Show Purity in Fiction action Cry as Aroused Arouse EnglIsh n g gLondon is Authors 11 London Literary Letter Special ONDON Jan the tho li 11 librarian LONDON L mounted that lint hl high h hobby horse ot of theirs they call Purity In Fiction the au authors authors thors are In a huff From the press preS one learns that novelists novelist are pernicious and that librarians are ale prudish Th The time is III Imminent It Is declared when authors will be compelled to write knowing that their livelihoods and their reputations are arc at the merc mercy ot of ofa n a dozen bewildered tradesmen reading for dear life at the rate rata of a dozen booles a week WlllIam William De Dc Morgan Is among amonI the first to protest against the assumption on the part ot of the librarians of at a power of detraction without Incurring tine the responsibilities re responsibilities of libel Ho He Inns has expressed ex pressed to his pUblisher time the wish that hint under no circumstances shall nn any book or of his be submitted to the librarians before publication B By the way a with reference to De Morgans In latest test novel It Never Neer Can Happen Again which was recently boycotted b by the librari librarians librarians ans because Issued In two volume form Corm the publisher Is to humor the whim of t the librarians b by getting out a special one volume edition So lon long as anyone any one can buy buo of m my words for six cents says Dc Morgan I do not care whether tho they have them In two volumes or In one volume No one can say ay I am giving short measure JOHN LATE LANE ALARMED To return to the censorship which the circulating libraries propose to In Institute institute with regard to new books John Lane says The more I think ot of the new censor censorship ship In fiction the more I am alarmed at the future ot of Imaginative literature In this country Of course I ma stay he be wrong for tor It depends wholly on the themon themen mon men who arrogate to this most difficult ot of all tasks but It seems to mo me certain that however well select selected ed or well appointed had tho they existed say fifty years ago 30 the they would have banned The Ordeal or of Richard b by George Meredith Indeed I have In m my possession fio pathetic letters ot of Merediths written In 1859 relating to that lust work In which he SOS says I find I have offended and tine the Matron atron Ho He will not or haply me uIn In his ng r tI ed catalogue Because of the immoralities Im Immoralities moralities I depict Oh canting Age Aget T I predict a deluge Is Metternich and after him Meantime Iam am tabooed from all decent tables On rereading portions 1 t cannot but sa say there is In the book here and there and weakness My ol olI I fingers start to tear out those thoe pas passages ages nevertheless the main design and moral purpose I hold to In another letter Meredith wIltes Apropos ot of Chapman wrote Toto to ask about the In It appears took copies copieR deigning to sa say that he haul some hope ot of me lie He replied that he had ad It as much and ancl as tong long a as ho could but that In consequence ot of the urgent ot of several re respectable families who objected to It I a as dangerous and wicked und and dam he urns US compelled to withdraw It Such Sueh Is the case There arc aeo 1 grossly prurient and morbidly timid people who might haply hapl be hurt anti and with these the world is IR Yet 40 years ears after R L Stevenson said tint tho rho wonderful love loe scene be tween Richard RIhard and Luc Lucy was the thc mot most beautiful love loe passage In the whole range rang of English fiction and one which should be reprinted and given to an all true lovers OR YOUNG GIRLS ONLY Robert Hobert who Is wintering In Rome that there seems a keen desire on the part of man many people that no boo books I should be published that are not spec specially In II adapted to the minds of at very vcr young oung Iris It If the English nation is II really anxious to be protected Irons from those playwrights and novelists who care for truth look life In the face describe It fiR as It Is and mon men and even perhaps very young the they really are J I sup pose Jose It Is useless to protest I dislike Immoral hooks and do not wish them to bo be published But man many morn moral I books which I nm am glad have been published and widely read realI contain which no very en young oung girl 1111 should pore over oer Is the very young girl Irl to dominate the Intellectual world In England POETS LOVE LETTERS At the of the New Year a mystery regarding Alfred Altred de Musset will be revealed There Thero Is In the na library ot of France a little Iron box contain containing In love letters from the poet to an unknown woman letters that are arc said to be the most beautiful the most passionate ot of his writings writing These letters came to the national library In a curiously romantic way a Thirty years ears ago M or Jules Troubat was librarian In castle In this historic old town has changed little since It was the headquarters rs ot of the Scottish archers ot of Louis XI an old aid lad lady lived amon among the memories of the past De Musset had been dead for 25 years earn when this old lad lady who loved him him and remembered him as It if she lint hall known him ester yester da day told her friend Troubat that she Bhe w was s going gain to destroy his letters lotters He persuaded her not to do so The They belong ho said to the tho literature or of our country countr She at last consented to hand over the letters on two conditions her name was to be deleted and the they were to be kept sealed up for tor 30 years When Then Troubat died ho left them to the nn na national with the provision that tho they should not see the light until 1910 Next month this literary treasure will willbe willbe be solemnly opened b by the governor ot of the library In n the presence of the tho secretary or of state for the fine arts CHARLES |