BOOK NEWS THE NEW YORK FUBLIC LIBRARY CE, LENOX AN Entered August 29, 1882, (Hon. Timothy O. Howe, Postmaster-General), at the Philadelphia Post Office as second-class matter. NUMBER 173 SATIONS. Portrait of Paul Leicester Ford Paul Leicester Ford. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Richard Hovey George Robert Gissing The Author's Purpose by the Author Notes from Boston Christianity and Social Problems". -"History of Bimetallism in the United How to Open a New Book Notes from London. News from New York. " Talcott Williams, LL. D. 242 244 Best Selling Holiday Books The True George Washington-Mrs. Ewing's Canada Home-Grover Cleveland- Descriptive List of New Books Books Announced THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE BY THE AUTHOR. Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. By Alice Morse Earle. mail, $1.32. How to Listen to Music. By H. E. Krehbiel, author of "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama." Illustrated. 12mo, $1.13; by mail, $1.25. In the First Person. A novel. By Maria Louise Pool, author of "Mrs. Gerald," etc. 315 pp. 12mo, 90 cents; by mail, $1.03. Lyrics of Lowly Life. By Paul Laurence Dunbar. With an introduction by W. D. Howells. With a portrait. 208 pp. 16m0, 90 cents; by mail, 98 cents. Men Who Win; or, Making Things Happen. By William M. Thayer, author of "Women Who Win; or, Making Things Happen," etc. 477 pp. 12mo, 90 cents; by mail, $1.06. Whitman. A Study. By John Burroughs, author of Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. By ALICE MORSE EARLE. My object in writing "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days" was to gratify my own liking for odd and unusual facts, strengthened by an affection for all rogues and vagabonds, from Autolycus until this century-but not any closer at hand. My object in publishing the book was to gratify a like curiosity and interest in other people. My object in answering your query is to congratulate you on the unique and fascinating autograph collection you are gathering through your questions to authors-and to add to that collection the name of BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, Alier Morse Carls The True George Washington. By PAUL LEICESTER FORD. If the present work succeeds in humanizing Washington, and making him a man rather than an historical figure, its purpose will have been fulfilled. BROOKLYN, N. Y., December, 1896. Paul Leicester Ford How to Listen to Music. By H. E. KREHBIEL. My purpose in writing "How to Listen to Music" was to do something toward robbing high-class concerts of their bug-a-boo character, and to point out means by which those who are untaught in the art may increase the pleasure which music gives them by intelligent listening. NEW YORK, October, 1896. H.E. Krchbiel In the First Person. By MARIA LOUISE POOL. In writing "In the First Person," I tried to express, from the point of view of the young girl herself, the thoughts and emotions likely to be roused in the soul of a sensitive, ambitious and gifted young woman when undergoing some phases of worldly experience. ROCKLAND, MASS. maria Leonise Pool. Lyrics of Lowly Life. By PAUL L. DUNBAR. ́ My object in writing "Lyrics of Lowly Life" was to give to the public a sample of some of the things that are running in the minds of not one but many negroes. DAYTON, OHIO, October, 1896. Paul L. Mular_ Men Who Win; or, Making Things Happen. By WM. M. THAYER. I wrote Men Who Win; or, Making Things Happen," that readers, old and young, may see clearly how successful men and women became such-the most important thing for them to know. The sketches show that success is possible only through the practice of certain virtues. FRANKLIN, MASS., December, 1896. ypu M Thayer Sister Jane. By JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS. I. To rid myself of a dozen or more people who were constantly capering about in my mind and pestering me. 2. To take out of my mouth the bad taste left by some depressing and distressing books I had recently read. 3. As a means of recreation in place of whist or cribbage. The lesson of charity was the natural outcome of the theme, and the display of it belongs naturally to the people whose characters I have tried to portray. I was so absorbed in putting myself in the place of the man who tells the story that the construction is at loose ends. ATLANTA, GA., December, 1896. Julehandleton's The Story of American Coals. By WM. J. NICOLLS. I wanted to arouse my fellow Americans to a sense of the vast importance of the subject -to show them around our noble heritage-to explain in detail all its development and workings, and then to emphasize the fact that the sources