The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-16

graphical works of the year will N undoubtedly be Rram Stoker's "Reminiscences of Henry Irving" which will be published by The Macmillan com pany this fall Mr. stoker was asso- ciated with the late actor for thirty years in the most intimate way, as friend and as business agent. He began to realize many years ago the demand that would un- doubtedly be made on him for biography of the most prominent actor of his time, and he accordingly took careful and vo- luminous notes of his intercourse with Irving. Few men in the last thirty years had a larger acquaintance with distin- gulshed contemporaries than Irving, and Mir Stoker's "reminiscences are full of amusing and characteristic anecdotes of such men as Gladstone, Dsraell, Tenny- son, Sir Arthur Sullivan Liszt, Sir Rich ard Burton and many others. Among the illustrations there will be portraits of Irving in all of the important characters be assumed in his long career.
 A new novel by Frances Aymar Math ews, author of The Staircase of Surprise, My Lady Peggy Goes to Town, and other popular stories, has just been published by the Harpers. It is a momance of mod ern New York life, and chiefly concerns the love affairs of four young people. the various complications which arise being woven into an ingenious and lively plot. Miss Mathews is clever and not too se- rious and her tale sparkles with crisp dialogue and unexpected happenings. Throughout the tale a mystery is kept in suspense, and its disclosure heightens the interest of the concluding chapters. Miss Mathews new novel is entitled, The Undefiled.
 Rex Beach, author of "The Spoilers" Is back from his trip to Alaska, whither he went to look after a mine and to have some good hunting. He brings with him some trophies of the hunt in the shape of bearskins; also some material that may be worked into a new book, and notes from which he intends to write series of magazine articles dealing with present conditions in Alaska. It is learned from his publishers the Harpers. that there has been as yet no abatement of the demand for "The Spoilers"
 A new volume of choice selections from Mark Twain's writing will be published shortly by the Harpers under the title of "The $30OOO Request" A great num- Der of these stories have never before ap- peared in book form, and among them are some of the very best that the humorist has ever done; such as his "St. Joan of Are" published in Harpers Magazine a couple of years ago, "Italian Without a Master" "Italian With Grammar Amended Biographies' Advice to Lit tie Girls" "The Danger of Lying" Post Mortem Poetry "The Five Boons of Life" "A Helpless Situation" and others. The very touching and tender story of Cromwell's time, "The Death Disk, is also included. These stories, with enough
 1,fe. cent writing-to make up fat volume, will be issued in binding uniform with the Trade Edition. Later. the more re- cent writing, only, will be made into q supplementary volume to be added to the IIillcrest Edition of Mark Twains com plete works, making a twenty fourth vol ume to the set
 The dramatization of Cape Cod Folks, !" the first presentation of which was given on August 27 in Boston, falls in the same week with the publication of Mrs. Greene s new book, Power Lot" and Just 20 years after the original publication of Cape Cod Folks" A second large edition of Power Lot" was sent to press before publication.
 October 1 is the date now set for the publication of George Alfred Williams s edition of MT. Pickwick's Christmas" ." me puDllSneIS dniloulicS llul lit Illus ttations are even more striking and charming than in "The Christmas Carol"
 A book that potlises to be of inn portanee as summary of the results of modern reserach and higher criticism is about to be published by Herbert B, Turner x Co.,, under the title of The Historical Bases of Religions; Primitive, Babylonian and Jewish. It's author, Hiram Chells Brown, sees in religion a natural and progressive growth from the crude and cruel conceptions of primitive man to the refined and highly spritualized re-