries that the author is in some way or degree different from other producers, and while it is admitted nowadays that he should be paid for his work, if it be worth buying, with the admission goes an assumption that

the payments should be only for a limited time. After that, by a close approach to common agreement, his exclusive rights expire, and anybody who thinks his books will sell has the privilege of printing them. For years past the tendency in civilized countries has been slowly to extend the author's monopoly, and thereby to increase his emoluments. It may be, therefore, that an unlimited copyright will come at some time in the future, but at present it seems rather like an idle dream, and Mr. Clemens doubtless knows that in his new corporation he will leave to his heirs little more than a basis for lawsuits, which they can hardly hope to win."

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The New York Sun tends to take the ground that limited copyright is justifiable. "In the case of the Mark Twain incorporation," it says, a legal experiment is contemplated. The explanation has been offered that when the pen name is the property of a perpetual corporation, Mr. Clemens's heirs will be in a position to enjoin perpetually the publication of all of the Mark Twain books not authorized by the Mark Twain Company.' If this could be done, should we not witness a general assumption of pen names by authors who cared not a straw for immortality, and would not authors and their heirs enjoy an absolute monopoly in spite of the copyright law? We fancy that it would not be long before the legislature intervened."

On the other hand, Mr. Clemens's literary agent, Ralph W. Ashcroft, thinks that the corporation scheme will work. Mr. Ashcroft says:

"Mr. Clemens has been troubled for a year by the knowledge that the copyright of his works would soon expire, and that strangers instead of his own kin would reap the financial benefit from his literary works. He has been in consultation with Mr. Hobbs and myself practically every week. We finally hit on the plan of incorporating the Mark Twain name itself. We believe that when this name is the property of a perpetual corporation, Mr. Clemens's heirs will be in a position to enjoin perpetually all publi cation of the Mark Twain books not authorized by

the Mark Twain Company, even after the secondary copyright period has expired."

Mr. Ashcroft was not prepared to say at present whether the incorporation of the Mark Twain name would prevent any publisher, after the expiration of copyrights, from printing the books under the name of Samuel L. Clemens. He said that this was a matter for the courts to decide, and that the incorporation of the Mark Twain name at least put Mr. Clemens's daughters in a position in which they could make a legal fight for their rights.

Gilbert Ray Hawes, the lawyer who defended Frau Wagner's copyright to "Parsifal" five years ago, is one of a number of copyright specialists who have expressed interest in Mr. Clemens's plan. Mr. Hawes

points out a method by means of which he believes the Misses Clemens could keep all unauthorized publishers from ever publishing their father's works, even if the unauthorized editions were put out under the name of Samuel L. Clemens. Mr. Hawes

says:

"If, after the copyrights on Mr. Clemens's works expire, a perpetual title is held to the name Mark Twain, and if the life of the original copyrights of the works has been expanded by the addition of new chapters ог new material, I believe that Mr. Clemens's heirs could enjoin the publication by other publishers of the original works, even if these works were published under the name of Samuel L. Clemens.

"The Misses Clemens could assert that the reprint of the original unamended works under a different title from that under which they were originally published was not the publication of the genuine book, and that it was interfering with the publication of the genuine book. An injunction, at least, could be issued on these grounds..

"Mr. Clemens has already announced that he intends to extend the length of his copyrights by the addition of chapters from time to time."

Complaint having been made in England that editors are in the habit of scoring manuscripts and thus spoiling their virgin beauty, several editors have written to the London Author to say that they regard disfiguring a manuscript as a distinct discourtesy on the part of an editor, an offence of which they

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Mary Constance Du Bois, whose story, "The Lass of the Silver Sword," is now running in St. Nicholas, wrote also the serial, "Elinor Arden, Royalist," which St. Nicholas published in 1894. This serial was the first story that Miss DuBois ever wrote for publication. The scene was laid in the time of the English rebellion, and the story was founded upon a historic incident in the life of the infant daughter of Charles I., the Princess Henrietta Anne, afterward Duchess of Orleans. "Elinor Arden, Royalist," was afterward considerably amplified, and published in book-form by the Century Company.

