Z72



THE LITERARY NEWS.



\;December, 1903



Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson. This
is Thomas E. Watson's third historical work,
and possesses in marked degree the quaUties
of vitality, originality and insight that have
given his "History of France" and his "Biog-
raphy of Napoleon" permanent reputation.
He sees in Jefferson not only the founder of
the Democratic party, but the exponent of
democratic principles and the guiding influ-
ence in the shaping of our institutions, and
his presentation of Jefferson's personality and
career is forceful and graphic, so that in point
of view and in form of treatment the book is
an important contribution to American biog-
raphy. Biography and memoirs find enrich-
ment in several other volumes. (Appleton.
il. net, $2.50.)

D. Appleton & Co.'s Successful Fiction.
In fiction a book of universal power is oft'ered
in Miss Anna McClure StoU's first novel, The
Law of Life. This is a study of life at an
American university, thinly disguised, dealing
with the problem of commercialism in educa-
tion and with a love story of strong and
absorbing emotion. It touches vital questions
with power and artistic skill and is a notable
addition to the year's fiction. Very delightful
is Frank Stockton's last novel, The Captain's
T oil-Gate, completed just before his death
and posthumously published. It is full of the
quaint charm and peculiar humor characteris-
tic of this loved story-teller, and is accom-
panied by a memorial sketch of the author by
his wife. In addition to the regular edition
there is a large-paper edition with autograph
portrait. Other novels that claim the atten-
tion of the Christmas bookbuyer are Arthur
Stringer's The Silver Poppy, with its striking
pictures of present-day literary New York ;
Place and Power, a dramatic story of ret-
ributive justice, by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowl-
er, full of this writer's quick humor and sat-
iric wit; and four striking short stories by
Mrs. Everard Cotes, called from the title




From "Life of Thomas Jefferson." Copyright, 1903, by
D. Appleton & Co.



THOMAS E. WATSON.



Story of Indian life, The Pool in the Desert.
The Chasm, by Reginald Wright Kauffmann
and E. C. Carpenter, has the political boss as
main character, and writes a story of machine
politics in which the boss's son does the
work of reform; Butternut Jones, by Tilden
Tilford, is a spirited Texan story with fine
pervasive humor; and a wholly delightful
novel is Mamselle FiUne, by Eleanor Atkin-
son, of which the girlhood days of the Em-
press Josephine furnish the subject. (Apple-
ton, ea. $1.50.)

Admiral Porter. When Admiral Porter
died in 1891, the office of Admiral died with
him, to be revived eight years later by Com-
modore, now Admiral, Dewey. No man of
his times, says' The Outlook, seemed to
unite those qualities which go to make a great
naval commander more remarkably than did
Porter. These were most patently shown, it
seems to us and we judge also to Mr. Soley
in the splendid work of preserving the com-
munications on the Mississippi and its tribu-
taries during the Civil War, keeping those
rivers as secure highways through the en-
emy's country. Still, as Mr. Soley admits,
Porter never attained his true place in popu-
lar esteem until after the fall of Fort Fisher.
Then he was justly acclaimed as a great
leader ^even so careful a judge as was Gen-
eral Grant thought him on a par with Lord
Nelson. It seems strange, therefore, that up
to the present Admiral Porter's life has not
been written. Few men have stood in great-
er need than he of adequate treatment in a
popular book. That need is now supplied by
Mr. Soley's biography, to which he brings
much special knowwledge acquired while he
was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. This
book is one of The Great Commanders Series.
(Appleton. net, $1.50.)

