The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-08
BOOKMEN AND BOOKS,

DR.. Leon Kellner, a German, has won
lasting fame for himself, according to
Literature. He has achieved the i'm
possible, and has interviewed Rudyard
Kipling. Literature contains Dr.. Kell-
ners first impressions of this man OF
unique genius.
Whenever Mr.. Kipling speaks ant
turns his face full upon you. you wouil
think you had before you very wide
awake, lively and harmless child, but
the profile shows a strong man, who
has not grown up in the atmosphere Of
the study. 1 have seldom (adds Dr.
Kellner) received two such different
impressions from one and the same
face. The work room is of surprising
simplicity; the north wall is covered
with books half it's height; over the
door hangs portrait of Burne-J Jones
(Mr. Kipling's uncle); to the right, near
the window, stands q plain table-not a
writing table-on which lie a couple of
pages containing verses"
The interview lasted five hours and
Mr.. Kipling gave the interviewer very
full details as to his life as well as to
his conception of art in general and
literature in particular.
The following remark, which he made
to DR.. kellner. shows Kipling has
grasped the essentially symbolic char
acter of all fine literature:
We write, said he, it is true. in
letters of the alphabet. but psychology
ically regarded, every printed page is
a picture book; every word. concrete
or abstract, is picture. The picture
itself may never come to The reader s
consciousness, but deep down below, in
the unconscious realms, the picture
works and influences us
This is the secret of literature which
is, above all things, method of con-
veying Impressions. 1t is satisfactory
to find that Mr.. Kipling, who has dem
onstrated the art of fiction so triumph
antly in practice, is able also to give
such a good account of the esthetic the
ory"
1t is hoped that the novel upon which
Miss Beatrice Harraden has baen work
ing off and on for two years will be
published in the spring. II, Too, Have
Passed Through Wintry Terrors." the
name she proposes to call it by, does
not sound exactly propitious, and viii
be sure to work havoc with the book
dealers advertisements
Mr. Andrew Lang writes in the De-
cember Longmans' Magazine: II have
counted more than fifty new novels in
the advertisements of the last number
of the Athenaeum. Five or six are by
authors of known reputation Many Of
the others are by writers with names
unknown to me, who yet appear as au-
thors of this or that and the other.
They must have had some encoura 2e-
ment or must be nobly indonlitah le
Where is their public? The novel-writ-
ing profession is the most over-crowded
of all, and the critics heart is broker
by the swelling multitude Of printed
tales which are all so very like each
other and so very remote from what
sensible people could read for pleas
ure." 1t is said that Mr.. Lang is him
self about to publish a novel.
Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole, in the
Book News, calls attention to the fact
that Granary Burying Ground is the
literary centre of Boston. Looking ont
on this sacred plot art offices of
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Lamson,
Wolfe & Co., Small, Maynard & Co
CHM e. Co. Here, too, are the Athnn-
aeum, and he might have added the
offices of the Congregationalist end
The Waterman.
Rudyard Kipling sent as a Christmas
present to Julia Marlowe a copy of his
latest book THE Days Work. wirh
TINS verse In autograph on the hy-leaf.
When skies are gray instead of hlua
With clouds that come to dishearten
When things go wrong, as they some .
times do,
In life's little kindergarten,
l beg you, my child, don't weep and
wall,
And don't, don't take to tippline.
But cheer your soul with little tale
BY Neighbor Rudyard Kipling."
The Bookman tells OF a firm of al +
Vertisers who, having advertised for a
man to occupy a position of some i'm
portance in their house, received tho
Following application:
Sir so | sawd in this morning world
that you wanted good man and II Won
want Sutch l will SCOT you as | can
give the best of reference please Let me
no wat your bisness is and Ooblige 7
have always worked hard and would
Like to Come to the sittey and git a
Studey place (never Smoked nor chew
nor never was drunk yet and Can fur
nish reference to that eject please Let
me heer from you can give you ref
renee booth Sittey and Countrey.
Yours truely.
Most of the readers of David Grav's
Gallops" assume that the yerv
sporty men and women whose doinps
and sayings 1t processes to chronicle
are mernbers Of one of the fashionable