Bryce. James Bryce, as a member of Parliament, was one of the busiest and most successful of private members, and when he became under secretary for foreign affairs, he exchanged the quality rather than the quantity of his parliamentary work. He was also a lecturer at the Inns of Court, and a professor at Oxford. Moreover, he takes a very active part in a multitude of social and philanthropic works in London. He lives in a pretty house in Bryanston square, which his sister helps him to make a centre of many interesting gatherings, He is, of course, a Scotchman, is fifty years of age, and has made the ascent of Ararat. Indeed, his fondness for walking is no doubt the secret of his power of work, and as soon as he had passed his book for the press, he went off to India to recuperate. - Pall Mall Gazette.

Edwards. Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who is soon to visit America, when she is not travelling spends most of her time at her quiet home near Bristol, England. She is a great believer in vigorous and systematic exercise, and in her grounds she has laid out a walk, on which she regularly "does' her half mile both before and after breakfast, repeating the performance before and after dinner. Most of her time has been spent of late years in the service of the Egyptian Exploration Society, an enterprise in which she is profoundly interested. Her novel writing is done with laborious care, and often two years pass after a story is begun before it is finished. Her plot is laid out most elaborately, altered and arranged over and over again, until it is both consistent and striking, and when the work of writing is begun every scene described is either visited or vigorously "read up." Nothing is stated which is not verified; if her characters are fictitious, the scenes, "ship-talk," or whatever she may be describing, are founded on fact. Oddly enough, it is a rule of the author never to draw any character from real life. - William J. Bok's Syndicate Letter.

Foote. Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote, who is the wife of a civil engineer, has spent most of her married life in the mining camps of the West. Her reputation before the public was first made as an artist, and it is interesting to know that she is now almost the only Century artist who draws directly upon the wood block. Twenty years ago, the design for every wood engraving was drawn directly upon the wood by the hand of a draughtsman. To-day, the artist makes his picture upon anything he pleases, and in any size, and the camera transfers it to the wood block. Mrs. Foote still makes her original pictures in just the size they are to appear, and generally upon the wood, but the art department of The Century always transfers the drawing by photography to another wood block, so as to preserve the original. - St. Louis Republic.

Larcom. A friend recently asked Lucy Larcom what were her literary plans, and her answer was an interesting one: "I never have 'plans.' I get interested in what I am writing, and wait myself to see how it will come out. If I told what I was thinking about or trying to do, I should never finish anything; I fear it would take away my own interest in the matter. After a thing is done and sent off, it is different. Then I can let it go; not before." William J. Bok's Syndicate Letter. Meredith.

Box Hill, where Mr. Meredith lives, is just far enough out of London. No wraith of the London mist hovers over it. The house is quiet and humble as can be. There are not more than a half-dozen rooms, I should say, in all. But Mr. Meredith's own day is passed in a small cottage, which he has built just back of the house, farther up on the edge of the woods. Here is a single sleeping-room and a study, which visitors rarely see. His daughter is the mistress of the little home, and entertains his guests, and her own, - there in its delightful seclusion. From the windows of the sitting-room, into which we came, I looked out over the high, dark hedge across a gently sloping country, now covered with the evening mist and the soft light of a young moon.

Saltus. Edgar Saltus was in the city last week, on business connected with the publication of his forthcoming novel. He is a man of striking appearance, and his manner is characterized by a nameless charm that is compounded of good breeding and a knowledge of the world. In the course of a conversation, some one said, speaking of a friend: "If he were a man of more conscience, he would never do the things he is sorry for; and if he were a man of less conscience, he would never be sorry for the things he had done."

Saltus, after a moment. in a sentence.

"That's good," said Mr. "That hits off a character If you don't mind, I think I shall make use of it," which is an illustration of one of the many ways that Mr. Saltus employs to fill his stories with terse, crisp epigrams. — Philadelphia Press.

Shorthouse. - Mr. J. H. Shorthouse, the author of "John Inglesant " and "The Countess Eve," is not a dreamy recluse, as most of his readers must conclude. He is, on the contrary, a chemical manufacturer, and the successor of several generations of Shorthouses who have carried on the business in Birmingham. He is short, and has a rather strong face, a big nose, black hair, and an impediment in his speech. It is said that to this little inconvenience he probably owes his literary achievements. All through his life it has prevented him from expressing in words his ideas on any subject that strongly interests him. He can talk easily enough on business matters, but for the expression of deeper thought his only medium is the pen. So in early life he joined an essay society, each member of which was pledged to read the essays which the others wrote. "John Inglesant" was the development of this essay-writing. — New York Tribune.

