Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-03
ABOUT BOOKS AND AUTHORS

 gifts of friendship, when the majority of the recipients judge the interior entirely by the gilt and the color of the exterior it is with genuine enjoyment that our book lovers seek more substantial read ing, gathering around them the new magazines so full of solid matter and welcoming the latest publications of our best writers, which will furnish good, sound reading during the rough winter days.
 A beautiful cover may be attractive at first, but one soon forgets such opinions in the worth or worthlessness of the mat ter within.
 Rudyard Kipling has refused very handsome offer for his Vermont home, now vacant which is a fair indication that he may return to America before long and occupy it himself once more.
 
 "An Item of Fashionable Intelligence" by Jerome K. Jerome, begins in this months Ladies' Home Journal, and is his latest story excepting two plays.
 At a meeting of prominent citizens of Edinburgh, held on December 10, under the presidency of Lord Rosebery, 1t was decided to erect memorial to the late Robert Louis Stevenson.
 The English publishers of The Quest have decided to discontinue it's issue; the number dated September dssued in De- tober) concludes the edition, of which MT. Updike is the publisher.
 MT. Gibson willets, formerly editor of Current Literature, has purchased Ro- nance from the Current Literature Pub fishing company With the January number,the magazine will be reduced to the regulation size.
 The recent addition of young folks department to Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly makes that periodical more than ever the great family magazine.
 A new edition of That Lass o'Lowne's," which first made Mrs. Fran ces Hodgson Burnett famous, has just been issued by Scribners in binding similar to that of "A Lady of Quality.
 The Youths Companion has just com pleted it's roth volume, and enters its New Year more that ever beloved, and more truly valued by our boys and girls who find in it their greatest literary en- Joyment.
 Young men and women who wish college education will be interested in the series of illustrated articles on American Universities and Colleges" now running in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. A paper on Yale was given in the November number and one on Cor nell appears in that paper for Decem- Der.
 The first number of Harper's Ba- zaar for 1897 will contain the initial chap ter of a very noteworthy series on I'm fancy and Childhood" written from the standpoint of advanced modern ideas by Mrs Frances Fisher Wood.
 The Month, vol l, No 1, begins with the New Year. and is rich in literature and art, being truly journal of cultiva- tion. Being sent out by the Critic Pub fishing company, is in itself sufficient to insure its success We commend it to our many readers and wish for it a most brilliant future.
 The final numeber of The Savoy, which has just been published in England, is something of tour de force. The en- tire number which Is of the usual size, has been written by the editor, MT. Ar thur Seymour, and all the ,illustra tions, to the number of fourteen, have been made by MT. Beardsley.
 Last summer MT. George w. Smalley went abroad in the interests of The La dies Home Journal, to write two articles, on "The Personal Side of Bismarck" and "The Personal Side of the Prince of Wales" The first of these articles will be printed in the January number of the Journal. Unpublished portraits will il- illustrate the papers.
 The Rev Dr. John Watson and Mrs. Watson sailed for England on the Ma jestic on Dec. 16. Since his arrival here on Sept 22, Dr. Watson made 117 ad- dresses. According to Maj. Pond, no lecturer with a purely literary reputa- tion has ever been received with equal favor by the American public. Dr. Wat sons publishers, Messrs. Pond, Mead 6 Co.,. have succeeded in obtaining a de- cree restraining the Wharton & Burton Publishing company, of Baltimore, from selling "a pirated edition of Beside the Bonnie Brier Rush."
 Tn McClure's Magazine for January Lida Rose McCabe will tell the story of tho celebrated Martha Washington Case"-a case which engaged number of lawyers of national renown, which charged group of men of the highest business and social standing with causing the burning of a steamboat and the consequent loss of sixteen lives in or der to collect large sum of insurance. hnd which, in its day, was sensation of the first magnitude. The article will be Illustrated.
 In an interesting: letter on Literary Boston" in The British Weekly. Dr. Rob- ertson Nicoll says, speaking of The At lantic: I''There are signs that it is now to change it's form considerably MT. Page,
 
 associated with Mir Scudder in the editor ship, and his vigorous and fertile mind is constantly striking out new ideas and features. This will not doubt add to the popularity of the magazine, but I cannot help fegretting it. I should have liked to have it maintained just as it was No doubt however, periodicals must conform to the taste of the day if they are to fiourish.'''
 Godey's issue for January begins the 134th volume of this famous old magazine and opens with Winter in the American Snowlands." by Edgar Maurice Smith This article is illustrated by many pie lures of Canadian winter scenes, and tells of the sports and pastimes of the Can adian winter.
 The fiction of this number is especially strong. The opening serial is ''Elsbeth the Story of a Little Grey Dove" by Car rie Hunt Latta, who tells the story of 6 sweet little Quaker lass and her people her environments, and her lover in 2 charming style that wins the reader al once.
 Of other fiction in this number the stories of 'Cferaldine" and "The Revolt of Martha Scott are worthy of eSDecja