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eighteen years ago to act as Reader to a firm of publishers. Here he discovered many authors and gave abundant examples of generosity and insight. Miss Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm' passed through his hands, and the late George Gissing and Thomas Hardy both recalled personal interviews with the literary adviser of handsome presence, upon whom they called."

CURRENT LITERARY TOPICS.

George Meredith's Defects. The real trouble is, his style. In all matters that can be classed under the head of style, there is no doubt that Meredith's errors are due to perversity, to the misuse of the very greatest ability. No one has ever questioned his ability to say anything he likes, in any way he likes. He is a highly cultivated writer, aware of the associative value of every word he uses. He is alive to the literal meaning of words tarnished and defaced by vulgar use. He has the genius of phrases, a natural distinction. The Essay on Comedy" is written in a style that it would be hard to imagine bettered — straightforward, pointed, and close-wrought. There are innumerable passages in the novels that are not to be surpassed in our language.

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It is clear, then, that if he does not write always in this excellent way, it is because he takes the license that great power is apt to take in English, and that, like Shakespeare, and Richardson, and Sterne, and Scott, and Carlyle, and Dickens, he writes to please himself. To this license are due his habit of irrelevant excursus, of indifference to the question of precedence as between cart and horse, of expatiation on the obvious and neglect of the necessary. Meredith's diction, though often peccant, is not the worst of his style. Its most irritating quality is the constant assumption that he is immeasurably cleverer than anybody else. The human heart has no secrets from him. The Spirit of Comedy has made him her confidant. We are not left to judge his characters by their acts because we are incom

petent to do so. They are explained to us at every step. The tiresome mechanism of the Philosopher and the Pilgrim's Scrip is based on this assumption. His much-abused obscurity, which is really not very serious and consists chiefly in failing to be off with the old metaphor before he is on with the new, is in fact less exasperating than his habit of over-explanation. If the elucidations were omitted, his books would not be nearly so obscure. And if he did not assert his own superhuman cleverness, we should all admit it on our knees. Emily James Putnam, in Putnam's Magazine for July.

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Studying the Dictionary.—“When I wish to be really well educated," the A. B. lady declared, "I shall be cast away on a desert island with a standard Unabridged Dictionary. And I shall stay there till I have read it ALL! Think how much I'll learn - science and philosophy, and more French and German phrases than I have at my tongue's end now. And geography and my own language - I'll have a bigger vocabulary than any author. And as for literature — do you realize how many quotations there are in a dictionary? More than you could find in a whole system of anthologies.

"They make fun of the idea of a walking dictionary. I tell you a woman who really was that would n't need to be signing equalpay teachers' petitions!" New York Times.

LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS.

[ For the convenience of readers THE WRITER Will send a copy of any magazine mentioned in the following reference list on receipt of the amount given in parenthesis following the name- the amount being in each case the price of the periodical with three cents postage added. Unless a price is given, the periodical must be ordered from the publication office. Readers who send to the publishers of the periodicals indexed for copies containing the articles mentioned in the list will confer a favor if they will mention THE WRITER when they write. ]

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THE FORTIFYING PRINCIPLE IN SWINBURNE. Louise Collier Willcox. North American Review (38 c.) for July.

W. D.

THE FICTION OF EDEN PHILLPOTTS. Howells. North American Review (38 c.) for July. THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE. Brander Matthews. Forum (28 c.) for July.

GEORGE MEREDITH. Edward Clark Marsh. Bookman for July.

Two PERSONAL GLIMPSES OF MEREDITH. Chalmers Roberts. World's Work for July.

ART IN WILD BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY. William L. Finley. Country Life in America for July.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Illustrated. Edward Everett Hale. American Monthly Review of Reviews (28 c.) for July.

DR. HALE'S BUSY CAREER. George Perry Morris. American Monthly Review of Reviews (28 c.) for July. DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. With portrait. American Monthly Review of Reviews (28 c.) for July.

