St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-08-12
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
DR.. Sheridan wrote to Dean Swift,
then in London on q visit:

tlen IN London On q Visit:
While you converse with lords and dukes,
have their betters here-my books:
Fixed in an elbow chair at ease
Choose companions as please.
I'd rather hare one single shelf
Ihan all my friends, except yourself,
For after all that can be said
our best acquaintance are the dead.
The Critic publishes letter from
Julian Hawthorne bearing testimony to
the character of the late Z. 2. Roe. Mr..
hawthorne says: ''It is the simple
truth that he cared for his friends more
than for himself; that his greatest hap
plness was to see others happy; that he
would have more rejoiced in the literary
tame OF one of his friends than in any
sueh fame of his own winning. All his
leisure was spent in making plans for
the pleasure. profit of other people.
have seen him laugh with delight at
the success of these plans. AS I write,
SO many generous, sweet, noble deeds of
his throng in my memory-deedS done
so unobtrusively, delicately and heartily
that L feel the uSeleSSneSS of trying
to express his value and our loss. He
was at once manly and childlike; manly
IN honor, truth and tenderness; child
like in the simplicity that suspects no
guile and practices none. He had in
him that rare quality of loving sympathy
that prompted sinners to bring their
confessions to him and ask help and
counsel of him-Which he gave, and hui
man love into the bargain. Among his
million readers, thousands wrote to
thank him for good that his books had
awakened in their souls and stimulated
following description of Mr.. Roe's per-
Sonal appearance, etc.: The popular
novelist was large man, of rather strik-
ing appearance, with regular features,
prominent dark eyes and a mass of black
hair brushed back from his forehead.
His mouth and chin were hidden by a
long black beard. that to be patriarchal
needed only to be white. He dispensed
hospitality with an open hand, and only
few weeks ago had many of his
fellow-memberS of the Authors club to
spend the day with him and ravage his
beds OF Strawberries"
~
Miss Amelie Rives has just completed
two dramas called "Athelwold" and
''Andrea Vertoni." The former is to
be illustrated by E. / A 4 Abbey
Robert Louis Stevenson in dedicating
''The Black Arrow to his wife naively
says: II have watched with interest,
with pain, and at length with amuse-
ment, your unavailing attempts to
peruSe The Black Arrow and | think
L should lack humOr indeed if | let the
occasion slip and did not put your name
in the fiy-leaf Of the only book of mine
that you have never read-and never
will"
Book buyers or collectors are divided
into several classes which D'Israeli
quotes from the work of Jean Joseph
Rive as follows:
"a biblognoste, from the Greek, is
one knowing in title pages and colo
phons, and in editions; the place and
year when printed; the presses whence
issued; and all the minuti8 of a book.
A photographic is describer of books
and other literary arrangements. A
bibliOphile, the lover of books, is the
only one in the class who appears to
read them for his own pleasure. A bib
liomane is an indiscriminate accumula-
tor, who blunders faster than he buys,
c0ck-brained and purSe-heavy. A bib
llOtaphe buries his books, by keeping
them under lock, or framing them in
glass cases."
Hjalmar Hiorth Boyesen writes of
Emerson: Emerson revealed in
striking manner the limitations of his
mind when he declared that he would
just as soon swim across the Charles
read foreign book in the original when
he could procure a good translation.
Goodness, to be sure, is an elastic term,
and may be stretched to include any
thing. AS far as one may judge from
the general tenor of EmersOn'S writings,
he would call a translation good which
rendered the meaning of the original
with fair degree of clearneSS and ac-
curacy. To charms of style and har-
mOny of sound he was never very SEN
Sitiye.
James Payn still continues to contrib
ute his English Notes to the Independ-
ent. He informs his readers that Rob-
ert Browning ''has had $3.50 offered him
to write short poem in Boston maya
zine, and refused it. He tells us that
he has had many such offers, and even
blank check for the proposed payment.
L cannot imagine any one except the
banker it was drawn upon declining to
accept blank check" Mr.. Payn is of
the opinion that Mr.. Browning would
not care to be seen in print side by side
with the ordinary magazine poet, and
he adds: "His Drowning self-denial,
however, upon so delicate point as
magazine publication, was far outdone
by George Eliot. Her first arrangement
with the publisher of 'Romola' was for
no less sum, it is said, than 10000
guineas. AS that is SO very large fig
ure,' he said, L must run it through fif-
teen numbers of the Cornhill.' No.
she SAID: lit must finish in twelve num-
l. a,,+;r ~ ,{a
will be lost. l quite understand the
necessity for its prolongation from a
commercial point of view, so We'll say
1000 guineas instead of the 100000 And
1000 guineas was accordingly paid for
the copyright. Three thousand guineas
seems large sum to give up for an ar
tistic Scruple or even a grain; but she
did it,"
Under ''Notes and Language" the
Boston Beacon publishes the following:
''Will not school teachers and publish
ers help in replacing that absurd word,
textbook, by calling it simply a school
book? A textbook gives only the text
school-atlas a textbook, is not honest.
School committees might help in estab-
fishing an honest use of English; but
they devote themselves largely to minor
bossism and petty politics.
~
The Epoch says of Edgar Fawcett's
latest novel: "Mr. Fawcett is a dra-
matist. His novels give one the impress
sion, sometimes, that they were de-
signed for plays and have been written
up for novels by filling in the stage
business" very fully in print. 1t would
not be fair to Mr.. Fawcett to make a
broad generalization of this kind on his
work in general; but this novel inevI-
tably suggests such an explanation of
the manner of its production. 1t is