Thomas Nelson & Sons.
1919. 12 vol-
umes. $96.00. Editor-in-Chief, John H.
Finley.

Nelson's Encyclopædia was first published in 1904. It is the best encyclopedia for contemporary events. By means of the loose-leaf device which Thomas Nelson & Sons originated, new pages of revised and additional material can be inserted in the encyclopedia. No fewer than 250 revised pages are sent to subscribers every six months, in March and October, about 2000 changes a year being made to keep pace with the calendar.

Nelson's is the encyclopedia of new things rather than the old. It aims to register all change and

new.

all progress. The majority of its articles are brief, because they treat of subjects so recent that their history is as yet short. Its bibliographies too are, necessarily, scant, as few books have been written about subjects so The best of encyclopedias, if not already obsolete, are always obsolescent. Nelson's is "the encyclopedia that never grows old." The House of Nelson outlines reading courses in the Encyclopedia and maintains a Research Service Bureau to which readers may apply for any information not yet included in the Encyclopædia.

Nelson's Encyclopædia is journalistic in its matter and in its style. Its three-column page even gives it a journalistic appearance. Although issued by the Scotch House of Nelson, the Loose-Leaf Encyclopædia is an American idea, and an American encyclopedia, born in America, and made in America. ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, and General Information.

Eleventh edition. 1916. 29 volumes. $159.50. Encyclopædia Britannica Corporation, New York.

The Britannica is the oldest of the encyclopedias. It was first published in Edinburgh in 1768 and consisted of three volumes.

It has passed thru eleven editions, of which the ninth, 1875-1888, and the eleventh, 1916, are the only complete revisions.

There are at present three forms of the Eleventh edition:

1. The Cambridge University issue, large type on India paper, the American edition. $159,50 cloth.

2. Handy Volume issue on India paper. Sears, Roebuck; $92.80.

3. Handy Volume issue on ordinary paper. Sears, Roebuck; $89.55.

The two Handy Volume issues are photographic reproductions of the original plates, reduced one third in size. The contents are identical word for word with the contents of the Cambridge issue, the only difference being size of type.

The Britannica is the arch example of the monographic type of encyclopedia. It contain's only 41,000 articles, as against 80,000 in the New International Encyclopædia, showing that the Britannica treats subjects under large general headings rather than under specific headings. It is always necessary to consult the index volume to find a subject in the Britannica.

Long ago Chambers' Encyclopædia stated, that "no encyclopedia can be popular which is not executed on the plan of a single alphabet." The Britannica has tried in every edition to modify its monographic plan, but it still remains an old-fashioned type of encyclopedia. very difficult to use.

The Britannica is the least cosmopolitan of all the encyclopedias. It is preponderantly British. The disproportionate space given to things British over things American is shown in the field of biography, for instance, where there are 1160 British biographies and 120 American.

The weaknesses of the Britannica have been pointed out by Willard Huntingdon Wright in "Misinforming a Nation" (Huebsch) where attention is called to some two hundred omissions in the Britannica, among them the names of: Edith Wharton, Margaret Deland, Jack London, Booth Tarkington, Romain Rolland, Pierre de Coulevain, Robert Henri, Sergeant Kendall, Alden Weir, Puccini, Charpentier, John Dewey, Star.ley Hall. The Britannica contains not a single bi. ography of an American dramatist.

Many of the articles in the Britannica have been reprinted in book form. "Poetry" by Theodore WattsDunton is a classic monograph published separately by Dutton.

APPLETON'S NEW PRACTICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

Appleton, 1910. 6 volumes. $24.00. Edited by Marcus Benjamin.

This is a new edition, revised and enlarged, of a work of reference based on the best authorities, and arranged for use in home and school.

It

The term "cyclopedia" is less pretentious than "encylopedia." A cyclopedia does not claim to en circle the whole realm of human knowledge. sifts and selects its facts, and aims to be exclusive of dead subjects.

Appleton's Cyclopedia is essentially "practical" The obsolete, the remote, and the unimportant are omitted from its pages. It aims to answer all usual inquiries not covered in an unabridged dictionary. It is an excellent supplement to a dictionary. Appleton's gives the kind of information that is most in demand at the present day. Its facts are above all "usable." Some encyclopedias claim to "educate" you. Appleton's claims only to make you "well-informed." EVERYMAN'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

Dutton, 1912. 12 volumes. $15.00. Edited by Andrew Boyle. Everyman's is a very concise and compact eucyclopedia. It leaves little out. It contains more articles than many other larger encyclopedias. It economizes space by excluding maps, and colored illustrations. It abbreviates words, and it omits minute detaus not easily remembered. For instance, in biography, Everyman's gives the year of a man's birth and death, but not the date of the month. Its bibliographies are few.

