Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1893-02-15
ANNAPOLIS ND WEDNESDAY EVENING. FEBRUARY Is 1898
AUTHORS LIKES AND DlsLlkea
Tastes of Some Well Known Writers as
seen from Their Avowals.


seen from Their Avowals.
The Book Buyer has been sending out
20 literary people some blanks which
they are required 10 fill ont. telling who
are their fayorite prose authors, poets,
painters, etc, their favorite books. heroes
If fiction, what they most enjoy and
most detest, and so ON. Some Of the re-
suits are amnsing-none Is very instruct
i've. II would be more amusing than
anything else, for instance, TO see Mr.
Brander Matthews attempt 10 reconcile
his favorite prose writer. Hawthorne.
and his favoIite poet, Dobson, with his
favorite musical composer. Wagner; bnt
WHOM opposite the sentence, Where
should like TO live, he writes New York
Of course" we begin TO comprehend as
well as TO be amused. Mr.. Joel Chandler
Harris makes q very frank and cheerful
ayowal Of his preferences; It is odd TO see
Uncle Remus including Landor among
his favorite authors Of prose, but one
would expect Shakespeare and Burns 70
be his favorite poets, and II Is consistent
and significant that he should write down
"The People" as his favorite musical com
posers.
Mr.. 4. Russell Sullivan writes the best
lot Of answers in the lot--which Is as
much as to say, Of course, that the Lis
tener is most In sympathy with them.
His favorite authors OF prose are Sterne,
Sir Thomas Browne; his poets, Shake
speare, Heine; his painters, Velasquez,
Rembrandt his composers" Dinner
and Sleep, which Is "goak;" his favor
ite play is "Othello," and his favorite
heroes in fiction are Mephistopheles and
dArtagnan; his favorite heroines in flc-
tion, Juliet and Beatrix Esmond; his
favorite heroines in real life, "The I'm
complaining Poor" He mostly enjoys
travel, and most detests an electric
street car, while the ''historic event at
which he should like most to have been
present" was the interview between Eve
and the serpentl
Miss Agnes Repplier's answers are IL
Eliminating as TO the character Of that
gifted lady. Naturally Scott is one Of
her fayorite prose writers, and Keats
goes with Shakespeare in poetry, while
her favorite composers are Gounod and
Verdi. That "Marius the Epicurean"
should be her fayorite book Is rather an
odd thing TO some warm admirer of Mr..
Pater, who doesn't share Miss Reppliers
general romantic and sanguinary tastes
In literature. The exquisite civilization
Of "Marius" seems very far away from
the silly barbarism Of "Ivanhoe." But
whether 1t is she who IL inconsistent or
whether they are, each party probably
would not leave 1t to the other to de-
eide. OF course Miss Repplier's heroine
in real life is Mary Stuart, and the his
toric event at which she would most like
to have been present was the battle Of
Agincourt. No circular need come from
the mails to find that out.
The literary ladies, by the way, who
have such an unwomanly taste for gore,
and who pour out so much tardy ink in
the praise of thirsty sword, illustrate
anew the tendency of their sex to come
brislkly in expressing mems thoughts
just after men have ceased to think
them. All, well, at the same time that
Miss Repplier avows these things she
avows that she would rather live in
London than anywhere else, and de-
clares that the gift Of nature she would
most like to have Is health. which Is as
much as to say that she has it not, and
illness, and life in Philadelphia, and a
liking for London will account for a
great many backward and morbid things
IN ones understanding. Boston Tran
script.