The San Francisco call., 1898-02-20

about 40O0 copies. whereas in America 100 900 copies have been sold.-The Acad- emy Oondon).
 Tn March next a new collection of stories by Stephen Crane is to be published. The title will be "The Open Boat" the name of the first nine tales of adventure. five of which will be Mexican and Rio Grande border sketches.
 George Meredith has finished three "Odes in Contribution to the Song of French History" The poems are enti- tied "The Revolution Napoleon" "Alsace-L Lorraine" and they will appear in the numbers of Cosmopolis for March. April and May.
 Longmans, Green & Co.'S announce ments for February are Shrewsbury" a novel by Stanley Weyman; Beatrice and Sydney Webbs History of Trades Unions," and Dean Farrar's "The Life Story of Aner" This is an allegory, Bunyanlike in its directness.
 E. L. voynish, author of successful novel called "The Gad1y," is said to be contemplating journey to Austria to get color for novel of contemporary life there. He intends, it Is added, to spend some time in that country and make careful study of his dramatis personae and their environment before putting pen to paper.
 Roberts Brothers of Boston are the publishers of Franklin K. Young's "The Grand Tactics of Chess" This is an ex- position of the laws and principles of chess strategics. Systems of chess play made famous by Morphy, de la Bourbon nais, Philidor, Deschapelles and others are explained, and in the work there are 300 diagrams.
 It Is announced from London that MT Wheatley's edition of ''The Diary of Sam uel Pepys" is approaching completion and that the ninth and concluding volume may be expected some time this year Among its features will be fac Similes Of the original shorthand that Pepys used In setting down his famous jottings, an ex- haustive index, series of studies on Pepys and a discriminating collection of what may be called Pepysiana.
 Longmans, Green & Go. recently re- ceived the following letter, which will ex- plain itself:
 -, Brooklyn, N. Y. Dec. IS, 1897.
 Dear Sirs: I am informed that you are the publishers of the works of cele- brated scholar named Ibid. Can you give me some information respecting the SdLHc, as tO Wndt the WOTkS COnSlSI OI price. etc., and oblige, faithfully yours,
 "lRevO -. =. B.. During 1897 the number of books pub lished in England was 1926 an increase of 1853 over 1896. Of this total, says the Publishers Circular, 6244 were new books and 1882 new editions. Nansens "Farthest North" was one of the greatest successes, the greatest among books of travel, while "The Life of Tennyson" led the biogra- phies. Following close upon the heels of this came Captain Mahan's Life of Nelson" which twas at once hailed as the standard work on its subject and its reception in England was certainly none the less warm because it happened to be written by a foreigner
 The MeSsrs. Putnam'S Sons announce the following works for the spring sea- son: In the Little Journeys Series "The Homes of American Statesmen by FL bert Hubbard; Bird Studes."sby Will liam E. D. Scott; "Open Mints and Free Banking by William Rough; Republic an Responsibility for Present Currency Perils," by Perry Belmont; the third se- ries in the History of Religion, Jewish Rev. T. K. Cheyne; ''Renascent Chris tianity: A Forecast of the Twentieth Gen. tury,'' by Martin Kellogg Schermerhorn Led on Step by Step" by A. Toomer Porter; "Reminiscences of the Old Navy" by Edgar Stanton Macay; the fifth volume of "The Life and Remin.s- cences of Rufus King by Charles R. King; "The Writings of James Monroe"