The San Francisco call., 1904-07-13
Literary Gossip of London.
snecisl Correspondence.

SEA DO UARIERS OF The CALL
5 HENRIETTA. STREET, COVENT
GARDEN. LONDON. June 27.-At
what low ebb financially many English
authors were at the time Of their death
frequently becomes known to the pub
lie only when the annual list is pub
lished Of the Government pensions
which have been granted to their fam
flies. Except in rare cases-that of
Austin Dobson, for fnstance-state
grants either TO authors or their de-
scendants are made only when the
reed for them is urgent, so it was a
surprise to 4 good many who believed
w. z. Henley. the poet, to have been
fairly well off 10 find the name OF his
widow in the list of last years bene-
fciaries from the civil List" Mrs.
ITenley's pension is not large. only s625
a year. Phil May was known to have
left practically nothing and most peo-
PIE were glad to see that his wife is
receiving a pension of 1915. but it was
surprising again TO find Leonard and
Alfred Gissing, the late George Gis-
sings children, down for $3.50 on ac-
count of ''straiteHed circumstances" ."
10 living authors were granted pen
sions by the Prime Minister during the
past year with the exception of Sir
William Laird Cloves, the writer on
American and naval matters, who for
some time has been in wretched health
and almost entirely unable to work.
Richard Whiteing is not one of the
English authors who spend most Of
their time and do most Of their work
on the Continent, but his health hasn't
been any too good Of late and he has
just gone TO Contrexeville TO drink the
waters at that fashionable French spa
A friend tells me that one of the main
causes of Mr.. Whiteing not being
quite up to the mark is the fact that
he has been working particularly hard
on the novel which he has under way.
The Athenaeum. the venerable and
dignihed English literary review, is al
most as much Of an institution in its
way as the Times, and there has been
q great deal of interest in the fact that
the weekly recently reached its 40O0th
number. It was founded in 1928 by a
writer named Buckingham, who finally
became member of Parliament for
Sheffield and who sold his periodical to
the grandfather Of Sir Charles Dixie,
who is the present proprietor, for s2500.
The Athenaeum is by no means pat
rOnizing or Over-indulgent in its review
OF new books and in the last number
the editor sets forth some of his prin-
ciples in the matter of literary criti-
cism. He denies intentional severity,
but says:
Immortality is so frequently and
rashly promised to the writer Of to-
day that such praise has almost be-
come a farce and it is necessary to re-
mind readers that restraint in express
sion does not mean disparagement, nor
a high standard a personal grudge. We
are as ready as any," he goes on, Ito
welcome the new man without regard
10 cliques or coteries."
The success of the moment in this
country as far as romances are con-
cerned is undoubtedly Winston
Churchill's "The Crossing" Fully
twice as many copies were subscribed
for in advance as in the case of The
Crisis" and the new novel is being
largely ordered by the trade. OF course
this is chiefly due to the reputation
which Mr. Churchill has made in this
country. There is no doubt however,
that the great demand for 1.-The Cross
ing over here is owing partly to the
fact that a good many people in this
country still believe that it's author is
the English Winston.
1t is hard. as Dr. Conan Doyle may
find out before long, to be both a nov
elist and statesman. Hall Caine has
managed TO combine the two roles
pretty comfortably hitherto, but of late
he has had to slight the second. Writ
ing The Prodigal Son" took it out OF
Mr.. Caine so much that he had to 20
TO the Riviera to recuperate and re-
Gently the correcting of his proofs has
kept the author so busy that he hasn'i
had time to appear in the Manx Legisla-
ture. His constituents have been pa
tient up to now, but they are becoming
rather restive, for they say that Ram
sey. the district in Man which Mr.
Caine represents, is practically olsen
franchised.
some Q6s lneTe VIII De anOtner I'M
portant work relating to Sir Henry M
Stanley, but IL is likely to be many
years before it is published. It seems
that the explorer left behind him not
only a goodly amount of interesting
material concerning himself, in the
form Of diaries and letters but also
documents of no little historical i'm
portance. Most of the matter, how
ever, IS of such a character as to
make II impossible that it should ap-
pear in print during the lives of the
persons with whom ii is concerned.
America got tired of English mid
dle-class fiction some time ago. Ap-
parently Australia is wearying of II
TOO, and IN Australia they are in
clined TO express their feelings pointed
ly. A recent copy Of the Sydney Bull
letin, which has reached me, says:
The English seem welded religiously
10 the transportation system. Former
" they sent us their bad characters;
now they send us their bad novels
Often one feels inclined TO cry. Take
~~ok your Corellil Take back your