The times., 1898-01-01
Some Book Statistics
Fron the Chlcngo Record.

| tFrou the Chicago Record.l
! Undouhtedly the hook OF the year. i'm q
true sense of that fnucha 1used phrase, is
! the memoir OF Tennyson. compiled by his
| son. The critics have been unanimous in
| its praises, and declare that il is a mod Il
| of all thnt sucr work should be. No took
| of s91 Is more likely to find permanent
| place in our literature. Next in literary
| interest and Importance among Biographies
! are the Life and Letters of Mrs. Brown
| ing" edited by Frederic q. Kenyon, and
| the " Re collections of the late Aubrey De
We're. In his life of Nelson Capt. Mahan
| has ps obahlv written the definite biography
| of tic great naval commander, ana Mrs.
| Fields Life and Letters of Mrs. Stowe. :"
| though hardly definite, is both intereStir ]:
and valuable.
4 close second to the Tennyson memoir
in point OF popularity and intrinsic value
| is Nansen's 'Farthest North Probably
| no man or book WAS ever more asSilu-
| uousiy advertised than Nansen, and the
| account cf his thrilling adventures in
seach of the pole. and in spite of the fact
that it was issued in a very expensive
form, the work las enjoyed an enormous
sale.
Although the quantity OF poetry published
this year was comparatively small, rhe
average quality was of a high grade Of
excellence. That rare feat for book Of
poetry of actually making money for lis
publisher was achieved by Kipling's stirring
ballads os The Seven Seas" The two
most notable volumes OF American poetry
issued during tie YEAR were l.. {. Sted-
mans ''Toems Now First Collected, and
Dr. Van Dykes The Builders In Eng
lish poetry Francis Thompson has given is
admirers Some New Poems" 10 puzzle
over, George Meredith has made repre-
sentative collection from his poetical works
and Theodore Watts -Dunton, the eminent
critic, has issued in THE Coming OF Love
his first volume of collected poems.
Probably one-third OF the books pdb
lished during S97 were works of fiction,
and it is in this vast field that most Of tie
great POI ular successes were scored. AS a
work OF literary art first place belongs to
Sienkiewiczs great romance Quo V1dis.'
Probably a much greater number of copies
have beer SOLD of both Hall Cain3' Tie
Christian and Anthony Hopes ''Phroso.'
bat such books as these are hardly in the
realm of true literature. Among the
American novels, first place belongs to
The Choir Invisible by James Lane
Allen, with Or. Weir Mitchell's lately
published Hugh Wyne'' u close second.
Richard harding Davis first long novel.
Soldiers OF Fortune has met with much
popular favor, as have also Miss wilkins
Jerome and Mrs. Burnett's "A Lady
of Quality with its sequel, His Grace of
OsmonGe.''
The literary successes OF the year in
England Were Stevensons posthumous st
Ives" and Thomas Hardy's THE Well
Beloved An emphatic his was scored by
Mrs. Steel III her tale of the mutiny On
the Face of the Waters" and Rudyard Kip
ling's Captain Coura geous'' has proved n
favorite on both sides of the Atlantic.
Great things were expected of George Eu
Maurier and OF Edward Bellam yon account
OF the remarkable success OF their earlier
books, but il neither case were the cX
pectations fulfilled. and The Martiar.'
and ''Egus lity" must be a ccounted compara-
tive failures.