New-York tribune., 1904-09-03
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
Current Talk about Things Present
and to Come.

"Tha Affair at the Inn the novel Whlch nate
Douglas Wiggn wrote this summer in collabora-
ton with three friends Mary and Jane Findlater
and Allan Macaulay, is just issued by Houghton
Mifin & Co. II is love story. the scene OF
which is a quiet country inn on Dartmoor In
Devonshire Each author is responsible for the
noint of view OF one of the four characters The
hero is a young automobiling English baronet
and the heroine an American girl from the
South.
Reports of the large amounts received in roy
altes by popular novelists seem to have in
famed the Imagination of a hardworking son
Of toll who had evidently read some of the
best selling" recent fiction and no reason
why he could not do as we'll. The other day
man having the appearance OF a respectable
longshoreman entered one of the departments Of
Harper & Bros, in New-York, and, having in
troduced himself politely TO one of the man
ayers. stated briefly:
Il want to write a novel" There was a dead
silence broken presently by the publisher. who
asked:
What do you want TO do?'
The visitor seemed somewhat discomfted by
this counter question. and began talking vague
ly about the amount OF royalty the publishers
might pay him. winding up with the following
poser:
IF I wrote novel, how long could I live
on it?"
A new one-volume edition of DR.. Edward
Everett Hale's Memories of Hundred Years
is to be brought out this fall by the Macmillan
Company. 1t will contain all the matter appear
ing in the original two-volume edition and three
additional chapters. In one Of these DR.. Hale
describes a journey he made from Boston to
Washington just sixty years ago, which occu-
pied thirteen days of travel and involved twen-
ty-eght changes of conveyance. 1t is interest
ing TO note in this connection tha9 the present
plans Of the railroads. by which trains from
Boston will cross the Wards Island Bridge to
Long Island and re-enter New-Yorlz by means
of the East River tunnel to the new Thirty
eighth-s.. station, will enable the trip to be
made without change OF recourse to ferry
transfer. reegating the metropolis TO the posi-
ton of way station between Boston and points
South and West.
The letters of william Makepeace Thackeray,
written TO members of the family of George
Baxter, of New-York. a home which he visited
often and loved much during his lecture tours
in this country, win be published by the Century
Company in book form this autumn. These are
THE Letters to an American Family" which
have been appearing in The Century Maya
zine" during the current year. The volume viii
contain an introduction and notes by Miss Lucy
Baxter ana many characteristics pen sketches
by the author.
Robert w. Chambers's new novel of the Amer
lean Revolution win be called 1.-THE New
Yorker" and will appear seriaIly in one of the
magazines before its publication in book form by
d. Appleton & Co. who will hereafter be Mr.
Chamberss publishers. This will be the third
volume written by the author dealing with this
period the former stories being Cardigan"
and THE Maid at Arms" He writes of ,
region with which he is personally familiar. his
country home being at Broadalbin. near Johrs-
town, the seat Of the Johnson family famous IN
the Colonial and Revolutionary history OF Gem
tral New-York
Frederic S. Isham, author of Under the
Rose" and "The Strollers." has written new
novel. which is as yet unnamed although il is
scheduled for publication this month by the
Bobbs- Merrill Company. It is understood to be
story OF BLACK Friday and the exciting times
OF the gold corner and TO include Jay Gould and
other contemporaneous Wall Street operators in
its dramatis personse. The new story will be
illustrated by Harrison Fisher.
The letters OF Ernest Renan to NJ BertbeIot
written while gathering material in Italy and
Palestine for his famous Life of Jesus" have
been translated by Lorenzo O'Rourke They
win be brought out this fall In a handson,a1e5i-
ton with photogravure portraits by Doubleday.