Page:The Dial vol. 15 (July 1 - December 16, 1893).djvu/223

 THE DIAL S&emf'fKontfjtg Journal of Eiterarg Criticism, Biscuggion, anb Enfortnation. THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, 82.00 a year in advance, postage prepaid in the United States, Canada, and Mexico ; in other countries comprised in the Postal Union, 50 cents a year for extra postage must be added. Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current number. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL. SPECIAL RATES TO CLUBS and for subscriptions with other publications will be sent on application; and SAMPLE COPY on receipt of 10 cents. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. All communications should be addressed to THE DIAL, No. 24 Adams Street, Chicago. No. 176. OCTOBER 16, 1893. Vol. XV. CONTENTS. THE WRITER AND HIS HIRE 211 BENJAMIN JOWETT 213 MR. GOSSE'S PUZZLE OVER POE. John Burroughs 214 MR. IRVING'S SHYLOCK. Anna B. McMahan. . 215 COMMUNICATIONS 216 The East and the West, Once More. Celia Parker Woolley. The Geographical Importance of Tomfoolery. D. H. W. A Pardonable Forgetting. B. O. Williams. OLD-TIME DAYS IN NEW ENGLAND. E. G. J. 219 RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS, AS SEEN THROUGH FRIENDLY EYES. Basmus B. Anderson 222 MISS REPPLIER'S "ESSAYS IN IDLENESS." Edward E. Hale, Jr 225 RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne ... 226 Stevenson's David Balfour. Besant's The Rebel Queen. Wallace's The Prince of India. Dole's Not Angels Quite. Edward Fuller's The Complain- ing Millions of Men. H. B. Fuller's The Cliff Dwell- ers. Cherbuliez's The Tutor's Secret. Champ- fleury's The Faience Violin. James's The Private Life. Hibbard's Nowadays. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 228 The literary works of James Smetham. The bio- graphy of an American Fourierist. Reminiscences of Thackeray in America. Brilliant pictures of French people in the Old Regime. Essays on the Kindergarten and household art. More of Lang's Letters to Dead Authors. A charming edition of Mr. Winter's "Shakespeare's England." English events that have shaped American history. Tales and travels in the West Indies. Examples of ele- giac verse in English. Literary and social gossip of Old Fleet Street. BRIEFER MENTION 231 NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 231 LITERARY NOTES AND MISCELLANY .... 233 The "Western School" of Literature: An Eastern Comment. Emerson's Friendships, the Ideal and the Real. A Rare Copy of Walton's Angler. The Tribulations of Authorship : A chapter of Per- sonal Experience. TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 235 LIST OF NEW BOOKS, 235 THE WRITER AND HIS HIRE. The notion that literary work should not be done for pay, that it should be exempted from the commercial conditions under which man ordinarily does service to his fellows, is one that frequently finds expression (and some- times most unexpectedly) among professional men of letters. It has more than once proved an obstacle in the path of the London Society of Authors, and has probably been among the causes that have thus far prevented an effect- ive similar organization of the literary workers of our own country. Mr. Walter Besant has done yeoman service in combating this idea among Englishmen, but it seems to have some- thing of the hydra's vitality, and the severance of one head is but the signal for another to rear its crest. A recent deliverance upon this subject is to be found in the last issue of " Scrib- ner's Magazine," and is of peculiar interest as expressing the opinion of a writer who is no less shrewd in the management of his business affairs than accomplished as a man of letters. Mr. Howells (for he it is to whom we refer) has a weakness for the paradoxical, and it is not always safe to take him quite as seriously as he reads. But his recent discussion of the literary life in its business aspect is prefaced by certain opinions which, allowing for an evi- dently whimsical element in their statement, still seem to embody the doctrine that it is ig- noble to write for pay. Mr. Howells is, indeed, careful to say that, under existing conditions, a writer is bound to take pay for his work ; but he vaguely intimates that existing conditions are all wrong, that there is something essen- tially degrading in a writer's acceptance of com- pensation for his work, and that in an ideal state of society the man of letters would some- how be taken care of without sharing in the contentions of the market-place. We are inclined to think that Mr. Howells has not gone far enough in his analysis of the problem. The man of letters is, like other men, whether Jew or Gentile, " fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, sub- ject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer." In a word, the man of letters lives, and must have the means of subsistence.