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The

SWAN

FOUNTAIN PEN

The "Swan" is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which it supplies to the writing point in a continuous flow. It will hold enough ink for two days' constant work, or a week's ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.

There are various points to select from, broad, medium, and fine, every handwriting can be suited, and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10/6.

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The Gold Pens in the "Swan" are Mabie, Told & Co.'s famous make; they are 14-carat tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with selected polished iridium. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" says "Iridium is a nearly white metal of high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon it." They will not penetrate the paper, and writer's cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens; one will outwear 90 gross of steel pens. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing about Gold Pens.

DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES has used one of Mabie, Todd & Co.'s Gold Pens since 1857, and is using the same one (his "old friend") to-day.

SYDNEY GRUNDY, Esq., savs (referring to the Fountain Pen), "It is a vast improvement on every Stylograph." MOBERLY BELL, Esq., Manager, The Times, says (referring to the Fountain Pen), " One pen lasted me for six years." S. D. WADDY, Esq., Q.C., M.P, says (referring to the Fountain Pen), "I have used them constantly for some years, and, as far as I can remember, have never failed me."

Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the best people, who have used them for years) to

MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.

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CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP.

THE Subscription is One Guinea annually, payable on the Ist of January of each year. The sum of Ten Guineas for life membership entitles the subscriber to full membership of the Society.

Authors of published works alone are eligible for membership.

Those who desire to assist the Society but are not authors are admitted as Associates, on the same subscription, but have no voice in the government of the Society.

Cheques and Postal Orders should be crossed "The Imperial Bank, Limited, Westminster Branch."

Those who wish to be proposed as members may send their names at any time to the Secretary at the Society's Offices, when they will receive a form for the enumeration of their works. Subscriptions entered after the 1st of October will cover the next year.

The Secretary may be personally consulted between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5, except on Saturdays. It is preferable that an appointment should be made by letter.

The Author, the Organ of the Society, can be procured through all newsagents, or from the publisher, A. P. Watt, 2, Paternoster Square, E. C.

A copy will be sent free to any member of the Society for one twelvemonth, dating from May, 1889. It is hoped, however, that most members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is 6s. 6d., including postage, which may be sent to the Secretary, 4, Portugal Street, W.C.

With regard to the reading of MSS. for young writers, the fee for this service is one guinea. MSS. will be read and reported upon for others than members, but members cannot have their works read for nothing.

In all cases where an opinion is desired upon a manuscript, the author should send with it a table of contents. written scenario is also of very great assistance.

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It must be understood that such a reader's report, however favourable, does not assist the author towards publication.

WARNINGS.

READERS of the Author are earnestly desired to make the following warnings as widely known as possible. They are based on the experience of six years' work upon the dangers to which literary property is exposed :

(1) NEVER to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them.

(2) NEVER to enter into any correspondence with publishers, especially with advertising publishers, who are not recommended by experienced friends, or by this Society.

(3) NEVER, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down for future work to any one firm of publishers. (4) NEVER to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society, or, at least, ascertaining exactly what the agreement gives to the author and what to the publisher.

(5) NEVER to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society. (6) NEVER to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice.

(7) NEVER, when a MS. has been refused by respectable houses, to pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. (8) NEVER to sign away American or foreign rights. Keep them. Refuse to sign an agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher. If the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to another.

(9) NEVER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men.

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VOL. J.

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NOTES AND NEWS.

HE President of the United States signed the International Copyright Bill, the papers say, with a quill taken from an American eagle-an eagle of the bald variety, caught for the occasion, and kindly persuaded to have the feather pulled out of the wing by the united pleadings of the British Lion and the Eagles of France, Germany, Austria and Russia. It was a beautiful quill, though the noble bird appeared to resent the loss of it and the pain caused by its extraction. The cutting of the quill was undertaken by the Secretary of the International Copyright League, Mr. R. Underwood Johnson. After the signature, he received the instrument as a reward for his services. On his return home Mr. Johnson found, we are happy to report, his desk ornamented with flowers and small United States flags-why not the flags of all the world?-in honour of his success.

A copy of the new American Copyright Bill has been sent to every member of the Society, with a request that he will read it and forward any remarks or suggestions on the subject. Some replies have already been sent in, but too late for this number. It would be well if most of us, who are not lawyers, would, before writing on the subject, read Sir Frederick Pollock's article in the current Contemporary. His last words are a warning :

"Learned friends who may do me the honour to read this paper, will perhaps think that I have insisted too much on elementary legal conclusions. But there are amateur lawyers as well as learned and qualified lawyers, and the law of copyright is called a favourite hunting ground of amateurs. When an amateur lawyer once goes a mare'snesting among Acts of Parliament, there is no knowing what falls may ensue to him, or anyone who follows him; and my only fear in this respect is that I may not have been elementary enough."

Our members are therefore solemnly warned that we do not ask for the opinions of the amateur lawyer on points of law.

