Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 30 August 1899, page 2


LITERARY NOTES.

[By The Scmbk.] j

The British Museum cataloguo of printed books, tho greatest undertaking of the kind ever attempted, will be completed in 1900. Tlio selling price of this catalogue will be £8i. The work of printing this great work was com-

menced in 1881.

The cultivation of letters behind the walls of a prison is rare, but iu the Ohio State prison prizes have been offered for the best poems. A largo numbor were submitted, und_ the first prize was won by a man who is sorving threo years for burglary. His subjoct was " A Message," and the verses run ns follow :

Thou ai I but a little dower,

Yet in thee do 1 behold.

Something more tbnn kingly dower,

Something more than wealth or golel. As thy sweet perfume I'm drinking,

Silently my Ups do frame A prayer : for I am thinking

Wboneo this tender message came.

Though the limul that gently plucked theo

Soon tlmll Hu beneath the clay ; Thou wilt live within my inem'iy

Through a never-ending day.

Mr. Silas Hocking, whoso book, " The Day of Recompense," has lately been issued, is one of the most popular novelists of the day. Ho has been writing for 21 years, and during the whole of that period the sale of his novels has averaged one thousand copies per week. The total number of sales as given by his publishers, Messrs. F. Wamo and Co., is 1,093,180, ex-clusive of publications other than

fiction.

A new novel is announced by W. E. Norris entitled "Giles Ingleby." The hero of the story is a young poet, and the scene is laid partly in the \Vost of England and partly in London.

The great Oxford English Dictionary is announced to bo published in monthly parts. The work, when com-pleted, will consist of from 12,000 to 13,000 pages, contained in 10 volumes. It is not expected that the dictionary will be completed until the year 1909. It is said that in three points, at least, the dictionary has no rival. These are : -First, the scientific treatment _ of etymology ; secondly, the historical continuity of usage ; thirdly, the pre. cisión of reference in the illustrative

passages quoted.

' Rudyard Kipling's novel, " The Light that Failed," has been dramatised by Mr. George Darrell, who is now playing

it in West Australia.

Two of the most popular threepenny monthlies are-sard to be losing money so rapidly that their proprietors have eome to a mutual agreement to stop their publication at the end of the

present year.

The first Kipling MS. that has been offered for sale was sold in April last in a London auction room. It consisted of four folio pages of a story entitled "The Logs of Sister Ursula," and it sold for £33.,

A charge of plagiarism has been brought against Mr. Baring-Gould. According to his accuser, Mr. Gould's novel, "John Herring," published in 1883, is no more or less than an adapta-tion of Jokai's " Timar's Two Worlds." Mr. Gould's reply to this charge has not yet been published.

A first folio Shakespeare has been sold at Christie's for the record price of £1,700. The biddings commenced at £100 and rose rapidly to £1,000, at which stage only two competitors wero loft in the contest. It is said that this price is likely to remain the record for

some time.

Tolstoi's new novel, which is now appearing serially^ and which is called , "Resurrection," is a story dealing

with the redemption of a woman with

a past.

The two great Now York publishing companies, the Harpers and McClures, are about to amalgamate in the produc-tion of magazines and other enter-prises.

The Only Way, which is a dramatisa-tion of Dickens s " Tale of Two Cities," by Mr. Freeman Wills, has attained its hundredth performance at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, London.

Mr. Joseph Hatton has been engaged with an Anglo-Spanish romance which deals with the most exciting days of Elizabeth, aud tells for the first time tho life story of Sir Walter Raleigh. It will be published under the title of " The White King of Manoa."

Colonel R. Savage's new novel, " The Hacienda on the Hill," will be published shortly by Messrs. Rou Hedge.

In Mr. Firth Scott's book, "The Romance of Australian Exploring," the annals of Australian exploration are arranged clearly and in an entertaining fashion. The chapters consist largely of extracts from journals of the explorers whose adventures they narrate. The book is well furnished with maps and illustrations. Mr. Firth Scott was for a while on The Mercury staff.

The new "Life of Wellington," which Sir H. Maxwell is writing for Messrs. Low ik Co., will form a companion volume to Captain Mahan's "Life of Nelson," published by the same firm, and just re-issued in one volume form.

A small volume of poems, by J. Hobblethwaite, of Tasmania, is an-nouncer! for immediate publication by the Bulletin Newspapor Co.

In the Pall Mall Magazine for August there is a highly interesting article on tho Queen's private apart' ments at Windsor Castle, illustrated

from special photographs, while two articles on the America of to-day, Mr. William Archer's North and South, and Professor Lembroso's "Epidemic of Kisses " are also worthy of note. The internal life and doings of the Punch ' office, past and present, are still amus-ing, as told by Mr. Buinand.

"Health Exercises," one of tho latest publications by Mr. James Bowden, of London, is a eapital little handbook showing how to train, strengthen, and dovelop the body in tho home without the use of dumb bolls or any other appliances. The author is Hartvi/ Nissen, instructor in gymnastics of Harvard University, and director of physical training at Boston Public School, and the book is illustrated with a number of photographs.

" The House by the Lock " is one of the latest additions to Bowden's Colonial Library, and "The Dilemma of Commander Brett " is another novel from the same publishing house, the authors respectively being Mrs. C. N. Williamson and Weatherby Chesney. Both are of the ultra-sensational ordor, dealing with crime in its most exciting phases.

Another consignment of Heinemann's new eighteenpenny issue of popular novels shows what a wealthy store of good matter the firm have for such a series of republications Foremost, per-haps, should be placed out of this collection, the fine story "St. Ives," the adventures of a French prisoner in England, which Mr. R. Louis Steven-son nearly compiled in his last illness, his stepdaughter, Mrs. Strong, acting as his amanuensis, and which was finished by Mr. Quiller Couch, after

Mr. btevenson's decease. Air. R Buchanan's "Come live with me and be my love," is another special story, special because of its graphic practical treatment of the episodes of country life, a fitting companion being "Nor wife, Nor Maid," by Mrs. Hungerford, also one of the emotional, iiomely description, with Bmart depiction of character and scenic accessories. " The Fourth Napoleon," by Mr. Charles Benham, is a finely treated romance, based upon the all too short career of the young son of the Empress Eugenie.

This library oiïfers a splendid oppor-tunity of getting first-class reading for a very slight expenditure.

_ A hand-book, which should be found . in every family of children, has just

been published by Messrs. George Robertson & Co. (Hobart. T. L. Hood) from the pen of Dr. Muakett,of Sydney. It deals with the diet of Australian school children, their treatment in health and disease during Behool life, '.LïV , - I nd with the subjoot of technical ¿du

ÖäaSjt?,,.rii.

cation. The w ork cannot fail to prove j most useful to principals of boin ding j schools, as it specially treats on the I subject of dieting child ton in such! establishments. j