The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-15
OF Books
D. Il
and Writers

The latest story pertaining to Mark
TWain is very good. He wrote a let
ter to Harper's Weekly q week or two
ago, In which he said that as he was
approaching seventy and perhaps
nao not many more years OF earthly
pilgrimage, he thought he ought to
set MS mouse in order, and desired to
10 pegln with the matter of obituaries.
An obituary, he remarks, is a thing
that cannot be edited as well by any
one else as by the object of it. Not
SO much in making any change in the
facts therein contained. as the sum-
ming up, or, as Mark Twain calls it.
the verdict. Therefore, he says that it
Is his earnest wish to be given access
10 the standing obituaries to be found
IN every newspaper office, ready FOR
the demise of the great. He asks that
all newspapers having such matter in
the standing galley will kindly pub
lsh them now and send him marked
copy, and it is his intention, when SO
received, to- correct these obituaries
according to his own ideas. OF course
ne says he means to correct the YER
dlct, not the facts, striking out all
such clauses as might have a delete
rlous influence on the Other Side, and
replacing them with clauses of a more
JualclOuS character. He says further
that he will gladly pay double rates
for both the omissions and the, sub
Stltut1ons, and quadruple rates for all
obituaries which are found to be cor
rect and require no editing. He con-
cludes
1T is my desire to leave these
amended obituaries, neatly bound, be-
hlnd me as a perennial consolation and
entertainment to my family, and as
an heirloom which shall have a
mournful but definite commercial val
ue Tor my remote posterity."
Reviews by, Authors.
The recent discussions pro and con
as to the value of book reviews by
professional reviewers has had some
curious results; one of the most novel
or which is scheme put into opera
ton by the Book-Lover, a magazine
or book lore, and not the Booklover's
Magazine, issued by the library
though the names are the same This
is to allow writer's of books to review
their own productions, and the current
number of this magazine has several
pages given up to the experiment. 1t
seems to work very WE'LL for, all things
considered, the reviewers are modest
and do, not puff their own wares I'M
duly. A volume called Book plates of
Today" by Wilbur Macy Stone, is
reviewed by that gentleman. He says
that when copy fresh from the bind
cry was put into his hands his first
thought was of the relief it was to
know the thing was done. Then he
goes into the unpleasant delays
caused by printers and binders and all
VPXinQ things "a hon RI OH
ers Of books. After describing mi
nutely the covers and the general APP
pearance of the volume, he suddenly
remembers the contents and thinks
perhaps the part that will most appeal
to the lovers of book plates is the color
prints. He finishes by confessing that
there are several blemishes in the
book, but thinks these are mainly ty-
biographical, and refrains from point
ing them out; on the whole, he is
rather pleased with. his book. The
next review is characteristic, vague
and obscure article about George
Francis Trains memoirs by himself
1t reads like a Spotless Town or Sun
ny Jim advertisement, as it Is capital
lied all the way through, and is
not too modest account of the success
of his work, from which one gathers
that he has another book nearly ready
The most charming and well written
Morse Earle's account Of how she
came to write Sun Dials and Roses of
Yesterday She begins by indorsing
the scheme of writer's erit1cising their
own work, and says they are better
fitted to tell of their OWL hopes and
plans than the regular reviewer, and
believes it is no more egot1stic than to
write the book ITSELF She first be-
came interested in sun dals by max
ing collection Of newspaper clippings
and odd bits of information about
them, until she had not only a good
deal Of matter on the subject, but she
had become sufficiently interested to
make a collection of the dials also.
After this she studied the significance
Of dials and their connection with the
life of other days, until her book, as
it were, wrote itself. She. says: eff
there has been aYthing of good lit
erary shape, OF correct composition
and pure Englis19 in my previous
books, these qualities are in this book
also. 1t is certainly concise in de-
Scription, though must yield few
adjectives and}o superf1uous terms to
the rose"
Gerald Stanley lee follows with his
own account of his book, "The Lost
Art of Reading He rather wittily
says that he finds he rather enjoys
abuse from reviewers more than
praise for himself, because he gets so
much of the latter He says that he is
so pleased to think he wrote the book
that he finds himself still taking it up
and giving it little pats of satisfaction,
and as he reads it over for the hun
dredth time. still comes upon places
he likes. Indeed, he has moments
when 1t is borne In upon him that THE
Lost Art of Reading" is an epoch-mak
ing book, and then the idea fliekers
away, and he begins to. realize that it
made no unusual stir. Mr.. Lee has
tried to bring out In this little book the
need of individuality in education,
that it is mistake to educate children
in large numbers in exactly the same
way, and that by so doing you are
making them into mere machines. He
sums up his idea thus: Some one
has said that the problem of education
is getting to be, How can, we give in
our huge learning machines, our ex-
ceptional students more of a chance?
state greater problem: How can
we give our common students a chance
to be exceptional ones?"
The next reviewer is w. A. Fraser.
who writes of his book Thorough
breds,', a very wise choice as the book
TODAY'S WEATHER.