The Blue Poetry-Book.-" Mr. Andrew Lang, than whom," says the Mail and Express, "there is no better editor when the subject which he undertakes to handle is to his liking and within the range of his sympathies, has just made, under the title of The Blue Poetry-Book,' a collection of what used to be called pieces of verse for the delectation of young readers. Precisely what kind of verse is most to the taste of the ripening minds of the numerous class that he had in view is a problem about which opinions may well differ; but one thing seems certain, and that is that, while they may not like many things in verse, they do, and always will, like those which possess the human interest which attaches to stirring events and heroic actions, of which they are as good judges as their elders. Children do not, as a rule,

care for subjective poems, poems, that is, of individual reflection and meditation, but they do greatly care for objective poems-poems that take them for the time being into other lives than those they see about them, the doings of historic characters, like famous kings and valiant warriors, and the doings of imaginary creatures, like fairies, spirits, angels and so on, which are as real to them as to the poetic minds that create them. Mr. Lang's selections, of which there are about one hundred and fifty, include no living poet, but neglect no great poet of the present century, his favorites, so far as he can be said to have any, being Scott, Campbell, Byron, Burns and other spirited singers of human emotion, not forgetting Longfellow and Poe, whose claims to be represented here are not apparent, since greater American poets are not admitted. We should like to be in the place of some of the young readers of Mr. Lang's anthology, that we might have for the first time the pleasure of being moved by Drayton's Ballad of Agincourt,' Campbell's 'Mariners of England,' Scott's Young Lochinvar, Byron's Destruction of Sennacherib,' Macaulay's Battle of Naseby,' and what Coleridge calls that grand old ballad, Sir Patrick Spens.'" Handsomely printed and bound like " The Red Poetry-Book" and The Red Fairy-Book," only with the change of color called for by the title. (Longmans, G. $2.) Roberts Brothers' Dainty Books of Poetry."The Lover's Year-Book of Poetry," a collection of love poems for every day in the year, has been compiled by Horace Parker Chandler. Only one volume, covering from January to June, is thus far ready, in neat type and choice binding. ($1.25.) Jean Ingelow's "Songs of Seven have been gotten up in a popular burlesque style, which is exceedingly tempting. ($1.50.) Two series of "Emily Dickinson's Poems," edited by her friends, Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson, are put up in two delicate little volumes in white and gold binding, the second series having a preface by Mrs. Todd and an autograph letter from Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson to Mrs. Dickinson. These little volumes contain some of the choicest poetry that has seen the light for many a long day. ($1.25 and $1.50.) Ailes d'Alouette" is a little volume of couplet verses by F. W. Bourdillon, delightfully graceful and fascinating in theme and measure, a little volume that will

prove a find" to musicians in search of verse for song. It has twelve illustrations by Edmund H. Garrett, and is published both in white and gold binding, and in parchment paper. (75 c.; $1) Six little gems of books for gift purposes are Daily Strength for Daily Needs" the first series of "Emily Dickinson's Poems ;""Helen Jackson's Complete Poems;" "Susan Coolidge's Verses," "Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot," and " Sea and Shore," all bound in white half calf. (ea., $3.50.) A young man selecting for some one very dear, be she very near or very far, cannot fail to find "just the right thing" among the Roberts books.

"In his

"William

The Story of the Glittering Plain.-It is well heads of old English words and to the good to go back, if but once in a while, to the springlatest book," says The Independent, fashion of long ago in story-telling. Morris, as he did in his House of the Wolfings,' has wrought with power and Saxon sturdiness upon a tale of strong men and fair women, of love, of wandering, and of that sweet. fulness are sometimes enriched even in our day, gain wherewith steadfast honor and true faithStory of the Glittering Plain' is a marvel of notwithstanding what the realists say. the reader's heart, as earnest story-telling alword-work, and it wins a hold forthwith upon ways does.

