... London, June 17th, 1903. In the whole history of literature I know of no case more mournful than the opening up once again of the domestic affairs of Thomas Carlyle. Twenty years ago such a discussion was inevitable; Carlyle had died in a halo of sanctity, the feeling for him on the part of an enormous audience being one of wild enthusiasm. Only those of us who were very young at the time and ...

... London, February 25th, 1903. It is good news that Mr. Augustine Birrell is about to write a Life of Andrew Marvell for the Eng lish Men of Letters series. A brief biography of Andrew Marvell is certainly very much needed, and I think Mr. Birrell possesses precisely the order of mind that will produce a beautiful book, a far better book than he has given us in his previous biographical ...

... London. October 30th, 1901. I had an exceedingly personal reason for visiting St. Ives on the occasion of the unveiling of the Cromwell statue. The fact can necessarily interest no one but myself that I have boyish and long family association with that quiet little town on the Ouse. I cannot, however, help a certain measure of peculiar interest in the treatment of the unveiling ceremony by the ...

... A LITERARY LETTER Every Pnalblislhes Haas Owes IReviiewos0 SfiaeMey8 Lefties*, London, Sept. 13, 1909. I have often in sisted that the ordinary perfunc tory reviewing of books is an abso lute waste of space on the part of newspapers, and a waste of paper and bind ing on the part of publishers who send their books for review. Some of us will read a signed review of a novel in order to try and ...

... London, April 22nd, 1903. A correspondent in Marlow sends me a very interest ing if somewhat gruesome photograph. This is of the so-called incorruptible hand of St. James. At the present moment the Roman Catholic Church is engaged in examining the authenticity of this hand, for if sufficient evidence be forthcoming it is proposed to remove it from St. Peter's, Great Marlow, where it now is, ...

... . London, Sept. 25, 1907. I once saw the statement made by a writer in The Times news paper that with the personality of authors literature had nothing to do. As a matter ot tact tne excellent Literary supplement to 1 lie 1 lines frequently gives one quite entertaining sidelights 011 the personality of authors even of living authors. I presume that not even The Times critic would say that ...

... London, August 5th, 1903. There have now been no fewer than three separate editions of the letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple. The first of these we owe to Judge Parry, and it appeared in 1888. The second was edited by Mr. Israel Gollancz under circumstances which have raised much discussion quite recently, a discussion which it is not desirable to revive. The third edition of ...

... London, September 23rd, 1903. Mr. Henry Bumpus, who recently opened a very fine book shop in Holborn-- almost in the same place where his uncle carried on business for many years-- has just begun to reissue a very handsome book. This is the famous edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene that was illustrated by Mr. Walter Crane and edited by Mr. Thomas J. Wise. Mr. Wise's well-known enthusiasm for ...

... London, May i. 1907. We have often been told to beware of the man of one book. I equally feel an inclination to beware of the man of one newspaper. I have no politics, but in everyone of our newspapers there is much to learn, both on the social and on the literary side. On the literary side I should be sorry to miss Mr. Andrew Lang's articles in The Morning Post. Mr. Courtney's in The Daily ...

... London, March 22nd, 1905. Mr. Edward H. Cooper has long since earned the right to be considered an authority upon children in that he has written successful books which have delighted them as well as their elders-- I mean Wyemarke's Mother and Wyemarke and the Sea Fairies. A great gift of versatility is shown by him, for he has also produced successful novels dealing with the turf-- books in ...

... London, August 22nd, 1900. Although there is no possibility of ascertaining the real date of Chaucer's death, the date on the tomb in Westminster Abbey being merely traditional, it is quite sufficient for most of us to accept that date as a basis for commemorating the father of English poetry. Chaucer, we may be content to assume, died on October 25, 1400. On October 25, 1900, therefore --the ...

... A LITERARY LETTER. Mffo Aimdlrw Lannig'9 Fanry Tales-- A (Cemisos'slhinp Iby (Cosimsinii^tlee Ow Uncritical Britislh Mtiseum. London'. November 6. 1Q07. We are now in the midst of the Christmas book season as the following selection will indi cate:-- The Olive Fairy Book. By Andrew Lang. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. Longmans Tales of Troy and Greece. By Andrew Lang. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. ...