Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-01-13
BOOKS AND AUTHORS

/ Iof all, or most of it-major- generals
and scouts. captains and sergeants
frontiersnen and troopers, soldiers and
civilians. to say nothing of an Indian
chief and bishop, have all said their
/ say in their own way"
1.-THE real reward of an author said
DR.. van Dyke in his speech at Il Lotos
Club dinner given two years ago in his
honor, doesn't come in his pay. 1t
lconleS in friendship TO be a compan-
ion by the firesde or on summer
walks; to cheer lonliness and assuage
pain; to give ray OF pure, serene sun
shine 10 men whose hearts are tired -
that is worth while. This is the spirit
that has made Or van Dykes books,
so popular and so dear to the hearts
of all lovers of the out-of- doors, and
in his new book, DAYS or" there is
the same keynote of Sunshine and good
cheer.
An English magazine answers the
QUESTION SO often asked as to why the
heroineS of the modern novels are older
than those of the last century. Former
tween seventeen and twenty, whereas
now no heroine need apply until she is
thirty, and II she is thirty-five so much
the better. The explanation is to be
found in the disappearance of the con-
Ivertional novel and the arrival of the
psychological novel. Sweet seventeen
is not much use as a character in a
story which tries to deal in any real
y-ay /,
4 sensible. thirty-five and experience;
and that is why, put briefly. the age of
the heroine has grown SO remarkably
1t has not as yet gone over forty, but
one never knows when it may do that
| In the course of some "reminiscences
which Charles Warren Stoddard con-
tributes to a Western ma gaZine he tells
| of his early acquaintance with the ar
tiSt-author Robert w. Chambers, then
recently returned from his art studies
| in Paris and seeking a publisher for
some stories he had written as n pleas
ant avocation. The meeting took place
at the studio of Reginald Birch, and
second meeting followed when Stod-
dards album CHANGED to be there. He
asked Chambers to place his name
among the autographs, and went. out
with Birch TO keep an appointment.
Returning in q short time Stoddard
says: Il found a charming poem, e
good large page in length, written in
my honor. l no longer wondered at his
facility, though facility is the gift Of
the few" During the first three years
of his authorship Mr.. Chambers pub
lished two volumes a year and ever
J;-fo At orr
volume a year.
Miss Brine Philip, the sole eXecutriX
and legatee under the will of the late
James MCNEIL Whistler, has in her
possession copies Of some hundreds of
letters written by him which he left
her to publish. Miss Philip is arranging
for their appearance in book form.
Philip Sanford Marden, whose book
Greece and the Aegean Islands was
published by Houghton, Miffln & Co.
last November. has Travelled extensive
ly in and about Greece. He is grad
uate of Dartmouth College and of the
Harvard Law School. and is editor Of
1.-THE Courier Citizen" Lowell Mass.
Will n. Harlem. in an interview
printed in the New York Times of De-
cember 8. gives a good novelist's and
good Southerner's account of how he
came to write "Mam' Linda" 81
simply tried to show in dramatic
story says Mr.. Harlem, 'thn awful
result of unrcasOning race-hatred in
the hands Of the ignorant and unscrUp-
ulous, ad to show that the heart of the
great and prosperous South beats true
to American ideals: that Southern
chivalry is indeed neither a myth nor
q msnomer' NAM Linda is an
nounced by the Harpers as having
gone into another edition. and its
characterization is being talked Of.
Some six hundred volumes Of Sir Leslie
Stephens own library have been present
ed by his family to the London Library
which Thomas Carlyle dill much to found
ard with which Sir Leslie was closely
identified. Trey are books of SPECIAL val
| ne. as they ore those or subjects which
appealed especially to the owner. and
most Of them have notes in his own
| handwriting.
| Eoughton Nifflin & Co. report that
there has been such heavy demand for
| Mrs Kate Douglass Virgins new story
| Tho Old eabody Pew" during the loli-
day season. that the hook has been kept
| on the presses almost constantly since
| the day Of it's Publication. It is now in
its sixth impression. making a total OF
over Se.OA copies This house also re-
ports third nrintines of "Humar bullets"
nv I.ient Tadavoshi Sakurai. and Sin
and Society," hy Prof. Edward A. Ross;
and 4 second rrinting of Mother Goose
in Silhouettes.' by Katharine G. Buff
UNI.
| Authors have many curious fancies and
snrerstitions about writing. Meredith