New-York tribune., 1910-07-30
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Current Talk of Things Present
and to Come.


Mr. Elihu Vedder's book, THE Digres-
sions of W will be issued by the Hough-
ton Miff1in Company on September II.
| The autobiography is to be packed full
of illustrations, many of them being re-
productions of the artists sketches.
There are to be four full page cuts in
color. Mr.. Vedder has himself designed
the cover, the end papers, the head
pieces, tail pieces and other ornamental
features of the book.
Three separate editions Of Mr.. Roose-
velt's new book, African Game Trails"
are in preparation. There will be reg
ular library edition and a subscription
edition., both handsomely made and full
of illustrations. A third. d limited edi-
ton of five hundred copies. will be signed
by the author. This, which is to be
bound in pigskin, will be printed on
paper specially made in Holland. Edi-
tions will be brought out in England,
France, Germany and Sweden.
1t is stated that DR.. Heinrich Lueders,
a Berlin authority on Sanscrit, has sue
ceeded in deciphering the ancient Sans
crit manuscripts discovered al Turfan, in
Central Asia, by Dr. Won Lecoq. These
include scenes from plays in Sanscrft
and various dialects, and some of them
are five centuries older than the dramas
of Kalidasa.
4 memorial to Richard Hakluyt was
unveiled the other evening in Bristol
Cathedral. wherein the man thus hon
ored was for thirty years a canon. It
was in this period that he engag ged in
the patriotic task of preserving from
oblivion the annals of early British sea-
manship. The Hakluyt Society, by the
way, has just held a meeting to con-
slider proposal to raise the annual sub
scription to a guinea and half The
cost of the society's publications is con-
tinually increasing, and knowledge of
its splendid work is more restricted, we
believe, than need be. The latest vol
ume produced by the society is THE
Conquest of Mexico" written by one of
the actual conquerors and illustrated
by original maps and plans.
The Merry Tales" of Hans Sachs, the
most famous of Meistersingers, have
been translated into English verse by
W Leighton, rhymed octasyllabic metre
having been used. Three "ShrSvetide
Plays" Of Sachs are included in the vol
ume, which has been brought out by
the firm Of Mutt.
The father Of the late DR.. Furnivall
was q surgeon, the friend and healer of
Shelley and his family when the poet
lived at NARROW. The latter would often
sit upon the surgery table and gossip
with the surgeon. absorbing bread and
milk the while. One unpleasant memory
Of that period was Shelley's character
ization in the surgeons hearing Of his
unhappy little first wife. Harriet. as "a
frantic idiot DR.. Furnivall, we are
told by The London Times had a
story which described his father reach
ing the house at NARROW to find Shelley,
Leigh Hunt and Thomas Love Peacock
discussing--and two at least Of the party
agreeing upon-the advantages and the
morality of suicide. The surgeon. who
was of q temperament as far from sui
cidal as his son, laid his case of instru-
hun1oredly when no one consented to
take advantage of these ready means of
giving practical effect to the resolution"
Lady Edgar, d descendant. We are
told, of James Edgar. private secretary
to the Chevalier James Stuart, otherwise
James III. is writing a book about this
ancestor. Two of its chapters deal with
the more or less thrilling narrative of
Clementina Sobieska's escape from pa
ternal durance and her journey to Join
her Stuart bridegroom in Italy. The
author has taken her account OF this
adventure from the recitals of the three
men who engineered that rescue. Misset.
Gayden and Charles Wogan. The biog-
raphy is founded upon original letters
which are stored in the royal library at
Windsor Two plays, by the way, based
upon Clementinas escape, are forthcom-
ing in London.
Clever Betsy" is the title of Mrs.
c. L. Burnhams new novel, the scenes
OF which are laid in California and in
Maine. The Houghton Miffiin Company
will bring out the book in September.
NJ G.. Eiffei has put on paper the re-
suits OF the experiments conducted on
the highest floor OF his tower in Paris.
and mis- book has just been issued under
the title OF La Resistance de rAir. Ex-
amen des Formules ct des Experiences"
The volume is illustrated.
A naive complaint apropos of the liter
ary situation In England is made by
THE London Standard" The whole !
business of. book production, it declares,