'The

drawn thin, no straining the strings of wit to

Here is no tiresome littleness

make man's love and woman's faithfulness matters for heartless scoffing, but, instead, we find a mighty belief in tender and quenchless longings of both the flesh and the soul; all of which time-worn yet ever-welcome story of love-quest is set over against a beautiful background of a. and love-wanderings. But when all is said, here is a little work to have and to keep. five hundred copies of it are to be sold even of

Only

this American fac-simile, and it seems to have been made with a view to ready sales as well as to worth in the long hereafter; for it ends up thus: 'Here endeth the Glittering Plain,. printed by William Morris, at the Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex and finished on the 4th day of April, of the year 1891. Sold by Reeves & Turner, 196 Strand, London.' We have not the space to give our readers such a taste of this lovely book as we could wish them to have; for, even should we quote the half of it, the neat old print could not be shown, nor could the other half be guessed. Choosing our words somewhat as William Morris has chosen his, we would bid all men that are good and strong and all women that are loving and fair to read this 'Story of the Land of the Glittering Plain.'" (Roberts. $2.50.)

Parnassus by Rail.-A dainty little volume of poems by Marion Mills Miller, is entitled "Parnassus by Rail.' The book contains a number of pieces of decided merit, with some that do not seem to us quite so happy. The poem called "Songs of the Creatures of Instinct" is deserving of high praise. We doubt whether the croaking of the frogs could be better imitated by any other writer than it is in this piece. Another meritorious poem is that on "The Battle of Cannæ," the Baird prize poem of Princeton College, 1885-6. (Putnam. $1.)

A Dictionary of Thoughts." It was a happy thought on the part of Dr. Tryon Edwards, the author," says the School Journal, "to collect the choicest thoughts of the greatest thinkers of all ages in a dictionary of thoughts. There are many dictionaries of words, and they are very necessary books of reference, but such a work as this occupies scarcely a less important position in the scholar's library. There are a vast number of subjects, such as books, bores, humility, injustice, knowledge, etc., running through the whole alphabet, from upwards of sixteen hundred different persons, on which quotations of verse and prose have been made. One cannot turn over these pages without becoming convinced that the author has done his work thoroughly. The collection was begun many years ago as a matter of personal use and reference, with no thought of publication. As far back as 1852 Dr. Edwards' collection saw the light under the name of the World's Laconics.' This was so well received that the author made further collections, which we now have in this larger and much more valuable volume. Under many of the heads, such as Burning Words of Brilliant Authors' Great Thoughts from Greek Authors,' Gems of Thought,' Familiar Quotations,' Bits of Burnished Gold,' and others, there have been great possibilities which, we think, have been effectually realized. The author has not followed the beaten track, but has gone out into paths of his own selection. The result is that there is a freshness in most of the quotations here not usually discovered in works of this character. It is almost unnecessary for us to suggest ways in which the teacher could use this book in school. Suppose she wishes to impress any particular virtue on the minds of the school: she will find in this volume what the deepest minds have thought on the subject. Suppose the pupil wishes to write a composition on any subject: he will find under that heading appropriate sentences to be quoted and plenty more to set him to thinking. The book is invaluable and should have a wide circulation." (Cassell. $5.)

Walton's Complete Angler.—Of the editions of Walton now exceeding 100 which have followed the first modest volume of 1653, now one of the great prizes of collectors, some half-dozen have been published by Little, Brown & Co., who have given us the one under notice in two small 8vo volumes, with an appendix of notes and commendatory verses, and an introduction of fifty charming pages by James Russell Lowell. 'Nothing new can be said in praise of Walton's pastoral," says The Nation. It has become one of the best known of the English classics, and the admiration and delight of all lovers of nature and honest, straightforward writing. Through the long life of nearly a century of troublous, unsettled times that Walton lived, he seemed uninfluenced from the even tenor of his ways, and went on steadfastly in his life of simple virtue and ideal calmness and repose, not with an inactive mind, but one keenly observant of matters he was interested in, keeping himself aloof from things repugnant to him; for he says he will be seen twice in no man's company he does not like, and likes none but such as he believes to be very honest men.' We recommend this introduction and what it introduces especially to such, and there are some, who may still think that Walton's' Angler' is merely a book about catching fish." This

edition is beautifully printed at the University Press, Cambridge. The paper is excellent, and the volumes are richly illustrated in the text with seventy-four wood-engravings. There are also etched frontispieces to each volume and engraved titles. (Little, Brown & Co. 2 v.. $3: hf. cf., $6.50.)

