Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-02-07

"yS' Inc New Bow at Dale ;, -.
r'uiisned by the Harper's on Febr,,a,..,
y - a New York man on the s+aff 80
pioininent newspaper of that civ NJ.
many years he has devoted n,,,oh ~
.s leisure time to writing fiction. Rut
%oou. tnfee years ago, Mr.. Rich-wh,
'es cilluren OF his own-was possessed
MIN desire to write something for
.he youngsters. Instead of beginning
.ne WORK at once. he devoted nearly
."o years to the study of what has
oeen written for boys and what kind
Oh stories boys read the most The ra-
suit of Mr.. Rich's observation AMI
studyls found in THE NewtBoy at Dale .
the story of a boy who had been kid
nappeo when a baby, and who had
fn,y Interesting adventures before he
round out who he really was.
Inc many who have read and enioved
what Happened to Wigglesworth''
ny w. y. Fuller of Rockland will not
pe surprised to learn that this book
continues to be lone of the STEADY sell
lers. The publishers recently made a
contract with New York house for an
edltlon in paper covers, of which 10 600
copies already have been sold and the
mousse expects to use not less than 1OO.-
900 copies.
The spring announcements of The
Macmillan Company are especially
Volumlnous and noteworthy in all de-
partments of literature In the way of
notion their lists include new novels by
James Lane Allen, Winston Churchill.
Charles Major, William Stearns Davis.
Nancy Huston Banks, Israel ZangwilI
and several other well-known writers.
In the English Men of Letters series
there are socnt to be published "Crabbe."
by Alfred Anger; Jane Austen
by H. c. Beeching; Browning" by G.
x. Chesterton; Hobbies" by Sir Leslie
stephen; Lowell" by DR.. Henry van
Dyke; Emerson" by Professor Wood
berry; Franklin by Owen Wister,
and among books of typographical in
terest they announce Sir Walter
Besant's London in the Eighteenth
Century" Greater Russia" by Writ
Gerrare; Poland by George Brandes;
Letters from the Holy Land" by Lady
Butler elizabeth Thompson); Que
bee: The Place and the People," by Sir
Gilbert Parker; 1.-THE Island of For
mosa," by James w. Davidson, United
States consul there; Italy, by Profess
sor w. Deecke.
In recently published memoir of
Lord Salisbury there is an amusing
story of his childhood. "Oh, Betty"
he sighed one day to his nurse, Il wish
] was cat!" ''Why?-' asked the
astonished Betty. when 1 think" said
the child, of the many times / must
dress and undress before 1 die 1 wish
my clothes grew on my back!''
A costly monument surrounded by
young frs, has been placed over the
grave of Bret Harte in Frimley
Surrey. 1t is a massive
slab of white granite weighing two and
a half tons on which is placed block
of Aberdeen granite, sloping upwards
in the form of a cross. Upon it is the
Bret Harte, Aug. 25,
5, 1902. Death shall reap the
Drawer harvest At the head of the
are the words: I'm faithful
M. S. Van de Weld"
Several wreaths were placed on the
tomb at Christmas, together with a
small branch of laurel, to which was
d card bearing the words
For the glory born of goodness never
dies. Bret Harte" Mr.. Harte had
lived at Frmley for some time and he
died there.
That is a wholesome protest made in
the current number of The Bookman
against overmuch praise for young
There have been too many
instances of arrested development, of
young writer's who never grew up, of
spoiled authors useless for literary pur-
poses as overfed pugs. Con-
tent with what has been done already
is the worst thing for American letters
and the habit of seeing rainbows is
bad These words of wisdom
ought to be noted in connection with
the London Athenaeum's" criticism
Of Mr.. Jack London's latest book OF
stories, as full of strange and grace
less locutions, crude afrectation. and
astonishing the misuse of dictionary
words.'" The simple directness of the
authors previous book is praised by
The critic who laments that the young
man has come to take himself seriously
IS a literary person. and to have beaten
cut for himself "a style of sorts That
he should write nothing more for at
least 3, yea- or two. and should In the
mean time set himself to read good
deal of the genuine masters OF prose,
are bits of good advice which Mr.. Lon
Ion will probably not dream Oh taxing.
What young author would! Humlilty
in literary matters Is scarceiy the
mark of the present age.-New York