The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-10
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
THE PRESENT DAY BooKMAK1NG.

Authors and Their BoOks-James
CreeIman as an Author.
New York, Nov S.-A feast in books
&c almost as liable to become surfeit
as A, feast of the more material ban
quoting kind; one may not eat two
dinners in the same evening, and the
only animal that attempts to read
more than one book in the same time
is the critic. The necessity of telling
the ever-growing and changing body
of readers what to read and what to
avoid is so great that persistent read
ing and persistent preaching becomes a
stern duty, and the fact that his adj
vice is no more often taken than that
of a doctor who advertises proper diet
does not seem to matter in the least to
him. We have reached our first mile
post in English literature. If we are
disposed to call a thousand years
the first mile. We have celebrated
King Alfred's thousandth anniversary
only few days ago, and we have
called him the pioneer of Englands
greatness and the embodiment of our
present civilization, and what feasts
we have had since the day good King
Alfred became famous by forgetting to
watch the cakes and keep them from
from burning. Let us not regret the
royal negligence, so much as be glad
that he started US so well. We have
had ten centuries of literary greatness
AS one of the heroes of a modern
historical noval closes an active career
he says: God bless the present.!
There never was so good a time in
letters as the present and never so
many patrons of the art. We have al
most passed the time when a very
few authors may rule in the literary
world; we are fast approaching the
comparative greatness of the many
The present fall season and it's output
of books proves this. There are hun
dreds of books now being turned QUO
from the presses, and a larger proper
ton of them are worth reading than any
previous seasons list. At the same
time, there is always the danger of
the feast's becoming a surfeit.
One of the most hopeful signs in the
present production of books is the re-
printing or rather, the publishing of
new editions, OF so many classics.
Dickens, Bronte, Balzac, Boswell,
Thackeray, even the Bible, are being
brought out in the most perfect form
that modern methods can devise The
Dent books, Temple editions. and
tinctive editions are appearing in large
and satisfying numbers. There is a
marked tendency to get away from i'm
itations of the William Morris books
and the modern followers of Jensen are
fewer. AT the same time. books are i'm
proving in beauty of appearance, con-
venience of handling and excellence of
printing and illustration. Never before
have there been so many we'll illustrat-
ed books. Either half-tones of beautiful
photographs or reproductions of the
work of the very best artists are being
widely used.
More Dolly Dialogues" by Anthony
Hope, which has just been issued, is
one of this latter class. The many full
page conceptions of Howard Chandler
Christy and greatly to the general at
Effectiveness of an otherwise interesting
book. 1 have always felt that a novel
should not be illustrated-the artist so
often spoils your idea of the authors
creations-but if publishers would fol-
low the same good taste which is dis
played by the makers of Dolly in
book form, l would be quite content.
One of the important factors in the
book world is the literary agent"
Ever since Mr.. A. p. Watt consented to
act for a literary friend of his in the
placing of a story the business has
past month one of the important Lon
don agents has established a New York
branch; most of the other London
agents have had representatives in this
country for some time. There are many
publishers who prefer not to do bust
ness with any of these agents" The
story is told of London publisher who
attempted to revolt against the order
of established things. He wrote to a
well known author for a story.
"Of course" replied the author "you
can have the story. Go to my agent
and arrange terms"
The editor wrote back: 81 do not care
TO deal with agents. / consider it wrong
in principle. An author ought to be
able to do his own business without
the Intervention of an agent"
Whereupon the author replied: II re-
spect your scruples about dealing with
agents. I have been in the habit of
buying the periodical you publish from
a news agent, but hereafter l shall
not get it in this manner. / will buy
the next number direct if you will be
waiting on my doorstep about 10
o'clock next Monday morning"
The publishers reply is not recorded.
Not long ago an author was con-
demned to death for writing a book,
ana now we learn tnaL the young
Italian, Gabrielle D'Annunzio is about
TO fight a duel on account of his lat
est work, Francesca da Rimini." Some
newspaper editors undertook to crti-
CHE the tragedy adversely and the au-
thor thereupon said unpleasant things
about the aforesaid editors. One of
the latter Immediately sent a couple of
friends to the author for an eXplana-
ton. but up to the present date no
loss of life has been reported. Georges
Dorys, the condemned author, escaped
death by fleeing to Paris, and perhaps
D'Annunzio will escape like fate ny
choosing to fight a French duel, or by
selecting mud balls as weapons. From
all reports it is to be gathered that
both author and editor have INDUCED
in the gentle sport of mud throwing,
but never before according to the ell
quette of the duel.
Maarten Martens has confessed to
the charge of being a cynic; If he had
not, doubtless, there would be many to
rise up and call him such a name
after they had read "Some Women l
Have Known" Aside from being Gym
ical however, he is analytical and de-
scriptive in a charming fashion, and in
addition to holding women up 70 scorn,
he has not let the men escape. Most
Of the stories included in the volume
Just published have seen the light OF
serial publication. yet the collection, as
HEsNa L. ~ Haa aHr.aH an