be found on the holiday stalls than these splenPrescott's Works. -No richer gift-books will did editions of the imperishable works of Prescott. The subjects with which these volumes cities, public edifices, and reproductions of are illustrated are copied from photographs of paintings representing remarkable events during an epoch of unrivalled interest in the history of medieval Europe. These illustrations will materially contribute to the interest of the reader. "The History of Ferdinand and Isabella and "The Conquest of Mexico," are each in two volumes. (Lippincott. ca. work, $10.)

Robinsoe Crusoe.-De Foe's masterpiece has at last received a publication worthy of the most popular of romances. A book which all parents justly feel it to be at once a pleasure and a duty to place in the hands of their children is surely a book which should be owned by every family in handsome and durable form. The sumptuous edition now issued meets such a demand. The volume is printed in large type on pure rag paper. It contains a memoir of the author and India-proof impressions of fourteen illustrations by T. Stothard, engraved on wood, and eight etchings by Mouilleron, as well as an etched portrait by Flameng. (Lippincott. $7.50; $12.50.)

Hand Atlas of the World.-"To say that this volume well maintains the standard set by Mr. Bartholomew in his former geographical works," says the N. Y. Tribune, is perhaps a sufficient general characterization of it, unless we were to add, as we might truly, that that standard is about as near the ideal as any cartographer has yet attained. The present work contains something more than seventy maps, many of them doublepaged. All are exquisite examples of the highest style of engraving and the most tasteful coloring. The number of details they contain without the least appearance of crowding or loss of perspicuity is marvellous, and the hand of the true geographer is seen in the fact that they are all revised down to the latest possible date. Besides the ordinary political and physical charts, there are some features of especial and in some respects unusual interest, such as the maps of the world, of the North Atlantic basin and of the Mediterranean basin, with all the steamship and cable lines carefully indicated. Another feature, unusual in an English work, is the liberal space given to this country. Besides the general map of the United States, there are six others, presenting the States in groups on a much larger scale; and there are also well-executed plans of the chief cities and their environs. Two pages of letterpress are specially devoted to this country, giving the area of all the States and Territories and their population according to the census of 1890, and a list of all cities having a population of 10,000 or more. A general descriptive index of 35,000 places in all parts of the world follows, and then some additional tables of population, commerce and other statistics complete a particularly satisfactory volume." (Nelson. $6.)

Christopher Columbus. -" Few of the memorials that will have been presented to the public during the anniversaries of Columbian discoveries," says Public Opinion, are destined to exert a stronger, more enduring and more important influence on our conceptions of Christopher Columbus and his work, than this scholarly and critical production from the hand of our well-known American librarian and historian. It is not only timely in its publication, but it takes a place at once in the front rank of Americana, with an earnest of eventual inscription among the classics in historical literature. Considering the very excellent material and presswork, and the large number of engravings of portraits, manuscripts, and especially maps, the work is sold at a figure surprisingly low, a fact that deservedly compliments the author, and speaks well for historical taste in this country." (Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $4.)