Applied Christianity and Miscellaneous
Books. Hugh Black has turned upon the
gospel of Work that rare insight which has
made his "Friendship" so deservedly popular.
His broad, deep, optimistic view of life is in-
spiring in the highest degree. The book is
gotten out uniform with "Friendship," with
illuminated borders and attractively festal
covers ($1.50). In the same line of ethical
encouragement is The Ballads of Valor and
l^ictory, compiled by Clinton Scollard and
Wallace Rice, to insure the preservation of
about fifty ballads of noble deeds of valor and
mighty victories, that are so dangerously
fugitive in the columns of our newspapers
(net, $1). Equally uplifting and suggestive
is The Natural Way in Moral Things, by
Patterson Du Bois, showing how the laws of
soul-nurture parallel those of bodily nutri-
tion, and how they should be applied in the
spiritual hygiene of character growing
($1.25). To anybody's shelf of Stevenson
must be added The Faith of Robert Louis
Stevenson, by John Kelmann, a distinct con-
tribution to a subject of unfailing interest,
presenting a powerful picture of this brave
man, true, earnest, humble, child-like, loving,
dauntless and eager, and with it all a sufferer
of physical pain such as falls to the share of
few mortals. ($1.50.)



December, 1903]



CHRISTMAS NUMBER.



373




From " Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti." Copyright, 1903, by G. P. Putnam's Suns.

THE SALUTATION OF BEATRICE.



Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Poems. In Ros-
setti's poems and pictures are revealed quali-
ties least in evidence to the casual eye in his
personality the romantic temper which sees
even in common events the essential and un-
derlying mystery, the passion for beauty in
the human face and in the color and texture
of flowers and stuffs and ornaments, the
overpowering sense of the beauty and holiness
of human affections, the profound conviction
that personal happiness is only to be achieved
through these affections. In presenting the
new edition of Rossetti's Poems Miss Eliza-
beth Luther Gary has added notes and intro-
ductions, which will be found of service in
arriving at a better understanding of Ros-
setti's work. The 32 superb illustrations, re-
produced' in photogravure, are from designs
which Rossetti himself made to illustrate the
poems. (Putnam. 2 v., net, $6.50.)

G. P. Putnam's Holiday Books. These
publishers bring their generous offering of
literature to the Christmas table. There is
an extra illustrated edition of "Old Court Life
in France," by Francis Elliot, with 60 photo-
gravure and other illustrations, a work
charming in manner that carries with it the
impress of accuracy and careful investigation.
(2 v., net, $5.) The Art of the Italian
Renaissance, by Heinrich Wolfflin, of the Uni-
versity of Munich, also profusely illustrated,
is designed as a handbook for students and
all lovers of Renaissance art. ($2.25.) An
exquisite little volume of the Odes of Ana-
creon, as translated by Thomas Moore, is
embellished with the very famous Girodet
de Roussy illustrations ; and Christian, a
little poem of mediaeval times by Katrina
Trask, has illustrations in photogravure after
designs by Richard Newton, Jr. (net, $1.25.)
Elbert Hubbard's Little Journeys appeal to a
large circle of readers, and there is certain



to be a warm welcome for Ltttle Journeys to
the Homes of English Authors and Little
Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians,
which "are just made for gift-books, (ea.,
$2.50.) Bridge whist holds its own as the
most popular card game of the day, and play-
ers are trying hard to become really good
partners. For them the new "Badsworth On
Bridge" is specially suitable. It is a condensa-
tion of Badsworth's former book, and gives
cases which uphold the principles already laid
down founded on 2000 recorded games, with
illustrating hands printed in colors. Fiction
makes the widest appeal to the great mass of
readers, and unusually good fiction is pro-
vided in the books of Myrtle Reed, who also
has made her mark as a compiler and a writer
of songs. The Shadow of Victory is a ro-
mance of Fort Dearborn, Chicago, in the War
of 1812, an astonishingly vigorous story told
with strength and sweetness ($i.20-$2) ;
"Lavender and Old Lace" is full of fancy
tenderness and delightful humor ($1.50-
$3-5o) ; and "The Spinster Book" is a gem in
artistic setting. ($i.50-$2.50.) Her two vol-
umes of "Love Letters of a Musician" and
"Later Love Letters of a Musician" must also
be remembered in choosing books for musical
friends.

