St. Paul daily globe., 1888-08-05
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

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BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
A recent criticism of Howells and his
style contains the following gem of
truth: .'The truth is that Mr.. Howells
has deeply wounded the self-loye of
nearly everybody by showing in his ad-
mittedly photographic productions of
everyday life how shallow and selfish
and self-deluding nearly everybody is.
Nearly everybody has a personal griev-
ance against him for taking the heroic
out of his sO-called love affair, out of
his sacrifices for his family, out of his
public philanthropy, or his dealing with
his partner. The sitting processes of
realism leave very little of some things
that have long cOmforted uncandid peo-
pie. Unilluminated and uncaRdid peo-
pie, who are the vast majority, prefer to
remain unawakened to the reality-pre-
fer that their love-making and their
Self-sacrificing be left on the plane and
quality of Don Quixote's imaginings,
where the old poets and romancists
have placed it,
Julian Hawthorne says of realism:
''We do not want less realism, but more.
We want the deeper realism, as we'll as
that OF three-button coats and bustles.
The stars were meant to be seen, and
no picture of life is true that leaves out
them and their moral significance. Why
should we not spend our labor and tax
our brains in fathoming and interpret
ing great things instead of in pho
tographing and reporting small thingS?'
The possibilities of life are of infinitely
more consequence than the actualltieS
thereof; the latter are Of consequence
only as base line for divining the
former. The art of fiction, and art in
general, is our means of forecaSting
better existence, and thereby of bring
ing it to pass. Our lives are low and
narrow, but our capacities are high and
limitless, and the novelist who hopes to
live should keep US in mind of it,"
Walter Besant in late number of
Atalanta writes: "Let those who wish
to write of ancient days hesitate long.
For years of work are wanted-years of
reading before it is possible to repro
duce. even with approximate fidelity,
the time, the talk, the ideas of former
times. L, who speak, have written of
the eighteenth century; my shelves are
crammed with eighteenth century lit
erature. Here are novels. not Field
ing's and Smollett's only, but the un-
known, the obSure, dead and gone nov
elS-unspeakably tedious; there are eS-
says, not Addison's and Johnson's only,
but the long-forgotten essays, feeble
and foolish. Here are poems that fell
still-born from the press; there are voy-
ages and travels, biographies, geogra-
phies, school-books-every kind of book;
a worthless collection save to him who
studies them with a purpose. Him they
reward. He will get from one the real
talk of society; from another the setting
out of a dinner table and the order of
the dishes; from a third, the hours of
the daily life; and so-fOrth. 1t is in the
worst novels, somehow, that these de-
tails may generally be found. Fielding,
for instance, in the exercise of that Sc
lection which is one of the most impor-
tant functions of the novelist, passes
over petty details. viii young nov
eelist have the courage to face all this
labor?''
James Russell Lowell is credited with
having told good story explanatory of
why he had escaped the usual fate of
literary beginners, financial loss in
the publication of his first volume. The
cost of publishing Mr.. Lowell's first
book, runs this story, was borne en-
tirely by that gentleman himself, the
edition being plain but substantial
one of 500 copies. The author felt the
usual pride in his achievement, and
hoped for almost immediate fame, but
only few copies Of the work were sold.
Soon after fire occurred in the pub
fishing house where the volumes were
stored, and they were destroyed. AS
on the stock, Mr.. Lowell was able to
realize the full cash value of his ven
ture, and he had the satisfaction of say
ing that the entire edition was eX-
hausted.
The August number of Lippincott's
Magazine contains the announcement
of the awards for the best answers to
the hundred questions" that have been
printed in that magazine from month to
month. There were, in fact, bnt ninety
questions, most of which were difficult
enough. Over 400 sets of answers were
received, and each answer was give a
mark according to its degree of merritt,
the maximum being five, so that the
highest possible total was $50. Miss
Catherine Sargent Olds, of Washington,
won the first prize. She answered ev-
cry one of the questions, getting the
highest mark for S3 of her answers and
falling as low as 2 in only one of them.
The second prize was won by Mrs. Mar
garet III. GangeWer, of Burlington. n.
j., with 424 marks; the third by NJ. n.
Robinson, of Lancaster, with 420; and
the fourth by Laura T. Cogswell, of
Worcester, Mass, with 412. From these
the marks run all the way down as low
as 80.
-
Messrs. Frederick A. Stokes & Brother
announce ''The Life of Grover Cleve-
land" by William o. Stoddard, the
author of the other volumes in their
series of Lives of the Presidents of the
United States"
Mr.. Stoddard has given the greatest
possible care and Labor to this work,
and in view of this fact. as well as it's
timeliness, the publishers expect that it
will receive much attention and meet
with very large sale. 1t will be we'll
illustrated, and is to be published in
variety of editions.
-
There are reported to be 14,OOO people
in London who make living by writing
books and by contributing to magazines
and the daily newspapers.
~
The author of ..The Leavenworth
Case" Anna Katherine Green, lives in
Buffalo. where she is writing a new
story. Her well-know book is said to
have reached circulation of 2eO, 1000.
Honored the Professions.
Crand Forks p1aiDdaa1ar