American Football.—“‘American Football,' by Walter Camp," says the N. Y. Tribune, "is a neat little volume, which will appeal directly to the players of America's robust game, as well as to the followers of the sport. Mr. Camp has made a study of college athletics, and there are few men so thoroughly conversant with the subject. The book also contains thirty-one portraits of past and present heroes who have won fame and scars on the football field. Hector Coman, one of Princeton's famous players, is the frontispiece. The progress of the sport of football in this country, and a corresponding growth of inquiry as to the methods adopted by experienced teams, have prompted the publication. The book carefully reviews the football field since the formation of a union in 1871 by some score of clubs in England That was Rugby football, and the intercollegiate game as played to-day is closely related to the English Rugby. Mr. Camp's ideas of how each man should play his position, be he end-rusher, tackle, guard, centre, quarter-back, half-back, or back, shows features of play by which even some college players can be benefited. There are also chapters on signals, on training, and one primarily for spectators. The closing chapters are devoted to the benefit of those who have never played the game, and short explanations are given of the divisions and duties of the players and of the technical phraseology of the game." (Harper. $1.50.)

Lady Dufferin's Canadian Journal.-Lady Dufferin's talent as a descriptive writer was amply proven in her former volume, entitled "Our Vice-Regal Life in India." The "Canadian Journal" covers the years from 1872-78, the years that Lord Dufferin was Governor-General of Canada. The Journal was sent as weekly letters to Lady Dufferin's mother, and preserves its original epistolary form. She does not attempt to discuss political matters, and public events are only alluded to when they affected Lady Dufferin's movements or social arrangeand the publishers have made a handsome book. (Appleton. $2.)

ments. Lord Dufferin has made the illustrations

Wordsworth for the Young." A very beautiful volume of selections from Wordsworth's poems for young readers," says the Boston Transcript, "has been brought out by D. Lothrop Company, profusely illustrated. The contents were selected, edited and arranged by Cynthia Morgan St. John,

who explains, in the introduction, the plan upon which the volume is based. There is no better way of bringing nature to the child than bringing it to him through Wordsworth,' says Mrs. St. John. The poet was in strong sympathy with childhood, and many of his poems were written for children. He believed that the sight and enjoyment of natural objects did much to form the character, and he held that no human being was so debased as to be utterly insensible to the colors, forms or smell of flowers, 'the voices and motions of birds and beasts and the appearance of the sky.' The volume is divided into three parts: For Young Children, For Older Children, and Nature for Older Children. The book is excellent in conception, design and execution, and it has received words of unqualified approval from such eminent Wordsworthians as Professor Knight, of St. Andrew's ; Professor Dowden, of Dublin; and Professors Tyler and Corson, of Cornell." (Lcthrop. $1.25.)

Four and Five is one of Edward Everett Hale's good stories of a "Lend a Hand" club. 'Although a moral purpose is announced at the start," says the N.Y. Herald," there is not a word of cant from beginning to end. The characters are principally a lot of boys as healthy and full of fun as can be found anywhere; they want a larger crowd for their next year's outing in the woods and they find them. In the course of their rambles they find an old woman who shows them many kindnesses which they endeavor to repay in kind, and, although she is too ignorant to translate the formula of the boys' organization until she had done a great deal of thinking, she gets at the principle of it. One of her neighbors is a man who has had a lot of trouble, which has made him morbid and stupid: other people have been sorry for him and thought they did their whole duty when they had expressed their sentiments; the boys, prompted by the old woman, and without any loss to themselves beyond the expenditure of some superfluous vitality, put the old fellow on his feet again, besides forcing new life into the veins of a man of a very different kind who had dropped into aimlessness and decay. It is a healthy, manly book which many men and all boys may read with profit; it will teach them how to help others while enjoying themselves, and will be more useful than half a year of sermons in exorcising the devil of mischief of which boys left to themselves are frequently so full." (Roberts. $1.)

rite Bouvet has repeated the success of her Little Marjorie's Love-Story.-"Miss Margue'Sweet William,'" says the Chicago Evening Post, "in a volume entitled Little Marjorie's Loveof a little boy blessed by nature with a beautiStory.' The story, which relates the fortunes ful form and face and a wonderfully beautiful voice, and his plainer but lovely and devoted sister, is very fresh and attractive. Little Marselfish and imperious brother all the wealth of jorie lavishes upon her beautiful and gifted but her boundless love. The beauty and pathos of the story are touching, and the delicate way in which the characteristics of the one child are contrasted with those of the other is as skilful as the management of the lights and shadows in an artistic picture. Dainty illustrations by Miss Helen Maitland Armstrong find an appropriate setting in the exquisite typography of the McClurg Press." (McClurg. $1.25.)