Stanley. Henry M. Stanley was born in Wales, near the little town of Denbigh, and his parents were so poor that, when he was about three years old, he was sent to the poorhouse of St. Asaph to be brought up and educated. When he was thirteen years old he was turned loose to take care of himself. Young though he was, he was ambitious and well-informed. As a lad, he taught school in the village of Mold, Flintshire, North Wales. Getting tired of this, he made his way to Liver

pool, England, when he was about fourteen years of age, and there he shipped as cabin-boy on board a sailing vessel bound to New Orleans, in the promised land to which so many British-born youths ever turn their eyes. In New Orleans he fell in with a kindly merchant, a Mr. Stanley, who adopted him, and gave him his name; for our young hero's real name was John Rowlands, and he was not Stanley until he became an American, as you see. Mr. Stanley died before Henry came of age, leaving no will, and the lad was again left to shift for himself. Young Stanley lived in New Orleans until 1861, when he was twenty-one years old, having been born in 1840. Then the great civil war broke out, and Stanley went into the Confederate army.-Noah Brooks, in February St. Nicholas.

Whitman. In the little frame house on Mickle street, Camden, confined to his second-story front room, with a cheerless view from the windows, surrounded by books, papers, medicines, letters, and a pile of "November Boughs" (his last book), sat Walt Whitman yesterday afternoon when a Press reporter called. For seven months he has been confined to his room, most of the time to his bed, and all the time guarded closely from visitors by direction of his physicians. His greeting was breezy, and he seemed the same Democratic Walt who used to be seen almost daily, less than a year ago, seated upon the ferry-boat, with his breast bared to the sun and air. The poet will be seventy if he lives until Decoration Day, and, though feeble, he talked freely of his health, his friends, and his hope of recovery. — Philadelphia Press.

LITERARY NEWS AND NOTES.

D. Appleton & Co. publish this week, in their Town and Country Library, Daudet's novel, "The Apostate."

The first volume of the new English Men of Action Series, to be published by Macmillan & Co., will be "General Gordon," by Sir William Butler. A volume will be issued every month.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox is said to be writing a play.

Roberts Bros. publish, January 15, Balzac's “Louis Lambert," translated by Miss Wormley, with a long introduction by George Frederic Parsons; the first American edition of "The Story of Realmah," by Sir Arthur Helps; "A Reading of Earth," George Meredith's new volume of poetry; and "Portfolio Papers," by P. G. Hamerton, with an etched portrait of the author.

Renan has finished the second volume of his "History of the Jews," and has another volume yet to write.

Of the New York World 104,473,650 copies were sold during 1888.

The New York Machine Type-Setting Company has been incorporated at Albany, by Theodore L. De Vinne and others. Its chief,office will be in New York city.

J. O. Halliwell-Phillips died in London January 4, aged sixty-nine. He produced in all nearly one hundred volumes, the crowning labor of his life being his sixteen-volume edition of Shakespeare, completed in 1865.

In the Literary News this year will be printed a novel of New England life, "A Gentleman of Fairden," by Ella Loomis Pratt, who has written a good deal for the Springfield Republican. A series of portraits of living American authors, from original paintings by Miss Dora Wheeler, will be given as frontispieces for succeeding numbers. Mrs. Stowe's portrait appears in the January number, and a portrait of Mrs. Burnett will be given in February.

Poet-Lore, a magazine devoted to Shakespeare, Browning, and the comparative study of literature, is to be published in Philadelphia the fifteenth of each month, beginning with January, 1889.

Dr. Andrew D. White's "New Chapters in the Warfare of Science" are to be resumed in the February number of the Popular Science Monthly.

The work represented in Book Chat for 1888 may 'be summarized as follows: Magazines indexed, 3,242; magazine leaders, 12,963; American and English books, without comment, 2,373; with comment, 558; some notable books, 14; total, 2,945. Foreign books-French, 558; French, with comment, 45; German, 475; Spanish, 160; Italian, 275; total, 1,513. Fugitive essays, 326; new magazines announced, 111; and editorials, Paris letters, selected current readings, and notes.

Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote, author of the "Led Horse Claim," etc., has written a three-part novelette, "The Last Assembly Ball: a Pseudo-Romance of the Far West," which will be printed in The Century, beginning with the March number. "The Romance of Dollard," by Mrs. Catherwood, will be completed in the February number of The Century.

Shakespeareana will hereafter be published under the auspices of the New York Shakespearean Society by the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, which has removed from Philadelphia to 29 Park row, New York.

The article on "Walter Scott at Work," by E. H. Woodruff, in the February Scribner's will contain fac-similes of many interesting pages from the proof-sheets of "Peveril of the Peak," with the pithy criticisms of Ballantyne and replies of Scott on the margin. This literary treasure was purchased in London twenty years ago by ex-President Andrew D. White, of Cornell, who furnishes an introduction to the article.