of a nation's wealth, power, and civilization are in its coal-fields. PHILADELPHIA, December, 1896. др gricollo Whitman: A Study. By JOHN BURROUGHS. I don't know as I can give any very well defined reason for writing the Whitman" book, except that I wanted to do it; there was something in me that struggled for expression. If there was any namable motive it was probably a desire to justify to myself the admiration I had always felt for the man and his work-to analyze and set in order the principles upon which that admiration rested, and then by publication to help do for others what I had done for myself. WEST PARK, N. Y., December, 1896. PAUL LEICESTER FORD. Peter The author of "The Honorable Stirling," Paul Leicester Ford, a son of Gordon L. Ford, for many years publisher of the New York Tribune, and of Emily Ellsworth Fowler Ford, a descendant of President Chauncey, of Harvard, and of Noah Webster, as well a writer herself, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1865. Ill-health in his childhood prevented him from receiving any regular education, but from a large amateur printing outfit he taught himself the elements of knowledge, and this was added to by much time and work in his father's library-one of the largest and most valuable private collections of books and autographs in this country. Even more educational to him in a literary sense was the social circle of his parents, which included many of the leading writers and thinkers of their generation. Yet another form of cultivation was gained by travel; and he has not only spent much time in the chief libraries of both America and Europe, pursuing his special studies, but has traveled for pleasure through the Southwest and Newfoundland, the West Indies, South America and most of Europe. In 1876, he partly set up a revised edition of Noah Webster's "Webster Genealogy," and his name appeared on the title-page as the editor. Since then he has edited many books and pamphlets, chiefly relating to American history and bibliography, the most important of which are elaborate editions of the "Writings of Thomas Jefferson" and the "Writings of John Dickinson," still in course of publication, and to be completed in ten and in three volumes respectively. In 1894, he published "The Honorable Peter Stirling," a book designed to set forth a theory of politics derived from the author's active political work in his own ward, which is now in its fifteenth edition. Since then in fiction he has published a short story of adventure, called "The Great K. & A. Train Robbery," issued in Lippincott's Magazine. A new novel by him, entitled The Story of an Untold Love," described by the Bookman as an exquisite delineation of a pure unselfish affection, and a further startling revelation of Mr. Ford's imaginative power as a writer of fiction," is to be published serially in the Atlantic in the coming year. His last work is entitled "The True George Washington," and is a careful investigation of the human or private side of the great American, written in a popular manner. In addition, a comedy by him, called "Honors are Easy," has just been staged by Charles Frohman. "A Haunt of Ancient Peace," by Mrs. Marshall, author of "An Escape from the Tower," has just been published. ANTHONY J. DREXEL BIDDLE. Prominent among the young authors who at present are building reputations in the world of letters, may be classed Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, of Philadelphia. At a very early age he displayed a marked inclination for literary studies. After a private school education, Mr. Biddle studied in Heidelberg, where he distinguished himself as a scholar much above the ordinary. Since that time, Mr. Biddle has been an earnest literary student and for his years, which are only twenty-two in number, he has achieved marked success as an author. In the early fall of 1894 Mr. Biddle wrote an article entitled "All Around Athletics," which was gladly given space by a number of high class newspapers. Subsequently, his "A Dual Role and Other Stories was given The Mr. Biddle's most important work to date was recently issued under the title of Madeira Islands." This was a subject that Mr. Biddle was unusually well equipped to discuss. He spent a year or more on the islands devoting this time to a careful study of the Madeiras and its people. The result of these studies has been set forth in a most interesting form of narrative, and "The Madeira Islands" is entitled to be classed among the successful books of the current year. The last book Mr. Biddle has been engaged on is "Froggy Fairy Book" for children. The plot is quite unlike any similar story ever told to children before. |