Everyman's is an English encyclopedia modeled on the "English Cyclopædia" of Charles Knight, 1854, which, in turn, was modelled on the "Penny Cyclopædia" of 1833. Everyman's is a kind of Baby Britannica. It emphasizes British interests to the neglect of American interests. For instance. "New York" has one page. while "London" has twelve pages. "Gladstone" has three times as much space as "Lincoln." "Edinburgh" has more space than "New York," "Chicago,' and "Philadelphia" combined. Everyman's Encyclopædia is far more useful to an Englishman than to an American,

Everyman's stands in great need of revision. It contains some gross errors. For instance, the authorship of "The Origin of Species" is attributed to Huxley. Its proofreading is poor. Many words are misspelled.

It

Everyman's scale of the relatively important is, in some cases, strangely devoid of proportion. devotes undue space to the history of certain newspapers. Under one German newspaper it lists all the editors since 1798. It betrays a kind of favoritism in its praise of St. Paul's Cathedral and its omission of all other cathedrals.

WINSTON'S CUMULATIVE LOOSE-LEAF ENCYCLO

The Encyclopedia Press, 1907-1914 volumes. $50 (thin paper).

16

This is an international work of reference on the constitution doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church. It contains 15,000 articles by 1450 writers. Each article bears the signature of the writer.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is a monographic type of encyclopedia. It is not limited to subjects of interest to Catholics only. It contains notable contri butions to science, philosophy, civil and ecclesiastical law, education. music and art. Its contributors are not all Catholics. The article on "Gothic Architec ture," a classic monograph, is by Ralph Adams Cram, the architect, and a Protestant.

In biography the Catholic Encyclopedia is exclu

sively denominational. Catholics.

Its 800 biographies are all of

As a beautiful piece of bookmaking, the Catholic Encyclopedia is unsurpassed among encyclopedias. The colored reproductions of old masters are very fine, and the full page illustrations are very numerous and excellent.

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA.

Funk, 1901-06. 12 volumes. $84.00.

The Jewish Encyclopedia is a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times down to the present.

The Jewish Encyclopedia is written wholly by Hebrew scholars. It consists entirely of monographs, and is only sectarian in scope. It is first of all a religious encyclopedia, dealing largely with antiquities, and forming a necessary companion volume to the Christian Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge

As a biographical dictionary of the Jewish people it contains information not found in any other encyclopedia. It is a valuable Who's Who of the

Hebrew race.

1. The Re-Creation of Brian Kent, by Harold Bell Wright. Book Supply.

2. Dangerous Days, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Doran.

3 The Young Visiters, by Daisy Ashford. Doran.

4 Mare Nostrum, by Blasco Ibáñez. Dutton. 5. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Blasco Ibáñez. Dutton.

6. The Branding Iron, by Katherine Newlin Burt. Houghton.

7. Ramsey Milholland, by Booth Tarkington. Doubleday.

8. The Lamp in the Desert, by Ethel M. Dell Putnam.

9. Mary Olivier, by May Sinclair. Macmillan. 10. Saint's Progress, by John Galsworthy. Scribner.

GENERAL

1. The Years Between, by Rudyard Kipling. Doubleday.

2. The Seven Purposes, by Margaret Cameron. Harper.

3. Belgium, by Brand Whitlock. Appleton. 4. Roosevelt's Letters to His Children, ed. by J. B. Bishop. Scribner.

5. The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams. Houghton.

6. What Happened to Europe, by Frank A. Vanderlip. Macmillan.

The Atlantic's Bookshelf

The books chosen to fill the November bookshelf of the Atlantic Monthly are:

Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children, edited by Joseph Bucklin Bishop. Scrib

ner.

Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography, by William Roscoe Thayer. Houghton. The Happy End, by Joseph Hergesheimer. Knopf.

Ireland and England, by Edward Raymond Turner. Century.

The Remaking of a Mind, by Henry de Man. Scribner.

Heritage, by V. Sackville West. Doran.

The Grolier Club Exhibit

On October 31, The Grolier Club opened its current season of free public exhibitions at 47 East 60th Street with a collection of about 200 books presenting samples of the best bookbindings of the 19th century.

