New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-17
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
Current Talk about Things Present
and to Come.

ufuI W SOWt.
Mrs. Wigs" and "Lovey Mary are TO be
printed serials IN the "Bibliotheoue Univer-
selle" Of Switzerland 1t will be interesting to
see what the French translator makes Of some
Of the odd colloquialsms of Mrs Rice's char
acters.
A G. Bradley, who is already favorably known
for his Highways and Byways in North Wales
and Highways and Byways in the Lake Dis
tr1cts, has written. in the same manner and
with the same motive a volume entitled an the
Marsh and Borderland of Wales" which is an
nouneed for publication in this country to-day
by Houghton. Mifiin & Co. Not the least at
tractive feature of the book should be its $50
illustrative sketches of the country by William
Nj. Meredith, the of George Meredith, the
novelist Another book by Mr. Bradley lately
issued here, is his Captain John Smith," In
Macmillan's English Men Of Action Series"
In a short story by Thomas Nelson Page. to be
printed in the March number of scribner's Mag
azine, the author has chosen a new background
for the characters. laying the scene in Santa
Barbara, where he spent last winter. The tale
IS built around old prospector who believes
that he owns the richest mine in the world. Mr..
Page is now travelling in Italy. but with the
intention of spending the last part OF the winter
in Northern Africa
The second volume in Harper's Heroes Of
American History series. just issued this week.
is Frederick a. Ober's Columbus, the Discov-
erer." Mr.. ODER has a greater reputation as
traveller and observer than as a careful and
discreet biographer. He has. however. made
speciality of Columbiana, and has, so far as they
could be ascertained visited every place in Spain
and in America that is at all associated with the
name of the great adventurer. The result of all
this energy and enterprise should at least be
some interesting historical and personal data
Do contemporary poets require stimulating?
And If they do will a monetary reward apply
the necessary spur? The publishers and editors
Of Poet Lore" who should, one would think
have expert knowledge of contemporary pOetry's
lack OF stimulus. have at any rate decided to
make the experiment of melting latent genius
to activity by means Of a financial considera-
ton. They offer 800 g. prize for the best
poem-containins not fewer than four lines
more than sixty-four Iines-submitted to them
by March 81 This seems all too short time
in which to put Pegasus In training and to get
him in fit condition for the race What hurry
skurry there viii be to unharness the patient
steeds from. theis literary hacks and commercial
delivery wagons. what an unfolding Of long
disused wings and preening of equine feathersI
Behold the motley field at the post in the free
for-alI Olympian sweepstakes They're off!
But who follow them? Each one selects his
own course in this Hyperian spring steeplechase;
they're all over the place. One takes too far
off at sonnet dislocates a pinion and is out
of the race Another, soaring for lofty lyric
mounts so high that he can't see where to
land and is lost forever. a third, miscalcu-
lating the effort required. comes a cropper at a
quatrain. And they go. It is exciting; it is
amusing; but is It SPORT?
Richard Burton has written drama, in blank
verse, Of the fall OF Jericho. It is entitled
"Rahab," and will be published this spring in
book form by Henry Holt & Co. 1t is the MOI.
ambitious literary work that Professor Burton
has yet attempted.
PercevaI Gibbon, the author of ''Vrouw Grobe-
laar and Her Leading Cases. has been described
by enthusiastic admirers the Uncle Remus of
the Veldt: but his paths have been laid In no
such peaceful places his American proto-
types. He in the thick Of the Boer war
and appears TO have had exciting expert
ences a-plenty. At the outbreak of hostilites
he enlisted in a company of South African volun-
teers and served throughout the entire cam
paign. being five times captured and imprisoned
and escaping twice. He did not know how lucky
his second escape was until about a year after
From the last place of his Imprisonment. Rux-
Vile, he made one unsuccessful attempt to es-
pursuers. The next day he made a second
dash for liberty, and this time managed TO get
away. year after the close OF the war Mr.
Gibbon held the post Of city magistrate at
Heidelburg. In looking through various official
documents connected with the conflict he dis
covered his own death warrant, which declared
that he had been sentenced to be shot as a spy
He has, however. never taken steps to enforce
the penalty
A reprint Of the seventeenth century transla-
tion by Nicholas Ferrar Of The Divine Consid-
erations" of John Valdesso Juan de valdes)
has recently been issued by the John Lane
Company. with the notes made by George Her
bert on his friend Ferrars manuscript. The vol
ume has q quaint interest, apart from its as
sociations with those two distinguished church.
men, 10 the Society of Friends. Benjamin Bar
ron WifTen, the famous old Quaker Htterateur.
who spent much time and trouble over the
suscitation OF the works OF the early Spanish
reformers. remembered late in life that ne had
once heard a friend say that he possessed old
treatise. written by q Spaniard. which fore
Swallowed in the main the teachings of George
Fox Ransacking his friends library he found,
in Italian, the very volume which translated
by Ferrar and annotated by Herbert was pub
lished in 1888 and has been reprinted for
the first time. Readers OF John Inglesantr may
recall the reference TO the Divine Considera-
tons which is printed the cover Of the new
edition and recall also that the author OF John
IEglesant" IN early life a Quaker.
Eden Phillpotts has decided TO call his next
novel of Dartmoor life THE whirlwind" 1t
VIII be brought out in this country by Mcclure,
Phillips Sc Co. in the fall