The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-05-24
LITERARY FOOT NOTES.
FoRTHC DINING ARTICLES BY P. T.
BARNUM

I'VE MS.-An american AnClQonV
Touching Scott and Byron-Another
Kipling-Some New and Important
Books.
Copyright 1871
NEW YORK, May 2S.-The union Of the
publishers function with authorship has
long been dream, the realization of which,
it is supposed by many, will produce an
authors millennium. Though there are no
statistics within any ones reference, so far
as know. to show this. the effort to destroy
the middleman in literature. who is accused
of taking the profits Of literary work-or
the lions share of them-still goes
on. 1t is now said that in Boston an
Authors Publishing Company is soon to be
formed, which will be organized under
the strictest rules of a club. As it is to be
presumed there will be no ugly reader" of
manuscript. the club firm, each member Of
which is a stockholder as well as an author,
actual or potential, will be able to get all
its books published, and, it is supposed, we'll
pushed aud advertised. do not understand
that the author-made firm will "pooln its
separate individual issues; but, l suspect,
the members intend to see that each book,
offered from within-and no other can be
offered-shall not only come out, but shall
have all the Interior aids to success. While
no such good FORTUNE as is expected
from this scheme has ever happened
so far, there are a few instances
of success which can point to where a
single individual author has been his own
publisher; as, for instance, Ruskin IN Eng
land, and Mark Twain here. Some, doubt
less will think however, that their promo
ton to profit was mainly owing to the fact
that one was Ruskin and the other Mark
Twain; il not, partly to the fact that both
depended on publishers, other than them
selves. until they got good start. But the
literary craft, nevertheless, will look on
with interest to the Boston experiment and
wish it the utmost prosperity.
The literary activity of the late p. I.
Barnum was one of his notable traits,
which has been little referred to by the
obituarists and Commentators since his
death. Ever since-as a boy-he edited the
Danbury Herald of Freedom, he had a
natural appetite for the press and its be-
longings He contributed quite often to
magazines, children's papers. and all sorts
of periodical issues for many years past
OF these contributions of his
still in editors hands, and soon to
appear, the most notable, perhaps, is one
on MY Impressions of Europe" which is
marked, understand, for the June number
of the North american Reuie1U.
Another-interesting in another way-is
titled 'P. T. Barnum's Museum of Letters, -
and is to appear in q prominent Philadelphia
periodical.
The new manuscript lately discovered in
London, written by Thomas Carlyle, will of
course find a publisher soon. 1t contains
about 10, 900 words, and the extracts which
have been made from it in the British press
show that it is Carlylean and Carlylese all
the way through, particularly his comments
on men and things in Paris, which city he
visited with Robert and Mrs. Browning just
forty years ago. 1t is an account of this
trip that the article embalms.
A siDgle passage in Walter Scott's pathetic
and volumlnous journal, which has waited
over sixty years to be published, has a
special local interest here. Under date of
May 2, 1881, Scott says: "by the by,
have letter from Nathan l. ROSTER,
Williamstown, New York city wherever
that may bel offering me a collection OF
poems by Byron. which are said to have
been found IN Italy some years since by a
friend of Mr. Rossiter. | don't see how
can at all be entitled TO these, so shall write
to decline them. If Mr.. Rossiter chooses TO
publish them in Italy or America he may,
but published here they must be the pr OPP
erty of Lord Byron's executors"
Scott proposed to consult Lockhart on
know il any such poems existed that have
never been put in print, or il any descend
ant of them over here is now living who
can tell about them.
A little book Of poems, almost privately
printed, has just been issued in Holyoke.
Mass. and is called IAN Idyl of the Sun,
and Other POEMS" Its author is young
man. Ossin Cedermore Stevens. What the
presumption is when such book is first
lOOko6 a ia aUidont hnt for a yvnT1or thu
ordinary expectation seems reversed here.
The poems show a very marked individual
imprint, and il they do not soar to the
loftieSt hight, they at least give pleasure by
a certain vigor and novelty of expression.
1t is said that sister Of Rudyard Kip
ling is soon to come into the field of author>
ship with story, which means, of course,
that the momentum gained by her brother
will be likely TO take any Kiplng book
along. Kipling,s own book, just out-and
the lauest-is a series of short stories entitled
milne Own People,"
The hereto hunters of DR.. Briggs and
other eminent ministers are doing much to
inspire monographers aud books on oues-
tions concerning theology and the Bible.
Two Of these lately out are, "Who Wrote
the Bible?" by Washington GLADDEN., and
"The Change of Attitude Toward the Bible. y
by Prof. j. II. Thayer Of the Harvard
Divinity school.
1t ought to be said on behalf of Prof
Bryce's great book on the American Com
monwealth" that the cheap authorized edi-
ton now out will enable the interested
reader of this famous work to obtain not
only a cheap and honest copy Of it, but, in
fact, the only complete one. In this edi-
ton only are the chapters by President
Low Of Columbia College, and other we'll
known American writer's.
Among various newest books sure to at
tract attention are F. Marion Crawford's
new novel, "Khaled, an East Indian Tale, !"
and Charles Macklin," in William
Archer's Eminent Actor series. by Edward
Abbott Perry.
Readers who are jostled by our recent
controversy with Italy and a possible one
with Chile to look up the subject of naval
defenses will find some help in the work on
Identification. Its Past Achievements. Re-
cent Development and Future Progress"
by Maj. G. Sydenham Clarke.
1t is thought the last article written by
the late DR.. Howard Crosby is the one on
Religion in the Common Schools" in the
May Educational ReUielU.
Fiesta, Book for Boys is just trans
lated from the Italian of Paolo Montegazza,
for American readers, and we have other
foreign thought-though much further
back in time-in the new book Of poems
"From the Garden of Hellas," which are
Lila Cabot Perry's neat translations from
the Greek anthology.
Chittenden's Lincoln is Just issued. The
author was register of the treasury under