Pickaback Songs. This pretty book has
words, music and pictures by Myrtle Reed,
Eva Curzon Hart and Ike Morgan, respec-
tively. This is another one of the big colored
picture books, the best part of the book being
the way in which the picture spread around
the rhymes out into the margins and over the
inside cover pages and fly leaves. They cut
into the text as well, and one whole page of
rhymes is read through a shadow lady. The
words are set to music, and one page in every
two is devoted to this. Will become very dear
to the recipients. (Putnam. $1.50.)



374



THE LITERARY NEWS.



[Vecember, 1903



Fleming H. Revell Company's Fiction.
This house has been most fortunate in get-
ting hold of novels of great merit, and all the
world loves a novel. On the Road to Arcady,
by Mabel Nelson Thurston, is a romance that
sparkles with wit and humor and is full of
the delicate imagery of an enthusiastic na-
ture lover. It is handsomely illustrated with
marginal sketches, printed carefully, and is
artistically bound. One can feel certain of
the beauty ajid moral value of any story Mar-
garet Sangster tells, and Eleanor Lee, the
story of a loving woman who saves a weak
husband through faith and untiring devotion,
is fully up even to this author's high standard
($1.50) ; and a truly delightful book for a
book-worshipper is The Bondage of Bollinger,
by Roswell Field, brother of Eugene Field,
who tells of a dear old New Englander whose
absorbing passion leads him into many a
trouble. His great favorite was the young
daughter of a wealthy merchant, and when
she knows he is in great financial trouble she
devises a plan by which her father can help
out the old bibliophile ($1.25). Sons of Ven-
geance is a tale of the Cumberland Highland-
ers by Jos. S. Malone, who describes these
long-suffering people, haunted by poverty,
hunted by excise marshals and embroiled in
constant feuds that often do not stop short of
bloodshed. ($1.50.)

Other Lands Than Ours. Have you a
friend who likes to hear of other lands than
ours, give him Evolution of the Japanese,
Social and Psychic, by Sidney L. Gulick, who
lived long among the people he describes
($2) ; or To-day in Syria and Palestine, a
book by the experienced traveller, William
Eleroy Curtis, uniform with "The Turk and
His Lost Provinces" ($2) ; or The New Era
in the Philippines, by Arthur J. Brown, a vig-
orous statement of the conditions and needs
of our new possessions written from personal
observation. (Revell. $1.25.)

Houghton, MiMin & Co.'s Fiction. Special-
ly good novels have been on the Houghton
list this year and are all available for Christ-
mas gifts. Success in business and in love is
the keynote of Will Payne's Mr. Salt. The
scene is laid mostly in Chicago. The Little
Chevalier, by Mrs. M. E. M. Davis, illus-
frated by Henry J. Peck, is a story of the
French regime in New Orleans during the
early eighteenth century, written in the best
manner of the author of "Under the Man-
Fig" and "The Queen's Garden." John Ken-
adie is a novel of Arkansas by Ripley Dunlap
Saunders ; C. Hanford Henderson's John
Percyiield has its scene partly in Switzerland
and partly in America, and is full of genuine
cheer and humor ; woman suffrage is the theme
of Leslie Chilton, by Eliza Orne White; The
Pine Grove House, by Ruth Hall, presents a
realistic picture of American hotel summer
life; and labor troubles in the coal regions
furnish the subject of The Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, by Guy Wetmore Carryl. Among the
great successes of the year were Captain Sim-
eon's Store, by George S. Wasson (ea.,
$1.50), and The Log of a Cowboy, by Andy
Adams. ($1.)



