The San Francisco call., 1898-01-23
WHAT'S IN A NAME2

Is there any room for originality Tn the matter of names?
 Literary men on both sides of the At lantic are puzzling themselves over the question. because during thls century or prolific production so many people have written books and given names to them that 1t seems impossible to find a new title.
 The best the unfortunate author can do is to find a forgotten name for his book, and even then he can never be sure that some inquisitive photographer will not discover his iniquity A wise modern cynic has remarked that origin ality can be expected from nobody save a lunatic, a hermit. or a sensational novelist.
 But nowadays the last exception should be omitted, for pensationalists are not remarkable for the novelty of their ideas think it is the omnisc'ent Kip ling who remarks somewhere that there are only forty stories in the world. one of which could be told to a lady, and thirty nine which couldn't.
 AS the limitations of modern taste pre- vent the publication of the thirty-nine, we have no means of saying whether IIipling is really right. However. looking at the consistency with which the worn out themes of love and intrigue and mur- der are shown up again and again, there would seem to be sense in his dictum.
 But leaving plots out of the question, the difficulty of finding Q new title Is really a serious one. because of the copy right law. The name Of a book is just as much the property of the copyrlghter as any other portion of its contents, and 1 therefore the unfortunate author Is In 1 constant danger of trespassing on some one else's preserves. with possibly a suit l for infringement lurking in the back i ground.
 An additional and even more serious ] difficulty is added. in England at any | rate, however 1t may be in this country. The great circulating libraries. such as ] Nudes. positively refuse to place on 1 their shelves a book with a once-used ] name. They will not complicate their cat ! alogues by including two works of the | same title. and those who understand the 1 influence these great libraries have on the success or failure of book will sym pathize with unfortunate authors.
 Writers of note have frequently com plained of this grievance. MT. James Pawn in particular. urged authors and | publishers attention to the question years ago. And more recently an anonymous writer in the new critical paper. Liter ature has taken the trouble to disinter some remarkable instances of duplicate ! titles.
 One or the InOFL dIIluslHS CdSC5, diACCN- ! ing authors on both sides of the Atlantic. is that of "The Passionate Pilgrim" ! Shakespeare. who wrote at a time when
 many things were new, once gave the ] world version of the old. old love story l under this title. The romance of sweet Cytherea. sitting by a brook, and young i Adonis, lovely, fresh and green, makes quite a long poem, glowing with sensuous | imagery. and probably for this reason but little read. Perhaps this accounts for the
 fact that the last two generations of 1 writers have forgotten Shakespeare's
 claim to the title.
 Quite recently Mr. Percy White gave tc
 the world novel with the title of "A
 Passionate Pilgrim" The book had only
 been in circulation a few days when il
 was discovered that twenty years before
 Mr. Henry James had published volume
 of short stories under this name.
 MT. White did the proper thing in apol.
 ogizinE to Mir James for unintentionally
 poachng on his preserves, but to his sur priso MT. James explained in reply tha
 there was no need to worry over the mat
 ter. since the title had been already em
 ployed several years before by MT. F. T Palgrave. Thus there are TO less thar three Passionate Pilgrims going tn,
 rounds, to say nothing of Shakespeare poem in the background,
 This gentleman, MT. Percy White seems to be peculiarly unfortunate in th,