Among the more modern men represented are Cape, Chambolle, Cuzin, Marius-Michel and Mercier, so skilled in the gilder's art.

The English section shows the work of the followers of the great Roger Payne and devotes much space to the varieties of styles used by Bedford, closing with the early work of Cobden-Sanderson.

The exhibition is open to the public without charge, daily from 10 A. M. to 6 P. M. and on Thursday and Saturday evenings until 10 P. M., and will continue until November 22nd.

On the evening of November 18th there will be a joint meeting of The Grolier Club with the society of The Graphic Arts, and Mr. Samuel W. Marvin, one of the founders of The Grolier Club will speak on "Fifty Years in the Manufacture of Books."

Dunsany, the Traveler

Lord Dunsany made his second New York appearance on Wednesday evening, October 29th, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. A large audience listened with such enthusiasm to his interesting talk on his writings that it is safe to predict an even greater demand for his books in this country.

Lord Dunsany will be heard in the following cities before he leaves the United States: New Orleans, November 8th. St. Louis, November 10th. St. Paul, November 11th. Omaha, November 15th. Chicago, November 18th. Evanston, November 20th. Detroit, November 30th. Rochester, December 3rd. New York, December 8th.

Author Gossip

BOOTH TARKINGTON probably uses more lead pencils than any other writer in America. His books are all written in longhand at an artist's drawing table which he can adjust to any pose that may suit his comfort at the moment. The reason for the pencil is that the author of "Ramsey Milholland" is tireless in the work of revision. As his stories take shape, every phrase is pondered, balancel, scrutinized before it is permitted to pass. Individual words are scored out again and again. Were a manuscript subjected to any such vigorous revision with pen and ink, it would very soon-with deletions, interlineations and amendments-become one huge blot, utterly illegible. Hence the wisdom of Mr. Tarkington's choice.

The prevailing notion that all poets are impractical men is strikingly refuted in the person of John Hall Wheelock, whose fourth book of poems, "Dust and Sight," has just been published. Altho it is not generally known, Mr. Wheelock, has been for the past nine years the successful manager of the retail sales department of Charles Scribner's Sons.

Mme. Saint-René Taillandier, the author of "The Soul of the 'C. R. B.," which gives such an interesting and unusual account of relief work in Belgium, is a Frenchwoman belonging To a Parisian group notable in politics and literature. She is a niece of the famous historian Taine, a sister-in-law of Paul Bourget,

and a sister of Andre Chevrillon, while her husband was a member of the Academy and won man honors in the French diplomatic service.

John Drinkwater, English poet, critic, playwright and producer, landed in this country a few weeks ago to direct the forthcoming production of his "Abraham Lincoln" play, to lecture and to learn first-hand about the drama and the poetry of the United States. Mr. Drinkwater belongs to that group of poets who have always been as much interested in drama as in poetry and has written and championed the play in poetry, while working for its successful production. His Repertory. Theater in Birmingham is perhaps the best and biggest material evidence of his success in England. This theater started seven years ago; it now has three companies and is acknowledged an established thing.

Henry de Man, author of "The Remaking of a Mind (Scribner), and a leader of the Belgian Labor Party, recently said in an interview for the press: "Even if the anti-war attitude of the Socialist Party in America had not caused the majority of American-born Socialists to leave the party, its traditional methods would never have appealed to the American spirit, for they were European and not American. The party is, in fact, a federation of unassimilated immigrants trying to import ideas which may correspond to the conditions in their native countries, but certainly not to those that prevail in America."

Recent Motion Pictures Based on
Books

These pictures have been selected for listing by The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures:

The Career of Katherine Bush, Famous Players-Lasky, Paramount-Artcraft, 5 reels; star-Catherine Calvert, Adapted from Elinor Glyn's story of a working girl with society ambitions.

Told in the Hills, Famous Players- Lasky, Paramount, 6 reels; star-Robert Warwick. A western romance based on the tale by Marah Ellis Ryan.

Checkers, Fox 7 reels. A finely produced adaptation of Henry Blossom's well known race track melodrama.

Evangeline, Fox 5 reels; star-Miriam Cooper. Longfellow's poem exquisitely translated to the screen.

Beating the Odds, Vitagraph, 5 reels; star -Harry Morey. Romance from the novel, "The Money Maker," by Irving R. Allen.

Destiny, Universal 6 reels; star-Dorothy Phillips. A rural and society drama from the story by Charles Neville Buck.

