New-York tribune., 1907-08-11
Gbe Netsauo'21nrk 0ribnaae.
SUNDAY, AUGUST II, 1907.


mann announces for publication the Life OF
Games Mcneil Whistler" by Elizabeth and |
goseph PennelI. The work, which Will be IN
two plaborately illustrated Volumes is TO De put
forth as authorized by the late Mr. Whistler |
hiIaSeif and founded on material supplied py
him and by his own relatives and Trends lt
Is TO be hoped that we have now heard the last
of the chickering's of which the artists CORE
spondence has been the cause The Fenheiis
naturally expected to make use OF his ietters'
and in view of the fact that he was well known
to have given them encouragement and ald III
fhe writing of their book il is difficult TO com
nrrhend the attitude taken by his executrlH-
There is a certain grim humor IN the eplSOue
1t was characteristic of Whlster 10 leaVe
knottv and even painful problem to his blos
raphers, but the English judges solution OF II
works as much to his disadvantage as TO theirs
While the Pencils allowed to use the IN
formation in the correspondence they are forpiu
den to quote from it or to give paraphrases
Minister'S gifts as literary artist are thus
nrcvented from shining in his official biography
and If is hard to believe that he would have
rcljshed this outcome of his failure 10 nlahe
Mr. and Mrs PenneIl's position in the matte1
impregnable-
Tho sur,p,er season is assumed to be espe-
c;oIv tho season for novel reading As mat
for nj facT there is no time for a good mover
Hike 4 long winter evening before log nre.
but we may let that pass Ihere can pe Lo
doubt at all about the abundance, ID the siily
season of miscellaneous talk about hclloh' II
has started up again, and this time the question:
of issue is whether or not the public Is getting
fired OF novels Professor SaintSbury Is one vi
the contributors to the discussion lie THINKS
that the decline in the demand for novels which
has been noted in England may be attriDuteo
I'm mart to the intrinsic quality of those written
to-dav-which is to say their inferIorly-ahu
I'm part to the fact that fiction as form OF
literature has had it's day, and is suffering,
fnm natural causes, a kind OF "occultauon or
extinction" The discussion Ike SO many VI
those which turn up in the dog days. leads
noybere. 1t is true that many readers VINO
Io.p a good novel let current fiction alone pc
co,sa they do not find it good enough IL
fs also true that enormous quantities OF lie"
novels get themselves printed and sod. Inc
classical romancerS likewise continue 20 pe
road However. it is merely fatguins TO thrash
ont all this old straw What chiefly striheS us
shout this latest debate Is the unconscious III
PRODUCTION into it of rather foohsh element,
10 which we have more than once made satiricai
elInsion Professional Commentators on lit
erarv affairs are influenced, we believe, mere
Than they would be willing 20 admit, by what
tb,y see in the literary Journals Contributors
to these in want of a topic, IaZily ling halt a
hyL.k at the art Of fiction In a little while
they have produced an impression, OF Sort and
the wiseacres begin to dOGmatse
They have been selling at auction IN LONDON
some relics of Charlotte, Emily and Anne
Bronta and the pathetic little odds and ends
souvenirs of their home life, have fetched the
comfortable sum of $3.50. The pathos OF the
sale must have had. however, q rather ABSURD
side Three samplers done by the sisters Ill
tteir girlhood were put up and sold for some
thing like $50. We suppose some one VIII pre-
serve them with rapturous appreciation, but
one hardly likes to think of things OF the sort
as having price put upon them and being
preserved in glass case. It seems rather that
the makers of those samplers, II they could