Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-30
BOOK WORLD NOTES

| Frederick A. Stokes company publishes
! during October besides "The Shuttle"
'drs. Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel
| OF international marriage, two shorter
| books of fict IN: Under the Southern
Cross" by Elizabeth Robins, author OF
| "The Magnetic North" Come and Find
Me- etc; and a stor. by Weymer Jay
Mills, entitled "The Van Rensselaers OF
Old Manhattan" The Robins book is the
romance of a charming girl and an un-
! conventional Peruvian baron on sea
trip in southern waters, and abounds in
bright dialogue ant amusing situations.
The Van Rensselaers of Old Manhat-
tan" is story of New York life in revo-
lutionary times when the center of aris-
tocratic life was Oh Broadway, near the
Battery.
Mrs. Grace Mcgowan Cooke has writ
ten a charming book for children with The
title of "Son Riley Rabbit and Little
Girl" recently published by the Stokes
tompany. The heroine of the book, which
first appeared serially in a magazine of
VI ide circulation. is Mrs Cookies younger
daughter, katherine, whose portrait APP
reared in the Illustrations of the serial
as well as in the book. Last year when
she and her mother were visiting the
Lewis and Clarke exposition a small child
an to her and catching her cloak eX-
claimed to an accompanying lady, "Oh,
mamma, here's Little Girr!" The mother
explained in embarras assment that her
daughter had been reading some stories
il magazine and that she thought Kath
crime looked like the heroine of them.
When the situation was explained the
two little folks had a regular love feast,
and the small Portland girl is still be
lieving that dreams come true. and people
dc actually walk out of stories and meet
you in the flesh.
Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. an
nounce that they have gone to press with
new edition of Ralph Waldo Trine's
"In Tune With the Infinite" completing
100000 copies. This is remarkable record
for work other than fiction, and is sure
ly an encouraging sign of the reading
times. To date over three hundred thous-
and copies of the Trine Life Books"-to
which the above volume belongs-have
been issued in this country and England,
while several translations of them have
also been made.
Prof. Richard G. Moulton's arrange
ment of the Bible. known as The Mod
crn Readers Bible which has been be-
fore the public in series of small vol
umes for a number of years has just
been issued by the Macmillan company
in a single volume. This contains all the
material to be founo in the separate
volumes, and indeed, the notes and in
Productions have in some cases been en-
larged. In this book Prof. Mou.tor has
learranged all the books of the Old and
New Testament according to the literary
forms which they represent, presenting
&c.
the book of Job as a drama and the his
torical books in the form of modern
prose. The traditional numbering of
chapters and verses is retained in the
margin for reference. and the language
of the revised version is followed as
closely as possible. Printed on thin but
opaque Bible paper and strongly and at
tractively bound the book is an ad
mirable product of typographical Skill
The late Mrs. Mary Jane Holmes, who
died on October Z, had one. at least, of
the attributes that all writer's covet.
She had readers had them by the mill
lion, and kept them from the time she
published her first story in 1854 until the
end of her life. In the course of fifty
one years of active literary labor she
turned up thirty-four books, of which,
l. is said, more than 100000 copies have
been sold. That means an average circu-
lation OF about $4,000 copies for each
book She was 79 years old when she
died; her last completed story was pub
lished when she was r. and she left an
unfinished story on which she had
stopped work because of trouble with her
eyesight. Her books had no literary dis
tinction and, we believe. no moral de
feet. She must have had great pleasure
in writing them. and her millions of
readers evidently had pleasure in read
ing them. She seems to have lived a wise
and exemplary life in the village of
Brockport, N. Y, varied by extensive
travels and by summer migration to a
seashore home. Among successful au-
thors Mrs. Holmes must be ranked high.
She seems neither to have written down
to her audience nor up to it, but simply
to have given them the best she had.
That seems to be about all there is to the
profession of writing-to give ones best.
Literary distinction is fairly definite
thing. which some writer's attain, and
others, like Mrs. Holmes, do not; but
the ability to win readers is something
very much more obscure. Harper's
Weekly.
Walter De Witt has designed conveniently
shaped and easily understood family genealogi
ca! record book. 1t is published by the Graf
ton Press of New York under the title of
Genealogical Record of the Family
and is intended especially for the non-expert
In genealogical matters. The size of the vol
ume is the ordinary duodecimo.
Messrs. G.. p. Putnam's Sons will shortly
publish notable original contribution to his
tory which cannot fail to attract attention. 1t
is the work of Martin Hume, one of the fore
most of living English historians, who has
made the subject of Spains greatness and
decadence his own, and whose books as
popular in the United States as they are in
England.
One of tn? seasons books that seem to have|l
made a permanent place for itself is Miss
Zona Gale "The Loves of Peeas and Etar-
re- 1t was not to be expected that the quiet
charm of Miss Gales book would furnish mate |
rial for sensational success, but the appeal
Of the delightful old lovers of seventy is as