New-York tribune., 1903-11-29
Ue Neto;aDork gribaqoaa
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 90. 1908.


in its train The author who has scored hit, :
thereby widening his repute and fattening his |
purse, again and again seems to be Overtaken
10y kind of paralysis of the literary faculty
The year after he has arrived he inspires In
his readers the sad conviction that he has shot
his bolt, and is in fact, making fool OF him.
self. Why is it? By what cruel mischance has
the favorite of yesterday turned himself into
the bore of today? A critic surveying the latest
and assuredy least interesting publication OF a
certain well known writer, in rhe London
Saturday Review sapienty remarks that tine
penalty of the popular novelist is that whether
''he has anything to say or not, he must produce,
"at more or less regular intervals, some sort OF
volume on pain of being instantly consigned TO
oblivion by a tickle public" This is hardly
fair statement of the case. We are tired of hav-
ing the public made the scapegoat for the sins
OF the author. AS a matter of fact. it rarely
forgctS any one who is worth remem mberlng. |
The writer of genuine gifts may remain silent
for years if he likes, and when at last ne
cmerges with new book he is not only sure
of immediate attention, but public interest in
his work is heightened; he is read with care,
and if he happens to have proved himself
worthy of his past, admiration for his achieve
ment is tinged with peculiar respect
The other day it was the pocket edition that
had lost its vogue NOW IL Is the DOOk Oh
travel That at all events is the conclusion Of
one Of the most conservative OF newspapers
''The London Times In recent issue it
states that there has been great falling off
in the travel literature published this year.
and it explains the fact by adding that this |
branch of literature. like every department as
"soOn as it becomes successful, has been over
done 1t has been oyerdone through variety |
of causes. 1t is true that the stay-athomes of
this world like to read of what their more ad-
venturous brethren have seen and have done
upon their travels, and the publishers have
naturally turned this widespread prediction to
their own profit Even So however, the books
of travel they publish would not be half so nu-
merous as they are if it were not that the
camera and the halftone process have revolu-
tioniZed the making of illustrated books. The !
vanity of man never dies. and when the aver /
age tourist has accumulated n few hundred |
snapshots of scenes abroad, he is not only posi-
tive that they ought to be spread before the {
world at large but that he (or she) is thorough
ly well qualified to provide the text for an S
other addition to the literature of travel A a
queer kind of perverted journalistic ambition is
mixed up with many of these enterprises. The {
man who has explored and photographed Rus I
sa Japan in thirty days, in company with s
Others of his ilk. reads in the morning paper
that there is a political military crisis in one
of those countries. There is something "appo- S
site" there is news he foDdy fancies, in the c
Photographic films and the very flmy impress
s0ns he has brought back with him, and he
rushes off to a publisher.