When Bearcat Went Dry, World, 6 reels; star-Vangie Valentine. A Cumberland moonshine melodrama from the novel of the same name by Charles Neville Buck.

Atonement, Pioneer, 7 reels. from Tolstoi's "The Living Corpse."

Australia Condemns Trashy

American Magazines

Drama

He

A writer in Smith's Weekly, a Sydney, Australia, publication has a tilt at the erotic ten dency of the contents of many of the magazines offered for sale on the bookstalls. says: "It's naughty, but it's nice" is the motto of the bookstalls these days. Train or ferry, you are met at the entrances with magazine covers displaying the bared limbs of intendedto-be seductive females, and carrying suggestive titles. The war, by its interference with the regular import of the fair-to-piffling English magazine matter, has let us in for this stuff from the land of Mr. Wilson. The professor may be making the world safe for democracy, but the reading matter of his countrymen is certainly making the world safe for pornography. The American magazine, as we have it on the bookstalls, is deliberately designed to break down a sane reading taste, or, that already being_accomplished, to pander to the messy result. If you read one of the type, you have read the lot. Reading of the quality cannot do any good and may do infinite harm. The penny dreadful does reward virtue in the end.

Reading Mendeth the Man WASHINGTON, Oct. 26.-Dr. Grayson, tonight authorized the following statement:

"Mr. Wilson rested today after his activity of yesterday and the day before, Mrs. Wilson reading light poetry and stories to him.

In a midday bulletin Grayson said:
"The President continues to improve."

A Voice From "The Haunted Bookshops" As Conceived by Walter A. Dyer

[Written for Mr. Morley's eye only but reprinted with his kind permission.-ED.]

Deprived of the sublimating influence of Christopher Morley's poetic imagination, wouldn't it be really more like this?

Titania speaks: Hello, Mame, so you've got around at last to see a fella. 'Bout time. Sure, this is the Haunted Bookshop. Search me. Just a joke of the boss's, I guess. I ain't seen no spooks yet. Plenty of nuts, tho.

Sure, I like the job all right. The boss is O. K., only he's a little cracked in the cupola. Lectures me about the mission of lit'rachure, whatever that is. He's all right, tho, if he does smoke shredded wheat all day.

Sure, it's an easy job. Just sellin' old books to all kinds of ginks. Easy bisiness to learn. Sellin' books is just like sellin' stationery or notions. All you've got to do is to learn the popular stuff in the season's lines and hand it out with a little hot air. They'll fall for anything you tell 'em is charmin' or grippin'. Then you gotta know the names of the authors, Kiplin' and Stevenson and Mrs. Humphrey Ward Howe and all like that. I'm gettin' 'em down pat, Mame. Marie Corelli? Sure, we've got her. Ouida, too. And the Duchess I expect. All the old sports. I can't get the hang of the poetry, tho. Say, do you know what's this now verse leeber? I don't get it.

Speakin' of nuts, a fella comes in the other day and asks for "Trilby." I says to him, I says, "Say, do you think this is a shoe store?" Fresh guy, he was. He just grinned. Then the boss come up and sold him a copy of Bunion's "Progress." How was that, Mame?

We don't have everything, you see, so we aim to make 'em take somepin we've got. That's the main idea of this place. They say a fella named Morley invented it. Say, that guy oughta die a millionaire. I'm gettin' wise to the idear. Yesterday a guy comes in and asks for "The Reveries of a Bachelor," which was outa stock. So I shows him "Eben Holden" and "High an' Dry" by the same author. Get that?

Every other customer, seemsif, wants "The Four Horsemen of the Acropolis," but that ain't got into the second-hand stock yet. So it's my job to sell 'em somepin else. But "Youatt on the Horse" don't seem to hit 'em, somehow. How's Reggie, Mame?

Oh, you've gotta know all about these authors. You can't sell books ignorant. You've heard that old wheeze about the goil in Macy's book department, ain't yuh? Gent comes in and asks for "Macbeth." The goil didn't get him and asks the floor walker. He tells her to chase the yap down to the basement, cause "Macbeth" wasn't no book, it was a lamp chimney. You don't get that? No?

Oh, there's nothin' to it, this book bisiness. Only to-day a fella comes in for "The Necklace" and I sold him "Adam Bede." Well, so long, Mame. Come in again.

