The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-25

"a thors were recently asked to
STA name the novels Of 1902 they
had read and considered
good enough to read a
second time. Most of the number placed
Kipling's kim first; one author adding
that she had already read the book six
times. AS a second favOrite came The
Virginian." followed by 1.-THE BIazed
Trail The Valley of Decision" and
The Two Vanrevels.'' The question is
not entirely novel one. but the usual
query put to present day authors is:
What is your favorite noveI?'
Thus the whole field Of fiction is left
open for their choice If a company Of
people were asked which novel is most
praised by the leading authors, it is
doubtful if many could reply correctly
Fielding's Tom jones' one OF the first
novels ever written. is not only receiving
more praise today than any other. but
almost from the time it was published it
has ranked as the greatest novel The
opinions Of various well known writer's
on novels are oftentimes as diverse as
they are interesting.
Conan Doyle says that. in his opinion,
''The Cloister and the Hearth" is with
out a rival. Next to that he places the
works Of 'Ivanhoe.' andof recent writer's
him the most pleasure. As to his own
work he considers The White Company
far and away the best he has done
Sir Walter Besant placed Lorna
DOone' first. as old G. A Henty. There
are many writer's still living who agree
with these two. Sir Walter also had
much. to say in praise of Thomas Hardy,
ranking Tess of the D'Crbervilles' sec
ond. Of the writer's still living. ne re-
garded Meredith as the best
There seemed to be much exchanging
of compliments along this line among
the authors for Meredith is said to place
Thomas Hardy first of living writers. He
mentions Scott. Thackeray and Dickens
as the greatest nOvelists of the past
H. Rider Haggard places Stanley Wey-
mans "A Gentleman of France in the
I first position so far as present day writ
{ ers are concerned, but he confesses a
great admiration for Doyle's THE White
Company" He does not venture to pass
judgment on the novelists who have
passed away, but one can imagine him
favOring Scott above all others
Edna LyaII thinks Dickens the greatest
novelist, but recommends also George
Eliot and Thackeray. George Gfssing IA
vors Charles Bronte. Meredith and
/ Hardy
/ Robert Louis Stevenson placed Scott
( ahead of all others. his favorite books
( being Guy Mannering,r Red Gauntlet
/ and Rob Roy in the order named. Aft
/ er these he ranks Thackeray's Henry
, Els nond."
( Thackeray himself always had the
/ highest admiration for Tom Jones' and
/ placed Fielding head and shoulders above
all other writers of fiction.
IprT1v- ord -S--Tf-
against an American publisher for an al
! legged infringement of trademark a Hti-
cation which has been dragged along for
nearly three years. Not more than fiji
teen sets of his works were involved in
the matter. and the courts held that Kip
ling had nOlegal claim in a trademark
which he had failed to register at the
time he entered the suit. 1t is not at all
unlikely that this suit turned many of
his American admirers from him, be-
cause it came just after the great flood
of sympathy for him because of his very
severe illness. but il must be admitted
that Kipling was greatly misunderstood
in the matter. 1t was not a matter of
dollars and cents with him, as is shown
bv the statement which he had made at
the time.
In this matter" he wrote, 'Mc. Kip
ling feels that he owes it to his profess
sion to ascertain if. under the laws of
the United States. persons without au
thOrity are at liberty TO advertise. pub
fish and sell as an edition of an authors
works q collection of writings consisting
il part of matter authorized by hun, in
part of matter not written by him, in
part of matter not authorized BY him.
and bearing upon its face indications Of
that authors personal approval and au-
u Mt TO, mis-
lead the public
Doubtless the thing which angered Mr..
Kipling more than anything else was the
4 inclusion in the unauthorized edition OF
biography which, 10 speak the truth,
was filled with Inaccuracies. UnfOrtu-
nately q great many stories have been
circulated about -kipling which are not
in the least true. and the compiler Of this
KiPling biography had evidently collected
together all of these stories he could find
The matter is probably closed nov. how
ever
The publication of KipIing's last poem,
THE Rowers," has stirred up so much
comment in Germany, against which
country it was aimed. that a prominent
German critic has recently declared that
henceforth the name OF Kipling shall not
be known in the kaiser's domain The
circumstances make one bark back again
to kipling's illness in this country. for.
at that time. the German emperor sent to
the distinguished author a long cable
gram expressing his sympathy and the
hope that he might recover. The message
included the statement that England and
Germany could not spare Kiplfng. EN-
peror Wilhelm's opinion on the recent in
cident has not been recorded
Rev DR. Theodore CuyIer of this CITY
ar,bFfsbaff