delightfully drawn and reproduced, as for instance"Tartarin of Tarascon 'and "Sappho." But, on the other hand, the appearance of Albert Sterner's illustrations for "Prue and I " was followed by a number of imitations, which need not be named. Then there was the holiday edition of "The Last Leaf," by Oliver Wendell Holmes, printed in Boston, which, too, was promptly followed by a halfdozen of imitations, notably " The Mahogany Tree." But this species of imitation is perhaps wrong only from an artistic point of

view.

The strife among the publishers for good work augurs well for the illustrative art of the future. Only the best is wanted in literature and art in these busy days, and this struggle for supremacy, which has been brought about by ambition and a healthy, intelligent demand, has raised the standard of American illustrative art above that of any other country. Nowadays the publisher, instead of a scant half-dozen of artists from whom to select the man or men to illustrate a book, has at his command a small army of talented, capable men thoroughly educated abroad in the best of the "ateliers," under the best of the modern masters of Europe men who are capable of not only making a good drawing, but of giving it a literary flavor as well; men who have the capabilities of the different reproductive processes at their fingerends, and who can set the characters of fiction up on their feet, so to speak-make them live upon the page. This, indeed, is no mean art; for the illustrator, unlike the painter who in painting one or two pictures a year thinks he has done much, is called upon to make often a like number of pictures a week, and each of these pictures often filled with the result of study and research; and all this apart from the mere technical requirements of his profession, with which this article does not deal. Nowadays the illustrator of books is generally a specialist; that is to say, he confines himself to representing one particular phase of life; and undoubtedly art is the gainer thereby; but formerly the illustrator was required to be an all-round manas some one has cleverly said, "one who had a smattering of furniture, arms, and all peo

ples, and able to draw at a moment's notice a murder, a wedding, a horse-race, or the opening of Congress." Of course, in the technique of the illustration the public is rarely interested, but to the artist this is nearly always uppermost in his thoughts. Technique is simply the mastery of material, and if the artist was simply a mechanic, like the printer, he could be easily satisfied with his hand-work; but each of his creations is different from the others, and each is to his eye incomplete in some detail, and he is dissatisfied. If he could produce one piece of work which he and the world agreed was perfect, he would not be willing to duplicate it, or rather he could not duplicate it. He does not always give the public that which he considers his best work, because the public and the artist rarely agree in this matter; and, again, the publisher buys that which in the scales has tipped the greatest number of ounces of the coin of approbation, and so in some cases the public is the loser.

Then, again, there are some books that should not be illustrated; that is to say, books which have become classics, and the pictures of which are supplied each reader for himself by his mind's eye. Fortunately, these classics are not often touched by the modern illustrator; there is small need, for " of the making of books there is no end." So, with the demand for illustrators on the one hand, and the native manual dexterity of the American illustrator on the other, spurred into activity by a healthy ambition, the American should become a leader in comparison with his foreign contemporaries; and this assertion must find agreement in the mind of every one who gives the matter thought. The profuse presentation of illustrations in nearly every periodical published, and in the mass of books which have appeared during the past ten years, and those now upon the presses of the publishers, proves beyond question that the printed picture, which is a response to the popular taste of the public demanding a profusion and a high quality of artistic accompaniment, is a healthy demand, which carries with it an unmistakable sign of progress, and is an indispensable part of the intellectual life of to-day.

T

HAT the form and dress of a book ought to be significant of its quality and character has come to be widely recognized. This is notably true of the work of the Riverside Press, which for a long time past has been conspicuous for artistic quality. Avoiding the danger of the purely decorative tendency which has run away with so much recent book-making, the Riverside Press has striven to combine soundness of workmanship with beauty. It has found the golden mean between severity and elegance, and the books which represent its taste are likely, therefore, to keep their hold on the appreciation of the most intelligent readers. These comments are suggested by the Riverside Edition of the Prose and Poetical Works of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Of the eight volumes which compose this new edition, two are given to the poetical and six to the prose works. The volumes are uniform in size with the earlier Riverside Editions. The page is a delight to the eye, so clean, clear, and well balanced is it; and the books are bound in a pleasant shade of green ribbed cloth, with light gilt lines and gilt titles. The daintiness, elegance, and simplicity of this edition commend themselves to those who know how preeminently Mr. Aldrich's work illustrates these qualities. Perhaps the most fastidious literary artist which this country has yet produced, Mr. Aldrich has become the master of a rare quality of workmanship—a quality which embodies not only the skill of the hand but the skill of the soul. He has himself, in very effective lines, protested against confounding workmanship with art, but in his own case there is no danger of such confusion, because his workmanship is art, and art of a very genuine kind. It is a pleasure to possess his verse and prose in a form so accordant with the quality and spirit which pervade both verse and prose. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $12.)

It was eminently appropriate to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Thomas Carlyle by the publication of a Centenary Edition, and the publishers have not been slow to seize upon the proper form which such an edition should take. Carlyle's great personality, which fills his books with such overflowing vitality, entitles him to a large and generous treatment, He

was a man on a great scale, and his work was done on a great scale, and one has a sense of fitness in finding that the Centenary Edition is to be completed in thirty large octavo volumes, with a broad page, very distinct type, and an excellent and cheerful binding. Mr. H. D. Traill, who is a trained literary man, with a large experience of the right sort behind him, has supervision of the edition, and contributes, besides a general introduction, a short preface to each successive work. A new volume is to be added for the purpose of gathering up some miscellaneous essays and minor writings which have not before appeared in an authorized collected form, while the whole edition is to be printed from the text of the last edition collated and arranged by Carlyle. The edition is to contain a number of portraits, including all the well-known representations of Carlyle, with several which have not heretofore appeared in any edition of his works. Maps and plans are added, and every effort has been made to give this edition finality as regards completeness and thoroughness of workmanship. It is not often that one comes upon such good book-making at so low a cost to the reader; for these volumes are sold at $1.25 each. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

The publication of the "Outward Bound " edition of Rudyard Kipling's Works shows how strong and how permanent a hold this brilliant and versatile writer of prose and verse has on the reading public. Mr. Kipling is still less than thirty-five years old, and it seems only a very few years since his "Plain Tales from the Hills" attracted attention; yet here are ten volumes of goodly size filled with work of an astonishingly high average value, and before the two volumes announced to complete the edition are off the press it is more than probable that Mr. Kipling will have written enough to fill still another. The gathering into one edition of all these fugitive stories and sketches, held under different copyrights, was, we judge, a task calling for diplomacy as well as energy. The result justifies the attempt. The volumes are dignified, simple, with moderate and tasteful ornamentation, with color and design of binding quite free from the too-prevailing fad of excessive boldness; in short, they are worthy of any library, and delightful to handle