Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1898 — BITS FOR BOOKWORMS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BITS FOR BOOKWORMS

A collection o I I3G letters written by Charles Dickens to various correspondents was sold in London lately for $745. M. Edmond Rostand, the author of the successful drama, “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Is not yet 30. His young wife is also a poet, having published while she was still Mdlle. Rosemonde Gerard a volume of verse. The pair lead a retired life In a quiet suburb of PariJ* and steer clear of Interviewers. G. W. Cable has returned from his visit to England and has been for the, most part the guest of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Barrie at their house in Gloucester road. He has also been the guest, of Dr. Robertson Nicoll and of friends: In Scotland, which country, Indeed, he, found more Inexpressibly lovely than ; even its literature had led him to anticipate. Marion Crawford's new book, “Ave Roma Immortalis,” consists of studies from the chronicles of Rome. The fourteen sections or wards of the medieval city are taken up separately and the record Includes the history of famous Romans and of noted buildings. The Macmillans announce this work and also “The Great Salt Lake Trail,” by Colonel Henry Inman and William F. Codv. A London publisher has beaten the record in the way of advertisement. He publishes a new novel, written In English by an Italian lady, “who is taking the final vows for life in a convent which enforces the most rigicl separation from the outer world.” After this, Miss Marie Corelli’s statement to the Strand Magazine that Mr. Gladstone told her that she was “as a woman, pretty and good,” ahd her secretary's remark, “Who could help loving her? She's so charming and she’s so good,” are pale. Rudyard Kipling has joined the war which is waging in England between author and publisher. On the subject of a draft of an agreement which was proposed by the publishers he wrote as follows to the editor of The Author: “I have seen the draft contracts. Nothing that you or The Author or the whole society has ever done to, or said about, the publisher will condemn him half so thoroughly as his own notions of fairness set forth for him by his own lawyer in his own way. Can anyone say more than that?”