Che Literary News.

EDITED BY A. H. LEYPOLDT.

JANUARY, 1892.

ly apprehended by comparing the two volumes of the supplement with the three volumes of the original Dictionary. In 1562 pages Mr. Kirk has condensed the names and the important facts in the careers of 37,183 authors, and the titles of 93,780 books, with dates of first editions and other information of consequence. The original

1891.

"It is with books as with men, a very small number play a great part, the rest are confounded with the multitude."

IN our next issue we shall give the accurate statistics of book publication in the United States during 1891. The titles recorded in The Publishers' Weekly run well up to 5000, works of fiction alone numbering upwards of 1000. At this time of the year many literary papers write essays upon the best books of 1891, and courageously make out lists of books that will live, and even more fearlessly point out books that will die.

Knowing that our readers are scattered through the length and breadth of the land and that most of them earn their living under most varying conditions, we hardly feel justified in determining which of the books of 1891 any large number will consider the most helpful and the most inspiring. To students of literature and working authors we would point out, however, how rich the year just ended has been in literary works of reference.

The successful completion of the Century Dictionary" within the time originally announced by the publishers of this great work is a notable event. In two years and a half has been published in twenty-four parts a dictionary of 7046 large quarto pages, including about 500,000 definitions of upwards of 215.000 words, 50,000 defined phrases, 300,000 illustrative quotations, and 8000 cuts. This dictionary was planned on an ideal before regarded as unattainable. To form a faint idea of what the making of this book meant one has but to consider the difficulty of collecting such disconnected matter (for the entirely "new "words and definitions and quotations in "The Century Dictionary almost outnumber all that the dictionaries which preceded it contain), the care involved in the statement and verification of thousands of more or less isolated facts, and the labor of producing with such variety of material a typographically faultless work. After the immense editorial labor had been satisfactorily completed the work was printed at the De Vinne Press, and is a model of artistic typography and perfect printing.

"

John Foster Kirk has completed a two-volume supplement to Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors." What this task has been may be part

names and works of 46,000 authors. The supplement gives four-fifths as much material in half the space, and, as must be said in all fairness, with noticeable advantage in clearness of arrange ment and convenience of reference. The main part of the mountainous labor in preparing the supplement was, of course, a work of research, comparison, compilation and certification extending over the whole field of modern literature, and involving the gathering up of information about every book published in the English language during the past forty years, about the criticisms made on each, about their success with the public, and about the lives and fortunes of their authors. It is a combination of biographical, bibliographical and critical material indispensable to all literary workers.

A Guide to Books," by E. B. Sargant and Bernhard Whishaw is a subject catalogue of books in the English, foreign and Oriental languages. The object is to place at the service of the reader the opinions of those who may be trusted to give sound advice as to the books which are of value in each department of knowledge. Many works which are valuable in themselves or historically interesting have been omitted. The idea in which the book originated is precisely opposed to an enumeration of the whole literature on any subject. Its aim is to select as carefully as possible what is essential and to omit all the remainder. Another most practical work is the second edition of W. Swan Sonnenschein's "The Best Books," a reader's guide to the choice of the best available books in every department of science, art and literature, down to 1890, with complete indexes. It forms a most excellent general catalogue of books of permanent value on all subjects. The compiler has not included any very large number of books in any section, recording only such as are "best" in the most catholic sense. The scope of the work is also limited to books in print and obtainable through any live bookseller. The ninth and final edition of Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations," rearranged in many parts, and with three hundred and fifty pages of new matter, is also ready to be added to the shelves of literary people. There are many other works of great literary value, but we specially mention those we have indicated as embodying an amount of well-directed labor that can be but faintly estimated even by those most benefited by its accomplishment.