Miss Kate Sanborn is reported to be collecting material for a volume on the eminent women of New York.

Mr. Swinburne has written a short poem in the Scotch dialect for the February Magazine of Art. It is called "A Jacobite's Farewell, 1715."

The New Princeton Review has been purchased by Ginn & Co., Boston, to be merged in the Political Science Quarterly. Professor Sloane, in relinquishing the editorial conduct of the Review, will share in the production of the Quarterly.

Mr. Whittier says that "Snowbound" recalls to him his sufferings from the cold in the home of his boyhood, where the snow beat in through the crevices in the roof of his bed-room; and he attributes his lack of robust health through life to these early privations. Miss Sally P. McLean, author of " Cape Cod Folks," has written a new novel, to be published by Cupples & Hurd. It is called "Last Chance Junction." "Cape Cod Folks" is now in its twenty-fifth edition.

Sidney Colvin's edition of the letters of Keats is on the list of announcements of Macmillan & Co. The relative sale of Daudet's works in Paris is: "Nouma Roumestan," 150,000; "Nabob," 160,000; 'Sappho," 170,000; "L'Immortel," 133,000. "Gath" is writing a novel with Alexander Hamilton for its hero.

66

"Basil,

According to the New York Tribune, Isabel, and the other leading characters of 'Their Wedding Journey' are coming to live in New York. Their experiences here will be related by Mr. Howells in a new novel, the first chapters of which will appear in March in Harper's Weekly."

Huntington Smith has severed his connection with the Literary World, and with the new year assumes the literary editorship of the Boston Beacon.

Mrs. Rose Terry Cooke's novel is nearly ready for publication. It is described as "The Story of a Saint and a Sinner."

John T. Wheelwright, lawyer and writer of fiction, is the new president of the Papyrus Club, Boston.

F. C. Phillips, the author of "As in a LookingGlass," has been a soldier, a journalist, and a theatrical manager; and he is now a successful barrister. He has been more than once asked to stand for Parliament.

Clarence H. Clark, a Philadelphia banker, owns an edition of Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic," in twenty-nine volumes, that cost him $50,000. Originally, the set consisted of nine handsomely printed volumes, which have been extended by the insertion of some 2,500 portraits, engravings, autographs, and maps, making the present elaborate and costly work.

The last volume of "Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography" will be published with an exhaustive index this month. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been put into the six volumes of this work.

The next volumes in the Putnams' dainty Knickerbocker Nuggets Series are to be Lockhart's "Ancient Spanish Ballads " and "The Wit and Wisdom of Sidney Smith.”

The Epoch records a report that Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett receives twenty-five dollars royalty for every performance in New York city of her dramatization of "Little Lord Fauntleroy."

To American college students George T. Angell, of Boston, president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, offers a prize of one hundred dollars for the best essay on "The Effect of Humane Education on the Prevention of Crime" sent in before March 15, 1889.

Laurence Oliphant, the author, diplomat, traveller, and philanthropist, died at Twickenham, England, December 23. He was born in 1829 in Ceylon, where his father was for many years chief justice. His first book was "A Journey to Katmandhu." He was a member of the Scottish and English bars. Tillotson & Son, of Bolton, England, proprietors of "Tillotson's Newspaper Literature," have opened a New York office at 44 Temple Court Building, with W. Philip Robinson as manager.

It is said that Miss Isabel Hapgood, the translator of Tolstoi's writings, acquired her knowledge of Russian from a New Testament and a dictionary. She is now in Russia, gaining a conversational knowledge of the language.

Mr. William Black will publish shortly his new novel, "A Spring Idyl," to succeed "In Far Lochaber."

The general advance in journalism is marked by the announcement that the New York World in

tends to purchase a house in Washington and install there presently one of its principal journalists, who will be given a handsome allowance for entertaining. This is a recognition of the fact that over the dinner table the greatest secrets of State are most often discussed and divulged.

Mrs. Humphry Ward is said to be preparing a reply to the various critics who have passed upon her book. The author of "Robert Elsmere " is not at present in the best of health, and has been suffering from insomnia. One of her sisters, Miss Ethel Arnold, is spending the winter with friends in New York.

News comes of the sudden death, at a very early age, of the wife of Thomas Nelson Page, author of 66 Marse Chan" and "Two Little Confederates." Mrs. Page is said to have been the heroine of "Unc' Edinboro's Drowndin'," and an occasional collaborator with her husband in his literary work. Their home was in Richmond, Va.

Among the new books announced by Harper & Bros. is "Our English," by Professor A. S. Hill, of Harvard.

Robert Louis Stevenson is expected to arrive in New York about February 1, and will at once resume literary work.

Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. will publish January 19 the first three prose volumes of the new edition of Whittier's works; Bret Harte's new story, 'Cressy"; and "Progressive Housekeeping," by Catherine Owen.

