The Washington times., 1901-06-30
LITERARY NOTES.

The New York Tribune" Gays: 1.-The
first of living Spanish authors, Don b.
Perez Galdos, has at last completed his
series of historical novels. bearing the
general title of 'Episodias Nacionaies.'
They number no less than thirty, and deal
with the principal characters and events
of Spanish politics from the date of the
battle OF Trafalgar down to the excite
ment over the Spanish marriages in 1916.
The last volume is entitled 'Bodas Reales,
or Royal Weddings These thirty nov
els have not filed his working hours;
he has written twenty romances OF con-
temporary life besides-'Dona Perfecta
will not soon be forgotten-and various
dramas. He is very rapid writer
Not content with his recently publish
ed monograph on Napoleon" Lord Rose
berry, it is rumored, will bring out next
year a larger work on the same subject.
During the blindness which has recent
Iy come upon him. Sir Edwin Arnold has
dictated an epic poem of about 1900 lines,
it's subject being the circumnavigation of
Africa by the Phoenicians. coo years be-
fore Christ 1t is entitled The Voyage of
IthobaI," and the G. w. Dillingham; Com
pany announces its publication early in
fail. Ithobal it is said, is sea captain
of Tyre, who takes service with Neku,
King of Egypt, to explore the unknown
waters beyond the Red Sea.
The English Society of Authors has
AWARDED its first pension to fellow
writer Three hundred dollars year is
to be given to Mrs. ]. II. Riddell. author
of The Senior Partner and other excel
lent novels.
Mr.. Holman Hunts autobiography is
nearly finished, and will probably be is
sued within year.
Prof skeat has written an introduction
of an photographed kind for his forth
coming volume, Notes on English ETY.
mology.'
Mrs. NJ. F. Sullivan describes w. B.
Yeats thus in THE DALI Pale, slender,
Just entering then on manhood, he seemed,
in his lustrous dark eyes. modest demean-
or, sincerity, earnestness, and unconscious
air of abstraction, what a man must be
who wrought n journalism for bread OF
the body, and for necessity of his soul
wrote poetry as luxury. His father
painted portraits for luxury and support
ed his family in a cosy and hospitable
suburban London home by sketchlng Tor
the illustrated journals. The family hao
removed from Dublin-like many Gets
who had preceded them-for the oppor-
tunity denied them in their native land.
'.The truth about the Borgias lies be-
tween the two extremes in which they
have been painted. I believe in frankly
and openly studying that swift, vivid, Vio-
lent age" writes the energetic author or
chronicles of the House of Borgia,
which E. p. Dutton & Co. will bring out
He is Frederick Baron Corvo, and 1t
would seem that he has presented the
facts about the famous Italian family in
a somewhat new light. He does not
write" he observes, with the simple OBJ
1ect of whitewashing the house of Bor-
gia, his present opinion being that all
men are too vile for words to tell.
"The Bolivian Andes" is the record of
what that master mountain climber, Sir
William Martin Conway, accomplished in
the great South American range. The
Harpers are publishing it this month. He
took many photographs on his journey,
and they have been literally drawn upon
for reproduction in the book. Sir William
is more than a mountain climber, as is
shown by his election the other day 10
the prOfeSsorship of fine art in Cambridge
University, to succeed Prof Charles
Waldsten.
Messrs Houghton, Mifiin & Co. project
a facsimile edition of Audubon's Birds
of America" without the plates, with the
intention of putting before the bird-loy-
ing fraternity a moderate priced issue of
a work now practically inaccessible. They
will reproduce it by Photographic pro-
cesses, securing thus absolute fidelity to
the original including the important item
of the pagination. There will be four
volumes, instead of the seven of the origi-
nal edition of 1S40-44 The notes of the
editor, Reginald Heber Howe, jr., viii
be printed at the end of each volume,
giving the present nomenclature and the
general range of each species now known,
besides studying the probabilities of the
case in the few problematical species de-
scribed by Audubon; but there will be no
attempt TO bring Audubon ''up-to-date.
All this is dependent upon sufficient in
fall to encourage the publishers to go
ahead with it.