The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-12
BOOKS AND AtTHORs.

Il Il interesting 10 consider how much
purely technical knowledge concerning
ell manner Of modern inventions and up
10 date scientific theories the writer OF
stories requires In these days Of practical
and realistic fiction. You may ssy Kipling
began IT, but he certainly has q school
Of able followers.
The motor and its mechanism Is as es-
sentla a part Of an authors equipment
Just now a. an aptitude for romantic In
vention All the recent psychological
phenomena. the marvels OF electricity,
surgery and hygiene, mechanics Of every
sort enter into the modern romance,
One Of the recent stories published Is
what might be called almost psychological
study Of a Wanhip in action and Its love
affair with a torpedo boat which came 70
the rescue; another l. q literary apprecia-
ton Of the experiences Of the engineers,
inspectors and workers at the dredging OF
the harbors, and IL called THE Dredger'
Another story dealing with a purely
PSYCHOLOGICAL problem tells Of a mortgage
one person fastsns upon the brain OF another
and refuses TO foreclose.
And the remarkable thing In this realistic
fiction IL that the writer's challenge the
criticism Of the experts in their accuracy
in technical details and verify their premises
by most careful study. II may be called
the age Of reason in romance, the poetry
Of the practical In literature.
W.D. Howells, who has been In Italy for
the past year has left Genoa and Is now
on his way to America. Evidently Mr..
HoWells wishes to escape the tourist season
in Italy. which Is at its height In April and
May. All true lovers Of Italy dread the
influx Of spring visitors, and no scorn IL 90
bitter and so patronizing as the soorn OF
the sojourner In a foreign land for the tour
ists who come to disturb the foreign atmos-
phere and to crowd the picturesque and
peaceful byways. Mr.. Howells will proba-
bly 20 to his home at Kittery Point, Me-,
for the summer The new novel be has In
preparation will be published by HarPers
In about two months.
The current number Of the Critic demon
strated the fact that the best known women
writer's OF the day are not college graduates.
Now HdrpeT's Weekly oalls attention to the
much more notable fact that among the
men writer's who are not college bred one
must place Scott, Thaokeray, Dickens,
Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Hovells, James,
Cable Kipling, Aldrich, Du Maurier, Lew
Wallace and many others by which the list
may be extended at the readers convenience.
Stevenson went to college, and by his own
declaration was very lazy student. Haw-
thorne went 70 Bowdoin and Holmes TO
Harvard, but college education does not
make story writer's Of either men or women
The good story writer is the man who has a
story TO tell and knows how TO tell tall Of
which belongs under the head Of genius,
and genius cannot be reduced to rules
and printed In a text book for students
TO commit TO memory in college. For
which the world should be grateful, since
even now Of making books there u no end,
and II the trade could be taught and learned
In schools the plague Of books would be even
worse than 1t is at present.
A very good answer TO the question so
often propounded why do not Ameri-
can people take interest in rare editions
OF hand made booksi' Is furnished by the
eEperienos Of the Riverside Press. The
$50 hand made copies Of the limited edi-
ton Of Boooaccio's Life Of Dante recently
brought out were all subscribed for on
publication, and Of the $50 copies Of "A
Consolotorio Letter or Discourse sent by
Plutaroh Of Chaerona unto His owne Wife
as touching the death Of her and his DauRh-
ter which will be ready April Is, 500 copies
have been subscribed for already. The Let
ter, which Is one Of the less known chapters
in Plutarch's -Morals" was written. it Is said,
upon the actual occasion indicated in its
title. The translator, Philemon Holland,
was called by his contemporary, Fuller,
Translator general In his age The
book Is a thin octave. bound In dark paper
boards with cloth back, and printed with
the Brimmer Roman type all In black on
an English hand made paper. The chief
difficulty seems TO consist In getting the
books finished fast enough for the demand,
for faultless work Ia necessarily slow In
completion. The sale Of the books de-
ponds principally upon the interest book
collectors take In obtaining this expensive
edition and in talking about them to other
connoisseurs Of book making. II would
seem that the demand for the hand made
books In America Is leading the supply at
present and that the American people are
interested in rare editions and fine typog-
raphy.
THE Childrens' Alcove' is an interesting
feature Of the publishing house which
supplies the literature required In the
schools as supplementary reading. The
Above Get apart for the schoolchildren
IL q rallied enclosure provided with book