Mr. Lowell has written the article on Whittier for the last volume of Appleton's Biographical Cyclopædia.

"Transactions in Hearts" is the suggestive title of a new novel by Edgar Saltus, which is to appear in the February number of Lippincott's Magazine.

General Lew Wallace, it is now said, wants to be made minister to Rome, so that he may continue his researches for material for a historical novel of the Eternal City, which he has in preparation.

Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. will publish in February a novel by a new author, whose name is withheld. It is entitled "A Quaker Girl of Nantucket."

The next volume in John Morley's Twelve English Statesmen Series will be a sketch of Walpole by Mr. Morley himself.

The Frank Leslie Publishing Company has been incorporated in New York, with $1,000,000 of capital stock, in 1,000 shares.

Littell's Living Age began its one hundred and eightieth volume with the first issue for January.

The Collegian is a new monthly magazine, published in Boston, under the auspices of the New England Intercollegiate Press Association, and edited by Samuel Abbott. Edward E. Hale has an entertaining paper on "Harvard Reminiscences of Fifty Years Ago" in the opening number. The rest of the magazine is written by undergraduates in various colleges.

Cassell & Company announce a volume of short stories, entitled "A Latin-Quartier Courtship," by Sidney Luska; a book of travels in Russia, by W. T. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette; the collected series of papers on "Authors at Home," originally published in the Critic; and Max O'Rell's new book on the United States, which will be called "Jonathan and His Continent."

Duffield Osborne, the young author of "The Spell of Ashtaroth," has a new novel under way.

Green's "Short History of the English People" has reached in the London edition its one hundred and thirty-fifth thousand.

The Travelers Insurance Company, of Hartford, will publish a complete set of the works of Walter Bagehot, the English economist, carefully edited and indexed, at the nominal price of five dollars for the five volumes.

The January Book Buyer contains portraits of Walt Whitman and of the poet Whittier, whose eighty-first birthday has just been celebrated.

"Illustrated Journalism in England: Its Rise," is the title of a paper in the Magazine of Art for February.

Mr. Besant made a funny mistake in his last novel, "For Faith and Freedom." He described one of his characters as going on board a steamer bound for New England" in 1687.

The Century Company will begin to issue the new 'Century Dictionary" some time the coming spring. It will be published by subscription and in parts, the whole, consisting of about 6,500 pages, to be finally bound into six quarto volumes. The printers have been engaged upon the typesetting for more than two years. The work will be regularly issued at intervals of about a month, and will be completed within two years. The proofs of the work are read by more than sixty people. For seven years about one hundred persons have been working upon this dictionary, which will define 200,000 words. Of these, 10,000 new words were furnished in the new “Encyclopædia Britannica."

R. U. Johnson, assistant editor of The Century, says that the international copyright bill, which has already passed the United States Senate by a vote of thirty-four to ten, will certainly pass the House. of Representatives at the present session.

The Century Company has issued an enlarged reproduction of the map of Siberia published in the May Century, showing the route taken by George Kennan.

The Cosmopolitan has been bought by John Brisben Walker, a Denver capitalist, who will give a strong financial backing to the magazine.

Book News for January contains an article by Rev. E. E. Hale, on "Reading in Farmers' Families," a portrait of George Meredith, with a sketch of his life, and a plate paper portrait and short biography of Thomas Nelson Page.

At the dinner given at Christ's College, Cambridge, to celebrate the completion of the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica," Adam Black made the statement that "the authors' corrections of their proofs had amounted to what was equivalent to the getting up of the twenty-four quarto volumes twice over."

The last catalogue of rare books which has been issued by Mr. Quaritch includes a work for which £5,220 is asked. It is a psalter of the fifteenth century, and is described as "the grandest work ever produced by typography, and one of the rarest of the early monuments of printing."

George Augustus Sala, the English journalist, makes an annual income of £3,000 from his newspaper work. He has £1,000 a year, probably for life, from the London Telegraph for editorial matter, and beside this, writes essays for a score of London periodicals.

Librarian Spofford reports that the accessions to the Congressional Library for 1887 from copyright sources were: Of books, 13,685; periodicals, 6,708; . dramatic compositions, 536; musical compositions, 7,744; photographs, 1,850; engravings and chromos, 1,848; maps and charts, 1,322; miscellaneous, including prints, designs and models, paintings and drawings, 1,390.

Professor Freeman is living in Sicily this winter, but not for his health: he is delving into Sicilian history, in preparation for writing another book.

Miss Victoria Stuart Mosby, the twenty-year-old daughter of Colonel John S. Mosby, is now devoting herself almost entirely to literary work. Together with her father, she will spend the greater part of the winter in Washington.