The San Francisco call., 1897-06-27


D. Appleton & Co.
The American Publishing Company of Hart
ford will publish shortly new book of Mark
Twains relating to his trip around the world.
The work is TO be handsomely illustrated.
''Ian MacLaren" is resting on his laureIs as
a novelist, He announces his intention of
refraining from writing any more fiction this
year and is devoting himself to the Life OF
Christ" on which he has been engaged for
some time.
s. R. Crockett has beer taking a walking
tour in Pomerania, we are advised by the
English papers, doubt with view TO &C
qutring 'local color for his new story, "The
Red Axe" the scene of which is to be laid in
Pomerania
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the young negro
poet, has not been financially successful as a
reader in England, but he is having an dgree-
able time socially The American colored
man here" he says, sis a good deal like boy
just out OF school. He feels his freedom and
shows it ingenuousIy. When one has not been
allowed to stick his nose inside the portal of
the Hotel Waldorf in New York, and is re-
fused entertainment at the best hostelries of
his Nations capital. to be welcomed at the
Hotel Cecil in London is, perhaps, little up
setting. After finding ones self excluded
from the best restaurants in America,
frowned upon in them, to be seated and smiled
at by the obseQuious manager of Frascati's is
something of a change"
"Zola. having been told that Brunetiere had
in a lecture delivered IN New York criticized
with severity of denunciation which almost
equaled political invective the writings of
Zola, made no reply" says Leslie's Weekly
There was none Tor him to make. He could
have done no more than again to defend his
methods and ideals. He could not deny
Brunetiere's authority, could he justly
accuse that profound French critic of personal
animosity. The first essential for true literary
criticism, Brunetiere declared in one of the
American lectures recently given, is shat the
critic absolutely divests himself of ali personal
feeling, either OF friendship or enmity. His
great authority, his kingship in the realm of
literary criticism, is due partly TO the fact that
he is known always to approach his subject
absolutely free from any personal bias, unhem
pered, and al full liberty 10 tell the truth"
An amusing little controversy has been go
ing on between the respective publishers of
Murray's "Handbooks" and Baedeker's
"Guides." "Claims of precedence are ad-
vanced by both sides. Mr. Murray seems to
have the best of it, and proves pretty conelu-
siyely that when he began his series in the
thirties there was no rival in the field. Since
then, too, he has anticipated the Baedeker
people in each country of Europe In view of
this fact, it is sad to observe the uaanimitY
of all but British travellers in preferring the
Germen guides. Murray's handbooks have
had higher literary quality than the
Baedeker publications. but the latter, in their
practical elations especially in their maps,
still remain at the head. The French guides
come second, and then, bringing up the rear
in the hands of loyal Britons, come the guides
oi Murray. So much for ''precedeneeg
E. F. Benson, author of "Dodo," "LimIta-
tious," and other popular stories, has written
novel entitled "The Vintage" on q subjeor of
peculiar interest at this time, the Greek war of
independence, to begin serial publication in
few weeks in Harpers Weekly. Mr.. Bensonls
thoroughly familiar with his ground as he has
passed several winters in Greece in studying
archaeology and in travelling. Though only
about thirty years of age. he has already won
unusual success in literature. He was edu-
Gated al Kings College, Cambridge, where he
distinguished himself for scholarship. He is
said to have so mistTusted his ability a
story-writer that when ne had half finished
"Dodo'' he submitted the manuscript TO
well-known writer whom he knew, for advice
as to whether it were worth while for him to
go on with it. His brother, A. c. Benson, has
made q reputation as one of the best OF the
younger English poets.
Chester Bailey Fernald, whose first book of
I D.
lished by the Century Company last autumn
and made immense success, has just re-
turned to America. Mr. Fernald was married
last year and in October he and his wife
started to wheel through Japan. Mr., Fernald
has found much of his inspiration in the
Chinese character, and he proposed utilizing
his unique wedding journey in ga theriug ma
terial for sketches of Japanese life. But, ac-
cording to the Critic, he was disappointed in
the land and the people. They are changing
| from the old Standards and both have been
! overwritten, he says. Mr.. and Mrs. Fernald
| penetrated to remote parts OF Japan, where
| the country children tried to feed carrots to
their bicycles. They found China more pie
/ turesque and interesting Mr.. Fernald says:
! "Broadly speaking, one always looks for some
kind of rascallty in a Chinaman, but with Il
Japanese one sometimes forgets."
Az the beginning of1S79, says Mrs. Hamer-
! ton, in her memoirs OF her husband, Robert
| Louis Stevenson sent q manuscript to Mr..
! Hamerton, with a request that he would
| read it and recommend 1t to a publisher ''If it
| were worth the trouble" In 1880 Stevenson
wrote from Monterey: Gould your. recon-
| mendation introduce me to an American pub
| lisher?" Still the author of can Inland VOy-
! age'' had been writing for Hamerton's Port
folio" since at least 1878. One would think
that such strikingly meritorious and serupu-
(
essays OF a tyro, would, if anything can, appeal
! to reader on its own virtues. The editors
/ VINO speak consoiingly to contTibu tors oftheir
daily, diligent and necessary search through
manuscripts for "the possible gem" which
may be lurking here would find it hard to ex-
plain why a Stevenson had to secure that
patronage editorialIy declared superfuous in
! order to obtain a hearing
"The idea of the diminutive encyclopedia,
! published by Herr Cohn of Berlin, which
| quires the aid of magnifying glass in order
| that il may be read, is by no means new,"
writes a correspondent OF the Westminster
/ Gazette, "for a tiny dictionary or the same
! kind has for long time past been printed in
| English and sold at the low price of sixpence.
! Other than these photog:aphically reduced
/ books however. Lord Duffeun claimed, in q
/ speech at Belfast some two years ago, that he
was the possessor of the smallest book in the
world wLiIe Mr.. George Salamon of Paris,
who prides himself ON having the largest
! library of small books in the world has
! series of almanacs dating from 1917 to 184o
/ printed al Karlsruhe in Baden, each OF which
| measures only fourteen millime ters long by
/ nine miilimeIeTs wide. Mr.. Salamon's library
| OF timinutive literature is in great measure
/ made up OF religious publications, and an idea
! of the unique col ection may be gathered from
! the fact that 700 OF the volumes may be
packed easily in one portmanteRu."