Arnold Haultain, author of "The Mystery of Goli," published recently by the Hough

ton Mifflin Company, was born in India, and is a son of the late Major-General Haultain, of the British army. Mr. Haultain was educated in England, and going to Canada while still young, took his degree at the University of Toronto. His first publication was a little critique of Cardinal Newman's theory of the Illative Sense as expounded in that famous prelate's "Grammar of Assent." Since then Mr. Haultain has contributed to the Nineteenth Century, Blackwood's Magazine, the Westminster Review, the Monthly Review, Literature (published by the London Times), Nature, and many other firstclass periodicals. Two or three of his English articles have been copied into American magazines, notably "How to Read" (from Blackwood's Magazine), in Littell's Living Age, and his "Mayfair and the Nurses" (also from Blackwood's), in the Eclectic. His first original contribution to American magazines was a long essay on "Walks and Walking Tours," printed in the Atlantic for October, 1903. In July, 1904, the Atlantic published a second essay, "The Mystery of Golf." This article was Mr. Haultain's second essay on the subject of golf, his first paper having appeared in the Contemporary Review for August, 1902, from which magazine it was copied in full in Littell's Living Age for the following month. In the fall of 1903 Morang & Co., of Toronto, published an octavo illustrated volume by Mr. Haultain, entitled Two Country Walks in Canada."

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Edith Hibbard, whose story, "The Revolt of King Louis," appeared in Short Stories for December, is a Chicago woman who possesses, in addition to her Western outlook and experience, the advantage which her Vermont ancestry and her close relation to New England life afford for a sympathetic understanding of the Eastern point of view. For two years she was acting dean of the women of the University of Vermont, during which time she was largely instrumental in establishing the yearly presentation by the university girls of a Commencement play, two of Shakspere's plays being most suc

cessfully given with her assistance. Miss Hibbard has always written more or less verse, sketches, and stories. While a student at Vassar, she frequently wrote for the Vassar Miscellany, and in connection with the work of a number of women's clubs she has written in later years many characteristic papers, mainly on literary, dramatic, and musical topics. Her story, "The Capitulation of Barbara," won the first prize in a short-story contest, and "The Compounding of a Felony" came out in the American Home Monthly last September. "Letterwriting," Henry James told George Du Maurier, "is the best possible preparation for story-writing," and Miss Hibbard has had much experience in that branch of literary drill, for she comes of a family in which the writing of letters has been for three generations a constantly-exercised gift. Her preference is for the story which permits psychological treatment. She is particularly interested in the working out of character analysis and development - in potent and beautiful description, suggested dramatic action, and repressed intensity.

Walter Leon Sawyer, author of "Gideon Peek, Protective," the first of a series of detective stories which appeared in Ainslee's for December, was born in Maine, but is now a Boston newspaper man. He served his apprenticeship to the profession in the office of the Portland Advertiser, then joined the staff of the Washington Post, and in 1892 became assistant editor of the Youth's Companion. For the last seven years, though remaining a staff contributor to the Companion, he has been engaged in general literary work, covering a wide range of activities. He is a regular contributor to the Boston Transcript, the New York Sun, and the New York Press, and he is also American correspondent of the London Daily Express. He has written songs and sketches for Nat M. Wills and other stars of the vaudeville stage, has had three stories published in the Century and many in other magazines, and, under the pseudonym of "Winn Standish,"

is responsible for the Jack Lorimer series of juvenile books issued by L. C. Page & Co.

Effie Smith, who contributed the story, "A Son of Sorrow," to Putnam's Magazine for December, was born in the Tennessee mountains, and has always lived there, excepting for a few years spent at college and in teaching. She has had poems published in Putnam's, the Independent, the Christian Register, Zion's Herald, the Nashville Christian Advocate, and other periodicals. The story, "A Son of Sorrow," was suggested by an incident which occurred in her own community, as was "The Tempting of Peter Stiles," published in Putnam's for last Feb

ruary.

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Emerson Taylor, whose story, 'The Rescue of the Gods," appeared in Scribner's Magazine for December, was until recently an instructor in English and rhetoric at Yale University. He has contributed to the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, the Reader, Ainslee's, and the Outlook, most of his work being along the lines of fiction. During the past two years he has contributed a series of stories of child life to the Ladies' Home Journal, and he will have a serial in that magazine during the coming year. He is the author of two novels, "A Daughter of Dale," published by the Century Company in 1904, and "The Upper Hand," published by A. S. Barnes & Co. in 1906.

PERSONAL GOSSIP ABOUT AUTHORS.