"UP BUXTON WAY." Kate Douglas Wiggin reads "Susanna and Sue to the neighbors. Illustrated. Stuart Patterson. Woman's Home Companion (18 c.) for July.

F. MARION CRAWFORD AND HIS HOME LIFE AT SORRENTO. Horace Thompson Carpenter. Munsey's for July.

THE COMIC JOURNALS OF EUROPE. Lenore Van der Veer. Bohemian for July.

May Sinclair.

GEORGE MEREDITH. With portrait. Author (London) (18 c.) for June. NEWSPAPERS IN CHINA. Cimon T. Z. Tyau. International for July.

HIGH STANDARD OF PREPARATION FOR JOURNALISM. National Printer Journalist (23 c.) for July.

KIRK MUNROE. With portrait. Alice May Douglas. Zion's Herald for June 9.

DR. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. With portrait. Zion's Herald for June 16.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE. With portrait. Christian Register (9 c.) for June 17.

GEORGE MEREDITH, NOVELIST. Harper's Weekly (13 c.) for June 19.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Outlook (8 c.) for June 19.

GEORGE MEREDITH. May Sinclair. Outlook (8 c.) for June 19.

COLONEL A. K. MCCLURE. With portrait. Harper's Weekly (13 c.) for June 19.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE. With frontispiece portrait. Harper's Weekly (13 c.) for June 19.

LONGFELLOW AS A CITIZEN. With photograph of statue. Bliss Perry. Outlook (18 c.) for June 26. LONGFELLOW THE POET. Hamilton W. Mabie.

Outlook (18 c.) for June 26.

NEWS AND NOTES.

The author of "The Inner Shrine" is Basil King, who for ten years was rector of Christ church in Cambridge, and who since 1900 has been devoting himself to a profes

sional career of letters.

Henry Meade Bland, a teacher in the state normal school of San José, Calif., and Herbert Bashford have received from Joaquin Miller an acre of land each, and expect to build cottages near the poet's home at Fruitvale. Miller plans to establish a colony of poets and conduct a school of poetry.

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J. A. Hammerton's new book, George Meredith in Anecdote and Criticism," a companion volume to his "Stevensoniana," was begun six or seven years ago, and was originally intended as a souvenir of Meredith's eightieth birthday.

The London Nation announces that, owing to the earnest wishes of George Meredith, no official biography will be undertaken, though Edward Clodd will write a series of articles giving his recollections of the table-talk and characteristic sayings of his old friend. Meredith's wishes were once expressed to Mr. Clodd in a letter: "In this matter of letters I treat my friends as I wish they should treat me, and reserve not one for the public man. Horribly will I haunt the man who writes a memoir of me."

Theodore Watts-Dunton, to whom Swinburne left his entire estate, including copyright in all published or unpublished writings, will prepare the poet's official biography. Swinburne left an estate valued at more than $100,000. The estates left by some other poets in recent years have been

as

follows: Lord Tennyson, $285,000; Robert Browning, $95,000; Matthew Arnold, $5,000; Frederick Locker Lampson, $152,000; Coventry Patmore, $45,000; William Morris, $225,000. George Meredith's estate amounted to $161,500.

Edmund Gosse's "Swinburne: Personal Recollections," which appears in the Fortnightly, is a striking account of the physical and mental characteristics of the poet, with whom Mr. Gosse was on terms of intimate friendship for more than a third of a century. Ernest Rhys contributes some notes on Meredith to the English Review, and is glad to find that Meredith, like Swinburne, is not buried in Westminster Abbey, since the Abbey, he says, "honors no great men in these days," but is becoming "the resting place of mediocrity."

"Modern English, Its History and Use," by George Philip Krapp, formerly adjunct professor of English in Columbia University, now head of the English department, University of Cincinnati, has been published by the Scribners.

Hon. John Bigelow, who was born in 1817, has written three volumes of "Retrospections of an Active Life." They will be published by the Baker & Taylor Company in October.

