New-York tribune., 1909-04-24

,,,,, IN the I,,ne number of The Century Maga-
! zine" Mrs Margaret Deland DR.. :. weir
| Mitchell and Mr.. Owen Wister have written It,
/ no one Of the three knowing what the others
! have done save that they have all dealt with
the same theme This Is the idea OF Thirteen
at Table" The June story is entitled win ihe
! Coin Of Her Life" The authors name will not
/ be attached In fact, the authorship OF the
stories will not be disclosed until the series is
complete Obviously. q good guessing game for
the summer has been planned
Doubleday. Page & Co. have performed vel
come service in reprinting "Staky & CO. in
pocket edition. These stories Of Mr.. kipiings
/ go we'll into such popular form. Tie red
! limp leather cover with its swastika and ele-
! plant's head in gold is charming. In similar
/ stvIe but with decorative borders in tint on all
/ the pages. the same publishers bring out The
/ KipIing Birthday Book compiled by MI Jo-
seph Finn under the romancer's authority.
/ Quotations in prose and verse face pages on
which blank spaces are left for birthday sigma
! lures.
The memoirs of the late CHRISTOPHER Won Tie
denann chief of the German Home Office under
Bismarck for several years have just been pub
lished in Berlin. He relates therein that he was
ordered by Bismarck to bring him new Finance
Minister alive dead within t~enty-fCur
hours and how he brought Arthur Hobrecht -
the great man within that time The new min
lister and his brother James were men Of giant
size. and of the latter the London "Chronicle'
tells this anecdote:
sR 2p9e aT ne in Tf@[ er i2 the % FsTe Of r john Ara and
uext morning size missed one Of her Natu6hl" preS,
to perplex her Tor months. but when the time for IoI
spring cleaning came The mystery was SoIfe4. me me
I rIr5
ornamental stove eight feet hig0 IN the iH iaaieS
drinking mis- coffee the most convenient ledge
within his reach.
Professor Courthope has finished the sixth VOL
urne of his History of English Poetry" and it
will be published in the autumn. The author
has been engaged upon this work for many
years.
Four more volumes have just appeared in the
beautiful New York edition Of the novels and
tales of Mr. Henry James, published by the
Scribners Twenty are thus in hand. leav-
ing only three for the completion Of the set. In
two of those which are now before us number
of short stories are assembled. The other two
are given 10 The Wings Of the Dove The
prefaces contain as usual much difficult but
interesting reading The author continues. in
his sometimes candid and sometimes mischev-
ously tantalizing way. to handle the secrets OF
his inspiration giving us clew as to the source
Of this or that composition. The truth is that
we are less gratifed by the revelation Of spe-
cifc origins than by the confessions which in
more general fashion, expose and illuminate
the authors habit of mind We gather that he
was thinking OF Robert Browning when he
wrote The Private Life" and that his model
for the central figure of The Birthplace must
have been the late Joseph Skipsey, the collier
poet whose experience as custodian Of Shake
speare's house at Stratford poisoned by his
ekeptcism as TO the genuineness Of the relics
there preserved. But what We especially value
is some such saying that which occurs in
the preface to The Wings Of the Dove" allud-
ing to one Of the hardest and yet most exhilar-
ating phases of his work that book:
1t involved, to begin with, the placing in the
/ prove difficult and to require much handling
those chances for good taste possibiT even for the
play the very best in the world that not only
/ always be invoked and cultivated, but that are
absolutely to he jumped at from the moment they
/ make sign.
His comments on this novel. by the way. are
for him, exceptionally direct and clear. The
writing Of the book appears to have given him
end of pleasure. and while he is sensible of
its imperfections he warns to discussion Of IT.
We do not wonder. My TheaIe is one Of the
most engaging of all his herolnes. The place Of
honor in OF these new volumes is given to
Daisy Miller on which early work Mr. James
has some amusing things to say. This much we
must quote:
II was in Rome during the autumn of 1877.
friend then living there but settled now in SoI+n
less weighted with appeals and memories hanDened
4 TO mentOn-whCh she might perfectly NOT have
lonesome simple and uniformed American lady
/ OF the previous winter, whose young daughter, a
! child OF nature and Of freedom, her
from hotel to hotel, had picked up hy the wa v
side with the best conscience in the world good
looking Roman of vague identity, astonished AT his
luck Yet $50 far as might be, by in1o-
cehtIN all sereneiy exhibited and introduced: this
! al least till the occurrence of some small social
check, some interrupting incident of no great gray
4 ity or dignity. and which | forget I had never
! heard save on this showing, of the amia BILE hut
named think, and whose case had merely served
10 point familiar moral; it must have been
the small pencil mark lnveterateIy sEnifying in
such connexions. Dramatise. drama tISe,'' The re
suit Of nv recognizing a few months later the
sense ~ my pencil mark was the short chronicle Of
Daisy Miller which indited in London tho foI
lowing spring and then addressed with no co1di-
[ tions attached. I remember 70 the aditor &c ,
delphia and had lately appeared to apprecat. nv
/ contributions. That gentleman. however IAN his
/ missve. and with absence Of conr1ent that
| struck me at the time as rather srinn-as given
the circumstances requiring indeed some explana-
ton: till friend To whom | appealed pv-
ing him the thing to read. declared could only
( have passed with the philadelphan critic for 'an
/ outrage American girlhood'
Mr.. James was bewildered but he had mot
long 10 wait for comfort His admirable
friend the late Leslie Stephen was nrornntIv
hosptable To Daisy Miller" printing il in two
numbers Of The Cornhin Magazine" in 1878
and. as all the world knows. this story was
presently received everywhere with appreciation
The author speaks beiDr