M. Zola is the new President of the Société des Gens de Lettres. The accumulated funds of this Society now amount to £95,000, of which twothirds are available for pension purposes. When shall we be able to boast of our accumulations?

The Société des Gens de Lettres according to the Débats, is contemplating a new departure. It will no longer confine its operations to the maintenance

and protection of the material interests of literature, but will become a kind of Academy, admission to which will be a distinction only conferred on those change, it is said, explains certain exclusions or of proved and marked ability. This proposed black ballings which have recently taken place in the Society. One of the rejected candidates was a lady, and at first it was supposed that the Comin the words of Euclid, is absurd. mittee wished to exclude women altogether-which, Therefore,

that could not be the cause of rejection. But, the Débats asks, what power has the Society to change its constitution? It is not a question of titular membership. The Committee are trustees for a great Pension Fund, created for the benefit of all littérateurs. If it becomes an Academy, the Government would have the right of withdrawing this Trust and creating another Society. It is, in fact, as if the Chemical Society should try to make its membership as great a distinction as the Fellowship of the Royal Society, and should refuse to admit any but the most distinguished chemists; or it is as if the Institute of Civil Engineers would have none but the best and most famous engineers. We have ourselves learned so much from the practical common sense of the Société that one is sorry to hear of such a change even in contemplation. As for ourselves,

we are the servants of all writers of every degree. Membership is open to any who have published a book. We advance no other object than the protection of our material interests.

If this Society should happen to want in the course of the year assistance, unpaid, voluntary, and active, are there any members-or friends of members-who would be ready to give it? If so, will they kindly give me their names and tell me what they could do for us? It is the strength of our Association that most of the work hitherto done for it has been done by unpaid members, who have nothing whatever to gain out of it for themselves. As things look at present, I think that there will very soon be work enough for a good many more volunteers.

Here is a satisfactory testimony to the good results of what seemed to some a barren controversy. The writer's name is suppressed for obvious reasons. For one thing he might incur ecclesiastical censure, or even bell, book, and candle, which would be dreadful. "With regard to the S.P.C.K., against whom you took up the cudgels last year for those who are unable or afraid to do so themselves, I have reaped the benefit in increased payment for work of mine. This has the, perhaps,

intended effect of preventing my voice from being raised with others." Can the Literary Housemaid of the Church be cleaning and sweeping-it would be the spring cleaning-with the aid, one supposes, of the Literary Cook of the Church, and the Literary Charwoman of the Church?

Mr. Edmund Gosse very wisely and opportunely calls attention, in his article in the April Contemporary, to the distinction between literary merit and pecuniary reward. They are, as we have already insisted more than once in these columns, things which have no necessary relations to each other. The most popular of authors may be the most worthless, so far as regards many essentials of literary style and form. One or two qualities, and these certainly the rarest, the successful man must have. First of all, he must be able to catch and to rivet the attention. If he is a novelist or a dramatist, he must have "grip." Now I think it will be allowed that "grip" is a very valuable quality indeed. But we must altogether put out of our minds the idea that the author who makes a large income is therefore a good writer. I say, altogether, because there is not only no proportion, but there is no possible comparison. For instance -not to touch on living examples-the late Countess of Blessington made for some years a very large income indeed by her novels. Let anyone, now, try to read those terrible works. At the same time it is not in human nature for the popular author not to believe that his head also touches the skies. After all, this only means that persons of cultivation, education, and taste will desire the best literature, and the lower sort the lower literature. Now the lower sort will always be the larger sort.

Mr. Gosse further says that he considers the Society of Authors as a firm of solicitors acting solely for literary clients. That seems to me on the whole a very fair definition. But there is this important difference. A firm of solicitors sends in its little bill. The Society of Authors does not. The solicitors interpret, explain, and employ the law for their clients only. The Society of Authors publishes information about law and the breaking of the law for all the world to read.

On Friday, April 3rd, a letter appeared in the Times, signed "Ouida," on the justice and necessity of safe-guarding dramatic rights in fiction by Act of Parliament. This letter, a very able, lucid and eloquent exposition of the case, is the thousand and first protest of novelists against the cruel injustice with which their rights are treated. Pro

tests indignant, sarcastic, comic, wrathful, have been uttered by Dickens, by Wilkie Collins, by John Hollingshead, by Charles Reade and I know not by what others. Ouida's is only one more added to the list. They are all read to-day and forgotten to-morrow. To protest, in fact, does no good at all. There is not, unhappily, in human nature such a passion for justice as regards other people's property as makes them long to be up and acting when a protest against injustice is uttered. As regards their own property, of course, the passion for justice does exist in its most intense form. Every time a slave shrieked under the lash he protested against the injustice of his lot; but his protests did him little good. Nay, they did him harm, because there arises, in time, a contempt for those who can only shriek, but cannot help themselves. Ouida's protest, therefore, considered as a cry of the helpless, is much more likely to do harm than to do good. Meantime-a fact of which she is apparently quite ignorant-the Society, without making any protest at all, has been quietly engaged in taking the first steps towards removing this injustice. It has drafted a Bill consolidating and amending the Copyright Law in which the dramatic rights are reserved, defined and protected. This Bill, as our readers know, is in Lord Monkswell's hands, and has already been read once in the House of Lords.

