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United States, provided their projectors have capital enough to give them a fair start. Whether the Illustrated American, the most notable venture of recent years in the illustrated periodical field, will win permanent success is an interesting question. That it deserves adequate support no one who has ever seen its handsomely illustrated pages will deny, but the cost of producing a weekly paper of such excellence must be very great, and the subscription price is necessarily so high that the magazine is beyond the reach of many. The most costly periodical ever published in the United States, the American edition of L'Art et les Lettres, the subscription price of which was seventy-two dollars a year, had to be discontinued for lack of support. The Transatlantic, started in Boston under favorable auspices, was a financial failure. There are enough rich people in America to support highclass magazines; but their tastes do not always lead them to spend their money in that direction. For the credit of the country, it is to be hoped that the experiment of publishing the Illustrated American may succeed. It is said, however, that nearly a quarter of a million of dollars has been spent already in the enterprise.

The fact that Mr. Howells is to publish one of his new novels next year for the first time in the columns of the New York Sun marks an epoch in American literature. Whatever his detractors may say, it must be acknowledged that Howells occupies the leading place among American novelists to-day. His acceptance of the newspaper offer for his next book shows that the newspaper was able to outbid the regular publishers, for, of course, the author sold his story where he could get the highest price. When a newspaper- of course relying upon the coöperation of other newspapers connected with it by the syndicate plan is enabled to offer to the leading American novelist a better price for his work than the largest publishing house in the country is willing to give, it is evident that a new era in literature has begun. The newspapers will give to Mr. Howells a larger audience than he could secure through the magazines, and his story will have as great

Some people have expressed surprise that it was possible for Mr. Howells to sell his story to the Sun, since it was generally understood when his much-talked-of contract with the Harpers was made, several years ago, that everything he might write henceforth was to become the property of Harper & Brothers. Contrary to the general impression, the contract which was made at that time was an annual one, and although it has been renewed from year to year, the conditions have not remained unchanged. The Harpers are shrewd business men, -as the recent publication of facts about their dealings with Rudyard Kipling shows, but, as the same facts also show, they are not always far-sighted in their transactions with authors. To outsiders it certainly seems strange that when it was possible for them to secure the exclusive services of so popular a writer as Mr. Howells they did not think it best to secure them for more than a twelvemonth at a time.

The fact that the King of the Sandwich Islands has ready for publication a new book, upon which he has been engaged for several years, should certainly excite the interest of some American publisher. The royal gentleman is already the author of one published work, entitled "Legends of Hawaii," in preparing which he collaborated with ex-Minister Daggett. His new book is entitled "The Temple of Wisdom," and is said to be of a religious nature, aiming to show incidentally that "all things have their origin in fire, and will end in fire." Certainly, a great many manuscripts, quite as valuable as that of King Kalakaua is likely to be, begin in the fire of enthusiasm and end in the fire, — when they have come back too many times to their discouraged authors, because publishers in these latter days have so

little appreciation of what in literature is really and truly good.

When one considers how many earnest authors there are struggling vainly for means to get their thoughts before the reading public, it seems especially deplorable that so much money should be wasted by the government in printing valueless documents every year. This year the deficit in the accounts of the government printing office, due to the extravagant publication of black-bound books, counts up among the millions, and it is safe to say that enough money has been uselessly spent in printing uninteresting facts and figures to give at least a thousand American authors a chance for fame. The value of the books published at great expense by the government and sent out by congressmen to burden the country's mails is illustrated by the fact that a Massachusetts state senator recently made a savory bonfire in his backyard of 300 or 400 volumes which a paternal government had forced upon him, and which only cumbered up his house. When the brains of impecunious young writers are teeming with ideas that they know will interest the world, it seems shameful that public money should be wasted in publishing books which are burned because their value, even to the junk-man, is so absurdly small.

such instruction is not worth to him the money value of his article, it is time for him to begin to insist on being paid. — w. H. H.]

(1.) Will you please define strictly the work of an แ editor," 66 editor-in-chief," "managing editor," and "business manager"? Can one of these do the work of all?

(2.) When books and pamphlets are sent to an editor for review or "editorial notice," by what means is he able to pass the usually high opinion on them so soon afterward, seeing that it is impossible for him to have read through so much literature in the given time?

(3.) Since almost every branch of industry and profession is being reduced to a systematic school of its peculiar kind, what objection could be raised to a school of journalism?

66

J. A. B.

[(1.) On a large daily paper the editor-inchief has control of everybody on the editorial and reporting staff and directs the policy of the paper, though he may do little writing; the managing editor is his lieutenant, and carries out the ideas of the editor-in-chief, acting more or less independently, as the case may be; an editor" may mean either one of the men who write editorials, or one of the men who edit the copy of reporters and other writers; the business manager has charge of the business department, devoting his time mainly to matters of advertising and circulation. On small papers, one man can do the work of all, but he will have to sit up nights.

