New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-12-03
WITH THE PUBLISHERS.
uuAr THEY HAVE FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

,,,., tho Funk & Wagnalls Company in Lafay-
-. place the all-absorbng topic just now Is the
Wv d,c,,onary-"new." although work was begun
~ 4, Eve wears ago. Other books. Of course figure
- ,he,r holiday saes-a long list of them OF these
=" 4, nv a person well known to New Workers and
~. nrefatory letter is dated from Governors Island
10, a. O. Towards Isabella of CASTLE" was
s,,ssested by the fact that there is monument
- This country to the memory 'of the patroness
=. rendered Columbus's voyage reality. At
w., 4" writes General Howard. II could make
.,,,,,,l study of her life" The book Is attractively
-, m with text illustrations by +. A. Carter and
quaint cover. The author has dedicated 1t to his
...,hsr. General Charles II. Howard. and at the
.a Of each chapter there Is a quotation Of poetry
s.r good old fashion that many people still like
prt the Dictionary has a way Of overwhelming
,,o.t everything else. When reporter called to
-. him. DR.. Funk. in an inner room. was sur
.rded by specimens Of 1t, and by numerous selec-
49,. from the writings of people who have said
,oroying things OF II. The history Of the building
:. n such a work has an unusual interest for the
unntated
ives" said Dr. Funk. the work was begun Ave
v.ars ago, and there was plenty do" A glance
:, the ;itle-page. bristng with names OF reputation
.,d eminence showed who had been the workers.
:, addition TO all these, there were 500 readers
..rch OF Illustrative quotations. for as The Trib-
une reporter took pains to learn. the examples OF
the uses Of words have not been copied into this
dictionary from its predecessors. Il think there
ar. only 100 which have been used before" said
n, Funk The readers distributed over
.rous regions of English literature. from Chaucer
down. And want you to notice that each quota
,on is located-pase. chapter and edition. That's
a great advantage. Another departure is the
u.e ~ the scientific spelling in the explanatory
accommodation OF words It's the system that has
been approved by the American and English philo
logical societies. and by the American Spelling
Reform Association. Yes. perhaps II will be step
IN the direction OF spelling reform. You it viii
famliarze the eye with the new method. Another
ching in the nature of reform Is our system of
compounding words that seem often TO be
spelsd with without hyphens. chooses.
? Horace Teale has managed that for In
the arrangement Of meanings. simply enough. We
have lust reversed the customary order. It's been
done on the principal OF usage; the ordinary man
with dictionary wants TO find the ordinary mean
ing for a word. not the scholars meaning the
obsolete meaning So with us the ordinary meaning
comes first then comes the others in the order of
usage and last the etymologes. The definitions
given by defnitive statement. not by synonymes
which are likely 10 be misleading. Another reform
in arrangement is In the appendix OF proper names.
which are all under one alphabet one thing that
takes my eve is this standard of colors, which
believe Is nowhere else complete. With this
with coored disks. and the spectroscope. you could
order one particular color from shop In San Fran
cisco and win a legal suit against the man who did
not send you exactly the right thing The plates
AMI the wheel and forth would determine 1t In
a court Of law.
After these explanations cannot wonder that
the sale OF "A Standard Dictionary of the English
Language has been large. DIR. Funk said there
had been 5000 orders already.
81 ROBERTS BROTHERS.
l, is an old story now that New-York has robbed
Boston Of her literary glories and become the pub
fishing centre of the country But many houses
that remain in Boston still keep finger in the pie
here and favor NEWCOMERS with inviting lists Of
holiday wares. Roberts Brothers. OF Boston. for
instance announce a edition OF Moliere. trans
lated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. with
a preface by Bazsc, criticisms by Sainte Beuve. and
portraits by Coypel and Mignard the whole TO BE-
comprised in six volumes. l2no In fiction there
Voyage Of the Lberdade." by Captain Joshua Slo-
cum a true tale Of the sea- Another Girls Expert
ence. by Leigh Webster. story for girls; "A Child
Of the Age. novel by Francis Adams. for which
Aubrey Beardsley has designed wonderful title
page: The Little Lady OF the Horse" by Evelyn
Raymond. and Not Quite Eighteen" by Susan
Coolidge. All these. most of them. illustrated
by wel-known men In addition Lillian Whiting
writes on The World Beautiful and there is a
treatise on THE Minor Tactics of Chess by f..
X Young and b. c. Howell.
WHAT ESTES LAURIAT HAVE.
Another Boston house is that Of Estes & Lauriat.
and ". NJ. Jackson. of the firm. who is frequently
in this city, talked Saturday with Tribune re-
porter.
"Our great book, OF course. he said. 'is Chat
terbox' which we bring out every year as an an
nuaL In England 1t is published periodically. IL
started there twenty five years ago by philan-
throplsts who wanted to counteract the influence OF
the penny dreadfuls and II has had a success all
these years far beyond expectation Another sur
viva Of the old annual habit. perhaps, is The Lit
tie Ones Annual That's expensive book. but
might say frankly that we do not try hard not
TO make 1t so. It's for the little children OF the
rich.' and don't believe 1t would sell half so well
II It were any cheaper Another curiosity OF the
as -Four Years Of Fighiing With that last name
the sale was dwinding constantly. With the name
Telss " go ns de ss in name Then
we have Zig-Zag Journeys IN the Wnite oIik' a
The Youths Companion besides many others for
the taste OF youth. For their elders we get out
custom Clara Erskne Clement has written Naples
IN our series OF the Italian cities iiiustrated WIN
volumes ca are 'Kenilworth' and The Heart OF
Midlothian which Andrew Lang mas edited Ior
Johnson s3'" wrtss Of @ Godfather life
,vesPucct For etchings again we nave Ghanp0,i..
Our big standard editions this year are OF the Mav-
erley Novels. in forty-eight volumes: George Eliot,
In twenty-four Ruskn and Dumas.
Mr. Jackson thinks only natural the tendency OF
the publishing business toward New-York. He re-
cards New York the true centre of all things
American He does not appear TO take seriously
9e representations of Mr.. Garland. who sees In
Chicago the future literary metropolis OF the coun-
~ Mr. Garland makes out a good case Perhaps.
be is right some of the London pubishers or
branches OF them. have got as far as New-York
In their Journey thither.
LONGMANs, GREEN G. CO.
Longmans. Green & Co. for instance. are IN Pa
ternoser Row and at No. 10 East Sixteenth-st at
the sign OF the ship Their books are published
some In England and some over here. In their
monthly bulletin for December occurs. Border
Ballads" for which the indefatigable Andrew Lang
has written an Introductory essay. and for which
e; Q. Murray made twelve eichings Out OF the
~ copies OF this book 200 are for America. Edgar
Sheppard NJ A. Sub-Dean OF Her Majesty
Chapels Royal etc. has written "Memorias OF 81
james Palace" Beverley L. Warner has "EngIlsh