The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-07
LITERARY NOTES.

Canon 7. K. Cheyne, who contributed
''The Book of Isaiah to the polychrome
edition of the Bible, is coming to this coun-
try to lecture this fall.
Max Nordau Is writing a new novel which
will bear the title of 1.-The Drones Must
Die Perhaps the doctor would accept the
office of executioner-in-chief.
Thanks to the activity of Canon Rawns-
ley, a movement has been set on foot in
England for the erection at Whitby of
memorial in honor of Caedmon, 1.-The father
of English poetry"
Lieutenant Robert E Peary is now writing
a book descriptive of his several Arctic voy-
ages, which will be illustrated with more
than twelve hundred photographs The
book, in two large volumes, is promised for
publication early in the spring.
Andrew Lang says he knows an authoress
who saw the characters in her books in the
form of ghosts. She once saw the principal
character of one of her novels glide through
the door straight up to her. 1t was about
the size of a doll. The ghost that some
writer's see walking is even smaller than
that.
In a paper on Emerson and Concord in a
recent number of the Bookman, Mr. M. A.
De Wolfe Howe retels story of Bronson
Alcott Emerson having asked hinl one
day what he could show for himself what
he had really done to justify his existence,
If Pythagoras came to Concord was the
triumphant reply, whom would he ask to
see? +"
The Critic Lansyer has heard upon ex-
cellent authority that Mr.. Carl Schurz has
not done any work on his recollections for
long time. and that the book is practically
at a Standstil. He is so much absorbed
by his editorial writing for Harpers Week
ly, his civil-service reform work and his
incessant labors as good citizen, that it
does not look as IL the recollections would
ever be finished.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge will soon COM
plete the American historical work upon
which he has been engaged for many
months 1t is to be called The Story of
the Revolution" and in it, he says, he is
trying to present the struggle for Ameri
can independence as vivid picture of
vital fight, reproducing the feeling and at
mosphere of the time SO that its men and
events will seem realities instead of con-
ventionally accepted textbook phrases.
w E. H. Lecky is an enthusiastic book
hunter. 1t is related that Immediately after
his nomination in December, 1885, rs can
didate foA Dublin University, he retired
from the scene of excitement in che exami-
nation hall of Trinity College to we'll
known Dublin booksellers establishment.
where he was quickly absorbed in the pur-
chase of st. PatrickS Purgatory,
work which his electoneering experience
no doubt invested with a special charm.
Mr.. Thomas Nelson Page has tried his
hand on a long novel-one which deals, of
course, with life in the South-equally, of
course, with 1.-The old families" The Ku-
klux will appear, it is said, in Mr.. Pages
story, and WILL perhaps. give an element of
more strength than the old families, how
ever charming, have been accustomed to i'm
part. This novel, called "Red Rock,
Chronicle of Reconstruction" Mr.. Page re-
CARDS as his best book. 1t is to be published
In Scribner's Magazine.
A writer in the London Mail complains of
the blind perversity of publishers who con-
tinue to issue books with the edges uncut.
publishers frankly tell me- he says,
That their main object in sending out a
book with it's leaves uncut is to make the
book look bigger and to delude the public
into the belief that in bulk. at all events,
they are getting the worth of their money.
This is mere deception. The public buy
books for what is in them and not by
avoirdupois and they rightly regard the ne
cessfty of using the paper knife as a labor
unduly imposed upon them"
w. d. Howells, who has been interviewed
in Paris. makes the following remarks on
Alfred Austin and the leureateship: IT
have no hesitation in saying that one of
the cruelest things literary meI have ever
done was the merciless manner in which
they bounced upon Alfred Austin when ne
was made laureate. One would imagine he