A new book to be published soon in England under the title "Byron; the Last Phase," will, it is expected, absolutely settle the Byron controversy that has been going on for some ninety years or more. The author is Richard Edgcumbe, who has long been well known as a Byron enthusiast.

In a forthcoming work on "Sources of the Decameron," A. C. Lee undertakes a survey of the whole field of mediaeval storytelling, dealing especially with originals, analogues, and parallels of Boccaccio's tales.

The concordance to Wordsworth, the work of Professor Lane Cooper, of Cornell, is nearly ready for publication. Professor Cooper has had several assistants, and has labored under the auspices of the Concordance Society.

The next Carlyle book is to be one by Professor Archibald, of Brown University. It will deal with Margaret Gordon Carlyle's first love. It has been thought that this lady was the original of Blumine, but this is not a known fact.

Professor Brander Matthews, who holds the chair of dramatic literature in Columbia, is preparing a book giving in brief compass fundamental facts needed by a student of dramatic literature.

The late François Coppée left among his manuscripts a volume of memoirs which will probably be published in the fall. Another French autobiography announced for early publication is that of M. Camille Flammarion.

A new book on Jane Austen is to be published next season. It is written by W. H. Helen, the author of "Aspects of Balzac."

The New York World offers a prize of $500 for the best scenario or 2,000-word story outlining a serious play of modern life in which the leading character is a woman, and also guarantees for the play resulting from such a scenario a professional production under the direction of Henry B. Harris at a first-class New York theatre and within one year from the close of the competition. In addition to the cash prize, the author of the best scenario will receive a royalty on the gross weekly box-office receipts of the play, to be paid under the following provisos : (1) The author of the best scenario will be allowed ninety days dating from the close of the contest in which to convert his or her scenario into an acting play. If, in the opinion of the judges of the contest, this play shall be of a proper standard of excellence, the entire royalty will be paid to its author weekly, according to the following scale Four per cent. of the first $4,000 paid into the box-office, five per cent. of the next $3,000, and seven and one-half per cent. of all receipts over $7,000. (2) If, however, the judges decide that the author's own play is not adequately worked out from his scenario, a competent professional playwright will be engaged by the judges to put the scenario into proper acting form, and the royalty will be divided equally. between the playwright and the author of the winning scenario. Five prizes of $100 each will be awarded to the authors of the five next best scenarios. These five plots will be placed at the disposal of Mr. Harris, who will have the privilege of selecting one or all of them for production by direct arrangement with their authors under the same terms as govern the production of the scenario winning the $500 prize. The World does not, however, guarantee the production of these five additional prize-winning scenarios. Manuscripts must be typewritten, and must not exceed 2,000 words in length. The competition will close at noon October 14, 1909. All manuscripts must be addressed to Scenario Editor, The World, P. O. Box 1354, New York, who will give further particulars on application.

The American School Peace League offers two sets of three prizes of seventy-five, fifty, and twenty-five dollars for the three best essays on subjects connected with the peace movement. One set of prizes is open to seniors in the normal schools of the United States, the other to seniors in the preparatory schools. The contest will close March 1, 1910. Further information will be given by Mrs. Fannie Fern Andrews, 405 Marlboro street, Boston.

Sir Henry M. Stanley's autobiography is announced for publication in September by Sampson, Low, Marston, & Co.

The American Home Economics Association, which is to be incorporated in New York, will publish a magazine called the Journal of Home Economics.

The Progress Magazine, published in Columbus, O., has taken over and consolidated Iwith it the Ohio Magazine.

The name of the American Historical Magazine is changed to Americana with the July issue. Mrs. Florence Hull Winterburn is the new editor.

The receivers of the bankrupt Outing Publishing Company have sold the Outing Magazine to Thomas H. Blodgett, the Chicago advertising agent of the magazine, for $30,000. This magazine was considered to be the chief asset of the Outing Publishing Company. It was appraised by the receivers at $50,000. Mr. Blodgett will continue the publication of the magazine.

