Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-07


= Brown 4. 60. The early history of
Florida has been often exploited; but
/ here is something Distinguished says
The independent in notice OF her his
ftoricgl romance The Sword of JUS
ttice.n I'VE refrain with difficulty from
what might be taken as overpraise,
continues the writer. but We conf
| IDENTIFY expect our readers to recognize
the beauty and the power of this we'll
written romance of Florida in the six
teenth century"
Il Am the King" is an account of
some happenings in the life of Godfrey
/ de Bersac, Crusader knight. Ii gives Il
/ careful. imaginative picture OF life in
the Middle Ages, showing great knoWl-
/ edge of the manners, home customs,
dress, and superstitions of the period.
Mrs. Stevens is a native OF Mobile,
Ala, spent most of her childhood and
I girlhood in Little Rock, Ark, ana now
resides in St Louis. She was brought
up on the best English writer's and be
gan to write in 1893, deVoting five dis
couraging years before her first book
was accepted. In the Eagles Talon"
her third book, shows a distinct inn
provement over her last book published
two years ago.
Frances Charles, whose In the
Country God Forgot" has brought forth
! variety of opinions from the literary
critics, is 4 native of California, and
has always made her home on the Pa
cific Coast. Her romance of Arizona
was not written without thorough
knowledge of present-day Arizona life
ana character. and her style, as all
critics agree,.is her own. The burning
hate of father for his only son is an
unusual theme, but then the whole
book-title, style, ana contents-is I'M
usual.
The title of Mrs Mary Hallock
Foote's latest novel, The Desert and
the Sown," though suggested by al
verse of the Rubaiyat, is not intended
to connect the story in any way with
that poem or with the East. But it is
very appropriate, as the scene of the
novel shifts between Arizona and the
rich farming country of New York
state, and the story is full of sharp
contrasts. Mrs. Foote is spending the
summer ut Manchester, Mass, but her
home is in California.
The books which the regular houses
now offer in summer are among <he
best published through the whole year,
both as to contents ana as to manu-
facture. Indeed, the summer reading
public has its needs looked after with
something of the same care and intelli-
gence that are bestowed upon books for
the holidays, and this attention has
I,oc.
increased year by year.
Were causes to be sought for the
change, We might find many. \ pri-
mary one has been international copy
right, which has effected something
like a revolution in the book trade of
this country. # has well-nght OBJ
liberated opportunities for reprinting
English books without authority from
their authors ana without compulsory
compensation to them. Former CON
ditions made it certain that all popular
English books would have more than
one American reprint, each competing
with the others, and each made to sell
as cheaply as possible,-for % cents,
for 10, and even for ). Hence has
come TO the American author COMPETE
ton with his English brother on equal
terms,-a competition in which he has
constantly proved himself to be the
better man,-until, as an American
publisher recently said, there are not
more than four or five English novel
lists who remain vital factors in the
American market today.
Another cause operating with the
foregoing has been the enormous in
crease in the size of the reading pub
lic Twenty fiVe years ago q book that
sold to the extent of 10000 copies was
something of phenomenon. Now
adays a single year has chrOnicled half
a dozen that rose to sales of more than
| 100. 900 copies. 1t is the increase in
| higher education which, in the first in
stance, has raised up this new army of
readers Cheaper and larger news
papers. including the formidable sun
| day issues, have supplemented the
! work begun by the schools; they have
| held people fast to the reading habit.
| Along with them, or following them,
| have come the monthly magazines,
multiplied in their numbers. vastly eX-
| tended in their range of topics, and
| possesspd in many cases Of circulation
that rival or surpass those Of the most
successful metropolitan newspapers
\ third cause that must he named
is the awakening of new interests in
life out of doors. Coincident with the
spread of education has been drift
of population toward cities and large
towns of which the statistics, needless
to be named here, are formidable.
Young men seeking success in life mi
crate to places where their trained
talents can best find employment. Sue
cess has attended the most of them
with growing incomes, wider horizons,
experience in travel, finer social con-
nection. and the attendant obligations,
above all. a need for change from
the engrossing activities Of the work.
ing part of the year. Hence has come
the familiar reaction against town life
that every year drives thousands more
and more to the country; it may be to