The

Now this is a very apt illustration of what may be done when authors combine. We have a Copyright Committee composed entirely of lawyers. They have done for us what we certainly could never do for ourselves, working separately and by means of protests and letters in the Times. passing of this Bill, which is in no sense political and attacks no interests, we may regard as merely a matter of time. Another illustration of what may be done when people combine is to be found in the two books of the Society-the "Cost of Production" and the "Methods of Publishing." Hitherto, authors have been kept designedly in the dark as to the actual cost of printing and producing a book. They have been kept equally in the dark as to the retail prices and the actual proceeds of their books. Therefore they could not possibly tell what any agreement submitted to them meant. By united action, that is to say, by supporting an office and a staff, whose duty it was to work and to collect information, this has now been done. Henceforth, no author need sign any agreement without understanding exactly what the publisher offers to give him and what he designs to keep for himself. No honourable man can possibly object to this understanding. It is there

fore a step in which all honourable publishers as well as all authors must rejoice over. And it is the first fruit of combined action.

A lady sends me, as a protest against the booksellers' opinion that women buy few books except novels, a list of books purchased by herself and her sisters during a few years of residence in the country. The letter is not for publication, but I hope I do not violate confidence if I say that these ladies seem to have read-and bought-all the principal books of the last two or three years, together with a great number of standard books by authors now deceased. There are books of science, books of religion, histories, biographies, belles lettres, poetry, and fiction, the books of the lastnamed being in a very small minority. The large amount of poetry in the list seems to confirm my belief that we are going to have a return of the popularity of poetry, not of course among the baser sort who have never loved poetry, but among those of cultivation and education. But perhaps these ladies are exceptions even among the higher class. The list gives one a glimpse into a very pleasant and refined interior. Such ladies want no vindication, and such statements as that against which my correspondent enters her protest do not apply to them.

We have spoken in the Author of recent American verse, and it was suggested that since there are so many living poets in the States it would be well if some of their work was introduced to English readers who are thirsting for new poets. I am happy to say that something has been already done in this direction. A dainty volume in brown paper (" Garde Joyeuse," Frank Murray, Derby and Nottingham) has been presented to me. It is a collection of Society verses. They suggest Praed and Austin Dobson, with a reminiscence here and there of Andrew Lang. Many of them are very pretty and dexterous. Perhaps some of our readers would like to make acquaintance with the volume. I am not able to state the price. Here is one little thing, as light as froth, but pretty. It is called "Private Theatricals."

You were a haughty beauty, Polly
(That was in the play),

I was the lover melancholy

(That was in the play);

And when your fan and you receded,
And all my passion lay unheeded,
If still with tenderer words I pleaded,
They were in the play.

I met my rival in the gateway (That was in the play),

And so we fought a duel straightway (That was in the play);

But when Jack hurt my arm unduly, And you rushed over, softened newly, And kissed me, Polly! truly, truly,

Was that in the play?

The author of this little poem is Miss Louise Imogene Guiney. I should like also to quote Miss Eva L. Ogden's "The Sea," but I think it has already appeared in some English magazine. At least the lines seem familiar to me.

I have had a good many communications from novelists on the subject of reviewing quite apart from the subject of the School of Novelists, considered later. It is natural that authors should feel strongly upon the subject. There never was a time when they liked the reviewer, either the one who wields the bludgeon, or the one who carries the rapier, or the man who employs the dissecting scalpel. Therefore one accepts the ordinary grumble as a grumble, and nothing more. Yet there seems a real grievance in the lumping of a dozen or twenty novels into a set to be reviewed in a single column or two columns. This makes it not only impossible to give anything like a review-what may be called a serious review-to a work of art, but it degrades a most important branch of literature thus to treat it as if all the books of this branch are to be thrown together into a heap. Moreover, it is absolutely absurd to expect a man who works for pay to read books of which he has to furnish a dozen reviews every week. The thing is too ridiculous. There are, for instance, papers in which books receive a line and a half or two lines of notice. How much of these books can be read? Now, we cannot possibly make good reviewers out of bad, but we can reconsider the rights and uses of reviews. Certainly the contemptuous "batch" method of reviewing can do no good at all to either authors or publishers or the interests of literature. Perhaps editors only want to have their attention turned to the absurdity.

The reviewing of novels in the batch was started at a time when novels were about at their lowest point of commonplace and conventionality. Fiction is now the most vigorous branch of letters, the most useful, the most instructive, the most influential, in every civilized country throughout the world. It is monstrous that novels should be still treated as if the best novel was a thing of less importance than the most trifling addition to the many series of

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