(2.) An expert book-reviewer does not need to read a book thoroughly in order to describe it sufficiently for his purpose. Most newspaper book reviews are mere descriptions, and not criticisms, and such notices can be written quickly by one who has had experience and has the necessary ability. When a publisher sends in a book of sufficient importance to deserve a careful criticism, either the editor takes time to read it, or he delegates the work to somebody else. There are a few papers that always give careful reviews of the books they notice, but their number is very small.

(3.) The establishment of a genuine school of journalism is not only possible, but most desirable. The experiment has never had a proper trial in this country, although there are one or two schools in which some instruction i

(1.) How long after the appearance in print of an article is one expected patiently to await remuneration from a publisher who professes to "pay on publication "?

(2.) What course do you advise in the following case? Months and months ago a manuscript was submitted to the eminent editor of a reputable periodical, with stamps for return if unavailable. But thus far the author's utmost efforts to hear pro or con have only elicited a printed circular of an admirable book written by the said editor, — and already in the author's possession, - proving that he still lives. Is it within the bounds of possibility that "patient waiting" will bring "no loss"?

(3.) Suppose we do distinctly state that we expect remuneration for articles which are subsequently used and not paid for, is there any redress?

(4.) Is there such a thing as a directory of periodicals, giving simply name and address; and, if so, how is it obtainable, and at what cost? H. A. ST.

[(1.) Most editors who "pay on publication" pay within thirty days from the time when the article is published. Some editors pay quarterly.

(2.) In such a case as that described the author has no option but to withdraw his article or await the pleasure of the editor.

(3.) There is the same redress in case an editor uses without payment an article distinctly offered to him for sale as there is in case a grocer fails to pay for butter sent to him by a farmer for sale, and added to his stock.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FICTION IN LITERATURE. By Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. 226 pp. Cloth, $1.50. New York: Longmans, Green, & Company. 1890.

Having established the proposition that the prime requisite of a novel is that it shall interest, Mr. Thompson proceeds to make the inquiry: "What are the things that interest? What does interest mean? And what are its bearings upon human life and happiness?" He finds that interest is only another name for pleasure derived from the reading, that the source of such pleasure may be aesthetic, scien

tific, or moral, and that the three may contribute to the general effect in varying proportions. He notes that fiction is a representation of human experience, or that of beings with like faculties to those of men, and proceeds to answer the question : "Is not that the most interesting and the most perfect work which most exactly and accurately reproduces a section of such experience as it actually covers?" After showing that "naturalism," if adopted as the growing theory of novelistic construction, would annihilate creative power, he goes on to show that whatever interests people in real life holds their attention in fiction. Since the things of contemporaneous interest principally occupy men's minds, moulding their thoughts and governing their feelings, that story will have the most readers which embodies and reproduces some phase of current life. For like reasons, portraitures of universal traits in human character attract and hold the attention. And if there be in the minds of people generally an underlying thought or belief struggling for expression, the novelist who understands and brings it out is sure of success. Having reached these conclusions, Mr. Thompson proceeds to discuss at length the question: "Should everything that is interesting to anybody be made the subject of the constructive writer's art?" especially defending, within proper limitations, what is known as "erotic fiction." The succeeding chapter on "The Construction of a Work of Fiction" is too general to be of much practical use to writers, and, indeed, it may be said of the whole book that it is more of theoretical than of practical value. Any fiction writer, however, will find it to be well worth a careful reading. W. H. H.

incident crowded on incident, and adventure on adventure, giving it an air of improbability, and that in a certain scene "probability was strained to the snapping point." Singularly enough, the scene is almost a piece of pure realism, the incident being taken from a ship's log in the port of Boston, indeed, the most of the incidents were rather "write-ups" than imaginative. Still another gentleman kindly warned me that the tendency of young authors to moralizing was to be deprecated, and that there was a lack in the story of that continued adventure and incident which pleased boys. Another critic thought the two boys of the story had too much of adventure to be probable, and that I might take into account the fact that boys like to read of men as well as of lads. Lastly, came the Philadelphia Saul among the prophets, who, regretting that the manuscript was not meat for him, suggested that the boys of the story were not sufficiently prominent in the work. Perhaps the most notable criticism, however, was that the work was interesting, but did not "come within the scope" of another publication. It was too long, and, even if it were cut, could not reach "the scope." So it was returned, and I vainly seek the scope."

Now, this is all very queer in its way. My former experience, that what was the New York man's meat was the Philadelphia man's indigestion, led me to despair of pleasing any among the guild of publishers, or of attempting to guide myself by their criticism; and I decided that as the story does not eat anything, and is not necessary as a pot-boiler, it can lie in my desk drawer for a short time, and go the rounds again, when another Pharaoh may rule in the different publishing houses. In the mean time, oh, young author, console yourself with the reflection that publishers' readers are, as a general rule, not much wiser than yourself, and that it is useless to expect to guide your course by the suggestions of those who read so much that they are incapable often of passing clear judgment on the merits of a manuscript, and that their verdicts, though fatal to the chances of publication, are of little value as to true merit. Luckily, I can afford to laugh at my experience, but there must be many to whom this battledoor and shuttlecock game of criticism is an intolerable impertinence and a painful disappointment.

BOSTON, Mass.

George B. Perry.