Forrest Crissey has become editorial director of the Currier Publishing Company, of Chicago, which issues the Woman's World. In carrying out his editorial policies he will have the assistance of Byron Williams, now editor of the publication, which claims more than 2,000,000 circulation.

With the June issue the Progress Magazine, published from the Rand-McNally building in Chicago, entered the general popular magazine field, and hereafter "will contain much matter of vital interest for both the man and woman who are really anxious to take advantage of their natural talents, abilities, and opportunities."

Miss Lilian Dynevor Rice will be the editor of the Housewife, beginning with the September issue. Miss Rice was the editor of the Designer for ten years, and later succeeded Charles Dwyer as editor of the Delineator.

Judge Ray, of the United States court, has given the Outing Publishing Company receivers permission to sell the Bohemian Magazine to Theodore Dresser, of New York, for $1,000 after the August number has been published.

Uncle Sam's Magazine (New York) wants" stories of the plains, of the hills, of the woods, of the sea; stories that breathe true masculinity and true femininity; stories of man's courage and woman's tenderness ; of sublime sacrifice and primal passions." It is also in the market for humor, verses, and short poems.

The home of Joel Chandler Harris, fifteen minutes' ride from the heart of Atlanta, to which he gave the name "The Sign of the Wren's Nest," and the four or five acres connected with it, which he called "Snap Bean Farm," are to be made a public park and playground, as a memorial to the author of "Uncle Remus." For this purpose $30,000 will be required, and contributions are solicited by the Uncle Remus Memorial Association of Atlanta.

Colonel Alexander K. McClure died at Wallingford, Penn., June 6, aged eighty-one. Miss Adeline Knapp died in San Francisco June 7, aged forty-nine.

Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D. D., died in Roxbury, Mass., June 10, aged eighty

seven.

Jacob M. Gordin, "the Jewish Shakspere," died in Brooklyn June 11, aged fortysix.

Mrs. Frances Boyd Calhoun died at Covington, Tenn., June 12, aged forty-two. Louis Prang died at Los Angeles, Calif., June 15, aged eighty-five.

Dana Estes died in Brookline, Mass., June 16, aged sixty-nine.

Sarah Orne Jewett died at South Berwick, Me., June 24, aged fifty-nine.

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE TO INTEREST AND HELP ALL LITERARY WORKERS.

VOL. XXI.

BOSTON, AUGUST, 1909.

No. 8.

ENTERED AT THE BOSTON POST-OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MAIL MATTER.

But the poet who sings of love

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"My dream of life, from morn till night, Was love, still love". and the novelist who tells us about love— its blissful beginning, its crosses, and its final triumph or despair, sound the same string in very different ways.

In general, the poet treats of love in the abstract. Love, in the poet's uses, is a spiritual experience, an inward passion, a mighty emotional throb of the human heart. The novelist treats of love in the concrete. With him love is not the divine element that lights the poet's verse. It is rather a curious compound, fit for minutely scientific analysis. With the novelist, environment, circumstance, character, and passing incidents act upon the nature of love and change its color and intensity.

In a poem which, like Tennyson's "Lady Clare," has almost as much plot as a novel, the treatment of the love-theme is so simple and ingenuous that it is only because the music of the verse and the daring of the conception bewitch us that we accept the recital as probable at all. Again, in a ba lad like Young Lochinvar," the mainspring of action is a love that dares almost beyond probability. Love has a vauntingness in poetry which it scarcely attains to in a novelist's treatment of the theme. Witness the Bedouin lover's vaunt of

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"A love that shall not die

Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,

And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!

Perhaps the psychological manifestation of love is best brought out in a sonnet series like Shakspere's or the "Sonnets from the Portuguese," presenting, as they do, first one and then another phase of love as it reveals itself in the human heart. But the cir

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