Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-11-05
LITERARY BOSTON.
What Authors and Publishers are Doing
for the Reading Public.

ipl INC uDllt.
Especial Correspondence of the Free Press
They are all getting ready for Christ
mas, after the manner of their kind the
one, wondering if their copyright account
will allow of the purchase of this or that
the other getting out the advertisements
of the books which have been in prepare
ton Tor half a year or more
Miss Alcott should be happy. since she
has launched her latest volume, Jos
Boys" ON the world, and that same world
can now cease its complaint at the long
delay i'll learning what became of Dan
and Nat, ana Deni, although the knowl
edge in one case at least is far from salts
factory after all. visited three crculat-
ing libraries in my search for copy, only
to be informed that they had it but it
was out ami finally borrowed Il copy
from the showcase to look over. The
book is general tieng up OF loose threads
left over from Little Men, and is SO
real, so unlike an ordinary bit of fiction
that we look straight out into plumfield
life and see, and laugh, and sympathize
but feel constrained to wonder if to Miss
AlcOtt children do not Slightly grow be
You'd her sympathies after they reach a
certain age, so slyly does she poke fun at
while treated somewhat tenderly. Can
ii be that rattle Drained Tommy Bangs
could develop into such Il soft specimen
of humanity? and are Dau's Vigorou,
faculties and viking force to meet with nc
better ending, full of pathos as it is 3:
Perhaps the lesson was necessary he
had been. after all, the hero of Little
Men, and Il wild life is entcing for 4
mettesOme boy. But il was Il pity. aftel
making demgod to smash the pedestal
and it wakes a real sigh to think "it had
to be. incidentally, the book gives an
amusing account of some of the authors
home trials which make the writer regret
to think that he also had ever been guilty
of adding to their epistOlary greatness, in
spite OF the personal benefit that he re
ceived. OF course Roberts Bros. are her
publishers.
ID. Lothrop n Co. have just issued IA
book which was considered worth Il col
umn in the Sunday HcrUid, the voumi-
nous title of which is "a Girls Room,
with plans and designs for work upstairs
and down and entertainments for herself
ana friends, " a comprehensive idea, sure
ly but well the book tultills it and it is
a very treasure house of bits OF wisdom
for the time of need. For instance my
self am in want of something. hardly
know what beyond the consciousness thai
there Is a void in my domestic economy.
| turn page, and 10 not only Just what
want but just how to make it in words
so PLAN that "A child could understand and
see 1t in minds eye already And it is
not devoted To kulck- knacks, but to things
worth while, the one thing generally left
out in such books.
Margaret Sidney is out again with a
volume of stories of New England life,
Hester, etc" both pathetic and funny.
They are of a higher cast-designed for
older years-than other books of hers
with which | am acquainted, calling to
mind the work of Rose Terry Cooke, as
much as anyone's, although less full OF
dialect, and quite as full of humanity,
Given rainy Sunday afternoon and Il
window seat and it would make life quite
endurable and by no means lily supple
menting the morning sermon.
BY the way, if you have the October
|ttdG-A rake at hand just give glance
at Merrill's sketches in 1.-The Cruise of the
Casabianca." The boys won't need the
reminder, but you may. TRUE.