English Book-Trade News

From the London Correspondent of THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY

Poor

Herbert Jenkins, who is certainly doing his best to find out how to sell books, and is approaching the problem from unconventional standpoints an attitude with which we in America can more readily sympathize, perhaps -is offering $525 as a prize for a Jenkins author, whose book is selected as the best of Jenkins' bunch for 1920. The editors of the Daily Mail, Daily News, Daily Telegraph, Morning Post and Truth will decide. editors! Anyhow, it is impossible to load up the editor nowadays with a trouble he cannot manage to circumvent. But it's a clever bit of publicity and covers a multitude of readers-running to several millions. What a book it will be for the successful soul. Who knows-it may be Mr. Jenkins' new "Bindle" or his spy book, "The Man from Toronto." Jenkins is about the most successful publisher-author Great Britain has. He is certainly alive. Grant Richards is getting well off the mark, too, as a novelist. Look out for his next novel. It will be published over here.

The Clique is England's best and only antiquarian weekly. It has changed its address to 211 Goldhawk Road, London, W. 12. Mr. Frank Murray, who started it many years since, had his nose on a good thing when he thought of it. Murray is a good man and a good printer-full of ideas, and of the right kind for making business. He knew a lot about Le Gallienne in his early days-the days of "The Book Bills of Narcissus.' The second-hand book-trade in England without The Clique would be like a book, full of blank pages. Many American booksellers know it, use it, and what's more, advertise in it. In a recent number there were actually 40 pages of "wants." Take an average of 100 titles a page, that means some 4000 books were wanted by booklovers. Books out of print, very old books, second-hand copies of modern books, library needs, etc., covered these 4000 titles. Many of them were wanted for this country. It is fascinating to look down these lists and see what books are being sought for. A little corner could be made of them, and if sold at the right time, a good deal of profit, too. To have your list printed with your name at the head, means you are a member of The Clique, and you cannot be a member easily. If you are not a member, your name is printed at the bottom, and in another section of the paper. The Clique is also the official organ of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. We no

ticed, not long since, that George H. Grubb of Putnam's, who headed up the library work in the United Kingdom for the A. E. F. Y. M. C. A., used The Clique a good deal for getting hold of the books specially wanted by our boys who were "over there." It is a unique and useful little publication.

Everybody is asking if Barrie wrote "The Young Visiters." He did.'t. We know. It's had a big pull in England, and will be a leader for a long while.

130 Years of Publishing

Keeping abreast of the times is the secret of many a firm's success. It has, for example, made the oldest of American publishing houses, the Methodist Book Concern, one of the biggest as well.

When the Methodist Book Company started in business in Philadelphia in 1789, soon after George Washington made his inaugural address as President, its working force was composed of one man and one boy. Today the concern has splendid buildings in New York, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Kansas City and New Orleans, while its employees number more than 1100. Part of its issue of books, printed under the trademark, "The Abingdon Press," is known the world over.

The publishing business is managed by agents elected by the General Conference and working under direction of a Book Committee. This Book Committee is also elected by the General Conference and acts in the same capacity as a board of directors.

The San Francisco branch, one of the most progressive of all the branches, was established in 1852, when supplies were sent around Cape Horn. Since 1907 it has been managed by Howard M. Boys, who for fourteen years was with the Chicago branch. It has more than 10,000 accounts.

With six millions in assets and the sales last year totaling $2,972,000 the concern can spell "success" in big letters. Its dividends for the. year 1912 to 1915, inclusive, totaled $1,177,000. These dividends are paid in the form of pensions to aged Methodist preachers, their widows and orphans. The average person is apt to regard a public welfare organization as an institution supported by charity-always broke and always trying to make a collection. Here he sees one which is self-supporting and thoroly competent.

Business Books for Xmas and

New Year Gifts

So wide-spread has become the interest among the business-reading public in business literature that the A. W. Shaw Company, publishers of Shaw Standard Business Books, will this year conduct a Xmas and New Year business book campaign. Wherever there is a store handling the Shaw publications, special efforts will be made to win the attention of the public to their books as Xmas and New Year gifts.

Whitaker's Reference Catalog

The publishers of the English "Reference Catalogue of Current Literature" announce the preparation of a new edition to appear early in 1920. The last edition was issued in 1913, a wide can in publication, due to the war. This bibliography, which parallels for the British book-trade our own "Publishers' Trade List Annual," is an important tool in many of our bookstores and public libraries, and its coming will be doubly welcomed after an interim of seven years. THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY office is agent for the American market.