Hayne. Paul H. Hayne adopted literature as a profession soon after leaving college, and pursued it to the end of his life, through evil and good fortune. . . . For many years the poet's delicate health prevented him from early rising, but soon after his frugal breakfast, that is about half-past eight, he mounted his mare, Maggy, and with dog and gun, spent several hours hunting small game. While riding he thought over the literary work upon which he was engaged, and committed his thoughts to paper upon returning to the house. He was a rapid writer, especially in prose. Before his health became

delicate he walked a great deal while reading, and if an idea struck him he wrote it down on the fly leaf of the book in hand. His habit was to write standing, until his strength failed him; then he sat down at his desk; but finally he was obliged to write in bed. Some of his best work was done under these unfavorable conditions. His popular "Yorktown Centennial" lyric was composed after a severe hemorrhage, and he was far from well when he wrote the "International Cotton Exhibition" ode, a fine, scholarly production, full of imaginative power. Eugene L. Didier, in Spare Mo

ments.

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Mitchell. To the writer as well as the reader of historical novels there is interest in the preface which Dr. S. Weir Mitchell' has written to the new edition - the nineteenth of his "Hugh Wynne." In this preface Dr. Mitchell tells his reader that since the appearance of the book twelve years ago it has been subjected to a considerable amount of criticism at the hands of local archaeologists and historians who are troubled over certain inaccuracies in names, dates, and localities occurring in the romance. These errors, Dr. Mitchell now informs his public, he has rectified in this edition largely because he finds that his novel is used in schools and colleges, where its occasional lapse from historical verity might injure its educational value. But Dr. Mitchell questions the need for absolute accuracy in details in the historical novel. How little the grossest errors in biography and history," he writes, "affect the opinions of the public concerning a novel long popular may be illustrated by the fact that one of my critics referred me to 'Henry Esmond" for an example of desirable accuracy. It was an unfortunate choice, for in Esmond' there is hardly a correct historical statement. The Duke of Hamilton described as about to marry Beatrix was the husband of a second living wife and the father of seven children an example of contemplated literary bigamy which does not distress the happily ignorant, nor are they at all troubled by the many other and even more singular errors in statement, some of them plainly the result of carelessness. A novel, it seems, may sim

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sadly as concerns historic facts and yet survive." That brings Dr. Mitchell to the broader question of the purpose of the historical novel is the latter to be judged as history or fiction? "The purpose of the novel," he says, "is, after all, to be acceptably interesting. If it be historical, the historic people should not be the constantly present heroes of the book. The novelist's proper use of them is to influence the fates of lesser people and to give the reader such sense of their reality as in the delineation of characters is rarely possible for the historian." New York Times Saturday Review.

Warner. The extraordinary pains and patience with which the late Charles Dudley Warner did his literary work are shown in an account given by a writer in the New Amstel Magazine of the strenuous way in which Mr. Warner produced an obituary notice some years ago.

Professor Edward L. Youmans was a close personal friend of Mr. Warner, and on that account, when Mrs. Youmans died, the editor of a daily paper asked Mr. Warner to write a sort of personal appreciation of her. This he consented to do.

He was left alone from ten A. M. until halfpast twelve, when he went to lunch. Returning at two o'clock, he worked without interruption until four o'clock, when he turned over to the editor what he had written. Yet the work was not complete. Warner read the first proof, and in succession three revised sheets.

Mr.

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Even the printers refused to get angry over the delay, and forthwith the form was sent up, and changes went on for an hour. At last, though publication was delayed fully two hours, the editor, but not Mr. Warner, had the supreme satisfaction of knowing that the work was as nearly perfect as human art could make it, and the edition was sent out. 'While we were walking up the street toward the Youmans country home," writes the editor, we quietly talked about books and bookmen.

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"You are most painstaking,' we ventured. "Yes,' said Mr. Warner modestly, 'I never could dash off anything readily like some writers. It has always been real labor for me.'

"Then you revise all your work the same way?'

"I have always found it necessary to do so. Even in writing for the "Easy Chair" I have to be painstaking. Nor have I ever been able to use the typewriter with any degree of satisfaction. The trouble seems to be that either in dictating or in using the typewriter I at once become self-conscious and mechanical. For some reason my thoughts what few ideas I may possess seem to flow more easily from the pen.''

CURRENT LITERARY TOPICS.

How "Ben Bolt" Was Written. Du Maurier made a fortune out of "Trilby." Thomas Dunn English never received a cent from "Ben Bolt."

The circumstances in which the lines were written, and which were related to me by the author's daughter, Miss Alice English, who often heard them from her father, seem to take us far back in American literature; for Dr. English personally knew Edgar Allan Poe and many of the other early American writers. During the summer of 1843 he was visiting in New York, where he became acquainted with N. P. Willis, who with George P. Morris recently had revived the New York Mirror. Willis asked English to contribute a sea poem, explaining, however, that the paper was run on very small capital, and that its editors would be greatly obliged to him

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