New Fortunes. No one can read unmoved
this fascinating story of a girl's great faith in
a wayward brother, her courageous facing of
untried fortunes in a Western mining camp,
and the heroism by which she saves the little
community of which she has become the fav-
orite. The book is full of incident, from
camping in the mountains and killing bears,
to the problem of gardening under difficulties
in the land of the ubiquitous gopher. Miss
Earle knows the West thoroughly, and her
story will recall the charm of Mrs. Mary Hal-
lock Foote's heroines, in that her girl does
not lose, among the more robust surroundings
of her new life, the refinements of an eastern
training nor her girlish grace. This is told
with so much spirit and vivacity, that it will
be welcomed by every girl and boy who is in
sympathy with the spirit of real heroism and
loyalty. It is a fresh, strong, thoroughly
American story, in which East and West
meet. (Barnes. $1.25.)

The Circle In the Square. As the work of
an entirely new author, this novel by Baldwin
Sears will attract immediate attention for its
remarkable literary quality and its compre-
hensive grasp of a broad social and political
motive. Though it is primarily the story of
two people, it portrays a whole community
with the utmost vividness and reality, and the
many figures move through it with assured
purpose as inevitably as in the novels of Mrs.
Humphrey Ward. It is a great novel, domi-
nated by a love story of unusual beauty and
force, and its successfully sustained argument
that one man's brave life, nobly and sincerely
lived up to its highest possibilities, may
change the outlook of a community sunk deep
in its own despair, would be enough in itself
to make the book noteworthy. The political
position may invite contradiction, but there
can be no question of the great sincerity and
power of the novel and of the appeal which
the story makes for a sympathetic understand-
ing of life as it is to-day in a Southern town.
(Barnes. $1.50.)

Tennessee Todd. This is a story of G. W.
Ogden dealing with that fight between the
steamboat and the railroad, between the old
order and the new, between the men who had
carried on an inherited warfare with the
treacherous stream until they had become its
controllers, whose lives were centered in its
splendid commerce, and the new men which
the inevitable advance of commerce brought
with capital and brains and craft to usurp the
power and break the pride of the men of
the Mississippi. Tennessee is a remark-
able figure. Simple, unsophisticated, of strict
business integrity, but unscrupulous in affairs
of the heart. While a picturesque love story
runs through this remarkable novel, it also
presents a great drama, too vast for any coun-
try but America to have produced, preserved,
while those who took part in the struggle are
still alive to verify the chronicle of the heroic
war for existence of a commerce whose re-
treat was sounded when the first gun was
fired at Fort Sumter, and the armies, sweep-
ing over the land, left behind them the rail-
roads. (Barnes. $1.50.)



December, 1903]



CHRISTMAS NUMBER.



375



The Hill-Tozvns of Italy. A narrative is
here given of a journey through Central Italy
by Egerton R. Williams, Jr., with visits to the
hill towns of especial interest to students of
art and history. This region, the birthplace
of the Renaissance, wonderfully picturesque
with rocky eminences, cliffs, deep ravines, and
feudal castles, with a wealth of Roman,
Etruscan, and mediaeval monuments, has here-
tofore been strangely neglected by travellers



Friendship and Self Reliance. Emerson's
classic essavs are made into two holiday gift
books. Beautifully printed on fine pure white
paper in a rich red and jet black, with in-
dented frontispiece portrait of Ralph Waldo
Emerson in each volume, and bound in full
limp suede leather, assorted colors, and boxed.
Had Mr. Emerson never written anything else
than these two essays his fame would have
been assured. (Biddle. ea., $1.25.)




(;;,r.ien .Mosaics." Copyii-ht, ino:;. l.y 1). Apiiletoii & Ci

THIS PORCH WAS OF GREAT BEAUTY.



and writers, probably on account of the inac-
cessibility of these hill towns, their lack of
modern comforts, and the necessity for a
knowledge of Italian in visiting them. Mr.
Williams's book occupies, therefore, what is
virtually a new field, and this fact, together
with his happy faculty of description, makes
the volume one of unusual interest to all
intelligent readers. The illustrations, thirty-
six in number, from photographs by the au-
thor and others, form a really remarkable
series of pictures, which will be, to most per-
son.s, a positive revelation of the beauties of
this picturesque country. A map is also fur-
nished. (Houghton, M. & Co. net, $3.)



