Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-05
Gossip from the World Of
books-Review Of Now
Books -Authors' Plans
for the Season-Notes.
she has turned to good account in heI
Two Plays of Israel"

she has turned to good account in her
Two Plays of Israel"
Few things are more to the con-
temporary literary point than these
stanZas by Edward $. Martin. They
appear in the December issue of the
Metropolitan Magazine.
IF WE'RE HENRY JAMES.
If l were Henry James l tell you what
I'd write a tale that hadn't any plot
And none should know If in it auSht befei.
For. being Henry James. l wouldn tell.
The workings of my mind it should record
AS on big. terrestrial checker-board.
"a move the pieces with abundant care.
And see that none of them got anywhere.
I'd work by indirection all the while,
And ladle in psychology and style,
TIL every rival cried with envy frank
oh, would that could sling the ink like
HANK
To a volume Of the Selected Poems
of John Boyle OReilly," William A.
HOvey contributes an intimate and
brief introduction suggestive of the
love that genial Irishman inspired in
a wide circle of friends and acquainr-
ance. Sitting on the Common. under
the shade of a friendly tree" says Mr..
Hovey, smoking our pipes, all mum
dane things were forgotten. Politics,
American or Irish. could go hang. and
as for the whales, they could decline, or
even fall, for all we cared, and the jute
crop might fail wholly. Ours were
higher thoughts. Boyle would run on
with his talk, flashing with bright
thoughts and epigrams, and now and
again I would call n halt and point out
that this or that thought could and
should be worked out in rhyme. Ten
to one. at the next meeting of the
Papyrus, some one of these would be
produced i'll dainty verse" The poems
selected by Mr.. Hovay represent vari-
Gus phases of O'ReillE's poetic skill.
and the volume, bound in full leather,
is published by H. NJ. Caldwell Com
pany.
Writing on THE New Books" the
editor of the Boston Transcript says:
While it would be mistake, of
course. to assume that the tendencies
OF the literary times are indicated by
the activity of publishers. by the indus
try of authors, Jr by the enormous
quantity Of books turned out from the
presses at this period of the year, We
may nevertheless gain some idea of the
drift of things through observation of
individual efforts. AT the present
moment. when the volume of newly
published books is even more over
whelming than in previous years. and
while the oncOming Of the Christmas
season necessarily brings to the fore a
vast number of works of distinctively
ephemeral nature, we may be able to
look both backward and forward with
certain amount Of surety simply be-
cause the field of view is so expansive
and unrestricted. 1t is first of all APP
parent that the quantity Of fiction has
touched its high-water mark in the inn
nediately preceding years, and that
while the amount Of novel-Writing is
even now altogether in excess of the
demand. the publishers are coming to
see that an excess of purely imagi-
native literature defeats their CONNER
cial ends in the same degree that it de-
grades the creative art of the novelist.
The difficulty of winnowing the wheat
from the chaff is becoming less and less
with the passing of each successive
year.