ART, MUSIC, DRAMA.

CHADWICK, J. W. The evolution of architecture. Appleton. 12°, (Evolution ser., no. 12.) pap., 10 c.

EMERSON, ELLEN RUSSELL. Masks, heads and faces, with some considerations respecting the rise and development of art. Houghton, M. 8°, $4.

Mrs. Emerson's book fills a peculiar place in literature, since it explains the earliest incentives to artistic expression. It claims to formulate the alphabet for conventionalized art. It shows the inception of the idea of portraiture, and that the construction of masks originated in emulation of the gods. Ceremonial dances are described these are the drama of the gods, the earliest masquerade-and there is a chapter on comedy. Masks. pictographs and hieroglyphic writing, ideal faces, with the series of heads of Mexican gods in their insignia from the Codex Rememsis, give a unique character to the volume. The book has many illustrations, among which lion and bird masks, Hellenic and Mexican, are conspicuous. HENDERSON, W. J. Preludes and studies, musical themes of the day. Longmans, G. 12°, $1.25.

Golden Age of Pastel.* Champney. Century (Dec.). Andrea del Sarto (Italian Old Masters). Stillman. Century (Jan.).

Gounod in Italy and Germany. Gounod. Century (Jan.); M. Gounod and His Ideals. Krehbiel. (Open Letters.) Century (Jan.).

W. H. Low. Fraser. Century (Jan.). Richter, a Painter of Picturesque Portraits. Chautau 4 san (Jan.).

BIOGRAPHY, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. BOURNE. H. R. Fox. Sir Philip Sidney, type of English chivalry in the Elizabethan age. Putnam. por. 12°, (Heroes of the nations ser., no. 5.) $1.50.

"This book is one that should be put into the hands of every boy, and it would not be a bad idea for the girls to read it, too; for it will give them a better understanding of what a man ought to be, even if he is not. Men in these days cannot go about on gayly caparisoned steeds, with their spears in hand, ready to run the first person through who offers them or any of their principles an insult. At the same time there are modern ways of tilting at wrongs that are quite as effectual. There is no reason why chivalry should be a lost art any more than why courage or honor should be things of the past. The boys who read of Sir Philip Sidney and the Chevalier Bayard will learn something from their lives whether they will or not. You cannot come in contact with nobleness of character without profiting by it any more than you can touch pitch without being defiled. This life of Sidney is by H. R. Fox Bourne, and is partly based on his In recasting it for the Heroes of the Nations memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney, published in 1862. Series he has added many details which the researches of others as well as of himself during the past quarter of a century have brought to light. His aim in this book has been to bring into prominence, but without exaggeration, the chivalrous aspect of Sir Philip Sidney's life and its relations in that aspect with the history of his time and country."-Recorder. BROWNING, OSCAR. Dante: his life and writings. Macmillan. 16°, 90 c.

DANIELL, G. W. Bishop Wilberforce. Houghton, M. por. 8°, $1.

DICKENS, C. Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins; ed. by Laurence Hutton. Harper. 16°, $1.

"The charm of the letters cannot be suggested by any casual citations. Whatever of affectation or theatricalism may have crept into certain of Dickens' letters, these letters to his intimate friend bear every mark of sincerity, and are of The accompeculiar interest for many reasons. panying portraits and fac-similes add piquancy to the dainty volume. Mr. Hutton's work is, of course, discreetly and efficiently done."-Brooklyn Times.

pincott's (Jan.).

1872-78, extracts from my letters home, written while Lord Dufferin was Governor-General ; il. by Lord Dufferin. Appleton. por. map, 12°, $2. The new calendar of great men biographies of the 558 worthies of all ages and nations in the positivist calendar of Auguste Comte; ed. by Frederic Harrison. Macmillan. 8°, $2.25.

JACKSON, Mrs. MARY ANNA. Life and letters of Gen. T. J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson"), by his wife; with introd. by H. M. Field. Harper. 12°, $2.