Out of a Fleur-de-Lis. This is "the his-
tory, romance and biography" of the great
exposition to be held at St. Louis next year in
commemoration of the Louisiana Purchase.
In accord with the idea expressed in the title
the volume is divided into three parts, and
shows what has issued from the fleur-de-lis,
that floral symbol of France. In the first is
given a brief history of the Louisiana Terri-
tory from its purchase by our government to
the present day ; the second is a record of the
development and the features of the great ex-
position in ingenious narrative form; and the
third part gives biographical sketches of those
identified with the enterprise. ($1.50.)



376



THE LITERARY NEWS.



[December, 1903



McClure, Phillips & Co.'s Fiction. These
publishers have been most fortunate in the
success of their recent novels, any one of
which would make a most acceptable Christ-
mas gift. The authors' names alone should be
"open sesame" to every purse, and the best
authorities vouch that their work is better
than ever. Stanley Weyman has written The
Long Night, set in Geneva in the troubled days
of the seventeenth century; Conan Doyle
thrills his readers with The Adventures of
Gerard, a brigadier in Napoleon's army; and
Henry Seton Merriman also takes a hero of
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow for his
Barlasch of the Guard. George Ade's In
Babel contains short stories of Chicago; in
The Master Rogue David Graham Phillips
makes a study of the tyranny of wealth ; and
Joseph Conrad and Gelett Burgess have new
volumes of short stories, one called Falk, the
other The RHgn of Queen Isyl. (McClure.
ea. $1.50.)

Drexel Biddle's Holiday Books. Mytholog-
ical lapan, by A. F. Otto and T. S. Holbrook,
illustrated with seventeen full-page plates in
color, numerous panels in lacquer, and illus-
trations of oriental bronzes and porcelains.
The popular edition is in grass cloth, and
there is also a very handsome edition de luxe
in Japanese Shikii silk binding. ($5-$l2.50.)
Peggy O'Neal, by Alfred Henry Lewis, is a
historical novel of social intrigue and politics
in Washington under the presidency of Presi-
dent Jackson. ($1.50.) This was one of the
big sellers of the year. Her Lord and Mas-
ter, by Martha Morton, is an international
romance, with a stunning Western girl called
Indiana Stillwater. (Biddle. $1.50.)

Bayard Taylor's Story of Kennett. So The
Story of Kennett once more seeks readers.
Mr. Howells called it the best historical novel
ever written in America, and Whitti^r said
that it contained "as good things as there are
in the English language;" it anticipated by
six years Reade's brilliant description of a
ride to escape a flood, and it holds its place
as a popular favorite in spite of the social and
national changes that separate the United
States of 1903 from the United States of 1866
by a gulf far wider than that which lay be-
tween the Kennett of 1796 and the author
who made it classic ground. It is a new edi-
tion in new dress with eighteen illustrations.
(Putnam. $1.50.)



G. P. Putnam's Books in Series. To "Our
European Neighbors" has been added Aus-
trian Life in Town and Country, by H. E.
Palmer; and Turkish Life in Town and Coun-
try, by L. M. J. Garnett. (il. ea., net, $1.20.)
A new series of six volumes is offered in
Little French Masterpieces, edited by Alex-
ander Jessup, with the translations made by
George Burnham Ives, of the selected gems of
Merimee, Flaubert, Gautier, Daudet, Mau-
passant and Balzac (6 v., ea., $1; $1.25.)
To Heroes of the Nations has been added
Augustus Cccsar, by J. B. Firth ; and to the
Story of the Nations series The South Ameri-
can Republics, by Thomas C. Dawson ; and
Parliamentary England, by Edward Jenks.
(ea., $1.35; $1.60.)

