The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-13
LITERARY NOTES.


Mr.. Hamlin Garland and his brother win
start for the Klondike in April on a literary
expedition.
Zone Way to the Woods is now in its sec
ond edition.
The publishers say DR.. Weir Mitchelps
novel, Hugh Wynne." has sold at the rate
OF three hundred copies a day since issue
new novel by ,Sienkiewicz, entitled so
Runs the World" is to be issued shortly.
1t is said to be shorter than Quo Vadis,' y
but OF similar quality
Mr.. H. c. Weiss new story is TO he
called THE Sleeper Awakens.'' and will deal
with supposed conditions of life on this
planet 200 years hence
Mrs. F. A. Steele, whose ION the Face Of
the Waters" was SC admirable a story, is
at Lucknow gathering materials for her
new book, which will treat of India in a
state OF plague and famine.
Lord Tennyson used to prophesy that
England would some day gain from India
her great poet. In the light of this prophe-
cy, tho work of Mr.. Mammalian Chose is be-
Ing watched with interest in England.
Mr.. E. o. Laughlin for some years a con-
tributor TO the Journal, will publish a vol
ume of boy life sketches next fall. 1t will
probably be entitled johnnie Book of
Boy-Life in Bud and Blossom" and will
contain several of the sketches revised and
elaborated, which have appeared in the
Journal, together with quantity of new
matter.
Mr.. Henry James has purchased a house
in the picturesque town of Rye, England
where he intends to make his home He
has spent his summers in Rye for some time
past. one of his neighborS is Miss Ellen
Terry, whose house, though a mile away at
Wlnchelsea, is in plain sight from Mr..
James's gate, the road is so level and
straight between them.
Rudyard Kipling has written highly
complimentary letter to Joel Chandler Har-
ris, whose work he much admires In his
letter Mr.. Noling said of the Uncle Re-
mus" stories: They have been an inspira-
ton to me. When I was a little fellow
used to stretch myself on the floor beside
the fire. kick my heels in the air and enjoy
them night after night. Uncle Remus'
was my boyhoodS friend, and he has
place at my firesde STILL
An English periodical has symposium"
on the question, rs journalism a desirable
profession for women?" and one writer Of
fering her testimony on the subject tells
this tale: "A woman 1 knew, who went
from office to office in cold December
weather with nothing will the printer not
forget the italics?) on her in the way of
clothing, save her dress, her boots, and her
bennett, to-day is doing well" What better
proof of WOmanS fitness for journalism do
you want than this?
Herbert Spencer makes the following in
teresting statement in letter to the Lon
don Times: During the first twelve years
OF my literary life every one of my books
failed to pay for it's paper, print and adver-
easements, and for many years after failed
to pay my small living expenses-every one
Of them made me the poorer. Nevertheless,
the forty millions of people constituting the
nation demanded of the impoverished brain
worker five gratis copies of each. There is
only one smile occurring to me which at all
represents the fact, and that in but a feeble
way-Dives asking aims of Lazarus!"
There are in all eighty-two separate vol
umes of German translations of and from
Zola's works. There is school edition of
La Debacle," with a dictionary and a map.
And of critical works on the French novelist
there is a fair number. Janten Brinck's
essay was translated eleven years ago.
Georg Brandes published a pamphlet in 1888
among the Popular Literary Questions of
the Day" while Eugene Wolf, A. Rauber,
Julian Schmidt, Emil Burger and Oscar
Welten are other less well-known German
critics who have made special studies of M.
Zola's work.
What do you say is the first requisite
for success in the literary field?" asked an
interviewer of Anthony Hope. II can only
answer for my style of literature" he
replied, "and there I should say the
ability to invent a plot. Style is ex-
ecellent; it can be acquired think,
ITO have something to say is the first
thing Many people can say it. Some
writer's have good style, but no merit of
thought. Some have something to say,
and, even if they say it poorly, it brings
them success"
A book reviewer in Literature in speaking
of one of Mr. Stedman's poems condemns
it on the ground that the same thing could
be told as well or better in prose, and in
cidentally gives this definition of the charm
of genuine poetry: 1.-THE truth is that we
read a novel or tale for the story itself,
but poetry for the sake of the man who is
behind it. The essential thing in poet is
temperament, the charm or the force of his
personality He has got to say the same
things that countless poets have said before
him, yet he has to say them as if they were
new discoveries and say them in a way that
is impressive and beautiful. The thing is
possible because the world is new to each
one of us and because nature never repeats
herself exactly; it is extremely difficult be-
cause the world is very old and because
every man is extremely like his predecessors
and the resources of language are familiar
Neither temperament without style nor
style without temperament will save you.
You may have, as Mr.. Green seems to have,
the real heart of q poet, the sense of what
Stevenson finely called the incommunicable
thrill of things and yet be incapable of ex-
pressing it in such language as should
stamp a personal character upon the emo
ton"