Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-14

Miss Ottlie Liljencrantz, the author of
The Thrali of Left the Lucky" has writ
ten another historical novel. This time
she has chosen the period of the Danish
conquest in Britain for her theme and has
King Canute." it will be published at an
early date by A. C. MeClurg & Co.
The frequency with which publishers
this year have found the titles chosen for
Forthcoming books to conflict with titles
chosen by other firms, would seem to sug-
SeSt that combinations of words likely to
prove attractive on a book cover are rapid
ly becoming exhausted. Mcclure, Phillips
4 Co. by reason of such a conflict, have
been forced to change the name of the
book by Viola Roseboro, announced as
Out of the Heart" to 1.-The Joyous
Heart" Recently they changed to True
Love- the book by Edith Wyatt an
nounced under the title Whats Worth
While?"
me spring publishing season will have
Opened ,eo m a very short time More than
one nse OF announcements has already APP
peafed, and 1t is plain that we are to be
Houchsafed an appalling number of new
books. Meanwhile each week brings for
ward a sufficient number of publications.
sufficient for the weary reviewer, we are
sure, and, not improbably, for the reader
who has no responsibility in the matter,
when he likes. The reviewer might
thoughtlessly be accused of taking too in
tereSted a view of the question, but we be-
lieve-and our belief is shared by many
that a readjustment of the publishers
Seasons so that there might be plenty
of new books all the year round, and never
too many at any one period would be for
the benefit of all concerned. including the
publishers. Probably the change will not
be made, and critics on both sides of the
Atlantic will continue to deplore their
sad lot They have had great deal to say
on the subject, they have pointed out over
and over again the reasons why they
would like to see reform. But the pub
fishers have been strangely silent. Why
is it that they shrink from parting with
the old tradition? 1t may have been legiti-
mate enough in earlier days. but it is
obviously ill-adapted to the present period,
which has witnessed such a tremendous
increase in the making of books.-New
York Tribune.
.Tustus Miles Forman, author of Jour
neys End" was an artist and contributor
of short stories to Harper's and McClure's
usual sort of novel. He graduated from
Yale only five years ago and studied two
years with several of the best painters in
Paris. His story of young English no.
with evident intimacy. The publishers,
Doubleday, Page & Co., have made a
beautifully illustrated volume and a very
large sale is expected.
s-->-----
1.-THE Four Feathers" has run through
ten thousand copies in two months: The
London Times characterizes it as "A tale
which may be called problem novel;
without a glance at the seventh Com
mandment; an adventure novel-With the
irreducible minimum OF bloodshed; and a
love sterY-witbout a single kiss. :.
The plot is worked out with remarkable
ingenuity. The whole book has an ele-
waited and restrained poetic quality, and is
inspired at once by keen sympathy and by
a manly stoicism." The Times is not quite
accurate. for there are several tender
scenes between the lovers and something
is left to the readers imagination. But
there is little doubt that the Stfy comes
close to being the work oil a MIN with
genius. Its author, A. E. w. Mison, is
with him in the writing of 'pars,n Kelly"
He is an oxford man. has hat q varied
career, and, like many anothei Englsss-
man, did not begin to do anything worth I
while until he had gone throughthe alem-
bic in which one of the most powerful re-
agents is a taste of poverty and the |
worlds cold shoulder. His laest books
have attracted increasing attenion, and
among five or six of the most popular |
writer's of fiction of the present day. He
has ten novels to his credit. The hst four,
rice Buckler' Miranda of the Balcony"
and The Four Feathers have ben pub
lished by The Macmillan Company.
From the New York Tribune's cor;espon-
dent we learn that 1.-The -Four Feathers"
has made an extraordinary hit in Eng
land, which might have been surnised
from it's prompt success in this country.
1t has already been dramatized in Eng
land by the author under the title of The
Half Pay List" The general opnion
seems to he that nothing more touching
has been written for many years than the
scene where the girl hands back three
white feathers to her lover and adds a
white feather from herself.