Old Paths and Legends of New England.
"Miss Katherine M. Abbott displays in this
volume no little literary skill," says The Na-
tion, "and possesses the gift of lending,
through the power of happy description, a
new charm to scenes long familiar to the
reader. The text is animated and entertain-
ing, and preserves a due regard for historical
accuracy." "The pages are full, rich, and
racy, and reflect great credit on the author,"
says the Pittsburgh Gazette. "The illustra-
tions bear evidence of the splendid work done
by the camera." "A fascinating volume which
should be taken possession of by every one
who loves to prowl and idle in corners of the
outdoor world." (Putnam, net, $3.50.)

Writings and Letters of Charles and Mary
Lamb. G. P. Putnam's Sons have a publica-
tion of particular importance in a new edition
of the Writings and Letters of Charles and
Mary Lamb, edited by E. V. Lucas. This
edition of Lamb is unique in many respects.
It is the first edition to include Lamb's "Dra-
matic Specimens ;" the first to print several
thousand words of new and authentic mate-
rial, both in prose and verse; the first to com-
prise in one volume all the children's books
of Charles and Mary Lamb, including "The
King and Queen of Hearts," discovered by
Mr. Lucas in 1901 ; the first to reproduce all
the original illustrations to the Lambs' works,
and to give facsimile title-pages. It is the
first also to add to the notes such pictures as
are called for by the text; thus, in the case
of Lamb's essay, "On the Genius of Ho-
garth," the plates especially praised by Lamb
are reproduced for consultation with the es-
say. (7 v., ea., net, $2.25.)




From ** Kings and Qweens.



Copyright, 1903, by Mi:CIure, Phillips & Co.



'December, 1903]



CHRISTMAS NUMBER.



377




From " Baby Days.'*



Copyright, 1908, by The Century Co.



THE LITTLE DUTCH MILKMAN.



QSoofte for TJoung (pec:pfe.



Lee & Shepard's Books for Young People.
The house that gave the boys and girls
Oliver Optic's books knows just what chil-
dren want, and this year supplies generous
quantity of quality rich and rare. Laurel
Leaves for Little Folk is edited, illustrated
and decorated by Mary E. Phillips, who gath-
ers choice gems from Eugene Field, James
Whitcomb Riley, Mary Mapes Dodge, Ed-
ward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Hig-
ginson and other friends of childhood, and
illuminates them with pictures of artistic
merit. The book is beautifully printed and
bound. ($2.50.) Following the Ball is an up-
to-date story of American boarding-school
life by A. T. Dudley, illustrated by Charles
Copeland, full of football and athletics of all
kinds, but making for many other kinds of
manliness besides a record of sports. ($1.)
Winifred's Neighbors, by Nina Rhoades, au-
thor of "The Little Girl Next Door," which
has been more popular than any of last sea-
son's books, is fully up to her former story
in true merit (80 c.) ; The Frolicsome Four,
by Edith L. and Ariadne Gilbert, illustrated
by Josephine Bruce, tells of two brothers and
two sisters, noble in character and enthusi-
astic in play, full of jolly ideas and generally
delightft'l in every way (80 c.) ; and Joy
Bells, by Sophie May, is a new Quinnehasset
story, and every girl will hear of it and is al-
ready hoping that she will find it among her
remembrances from Santa Glaus. ($1.) A
storj' in true harmony with the season is The
Surprising Adventures of the Man in the
Moon, ;3y Ray M. . Steward, with full-page
illustrations in color by L. J. Bridgman. The
man in the moon takes the children on a tour



through the air acompanied by Santa Glaus,
Robinson Grusoe, Ginderella, Old Mother
Hubbard, Tommy Tucker and all the mythi-
cal favorites of childhood, and gives them a
continuous show. ($1.)

The Century Company's Books for Boys and
Girls. One of the most popular juvenile books
ever issued was Baby Days, compiled by Mary