"The recent death of Henry James is bringing out many anecdotes concerning him. At the time of George du Maurier's death it was recalled that he had once given the material for _Trilby_ to Henry James with permission to use it; and the story ran that, resolving to use it himself, Mr. James returned the material to Du Maurier, who wrote the novel from it. "But I don't think it has ever appeared that the real reason why Henry James did not attempt _Trilby_ was that he possessed no musical sense; Mr. James himself told me this, and without a sense of music the material was useless to any one. I discussed the incident with him some ten years ago and he added, in connection with _Trilby_ and Du Maurier, other interesting facts. "_Trilby_ did not at first make a signal success in England. Its first big hit was made in _Harper's Magazine_. Not realizing the American possibilities, Mr. du Maurier, when offered by Harper & Brothers a choice between royalties and five thousand dollars outright for the book rights, took the lump sum as if it were descended straight from heaven. When the news of the extraordinary success of the book in this country reached him, he realized his serious mistake, and in the family circle there was keen depression over it. But further surprises were in store for him. To their eternal credit, the house of Harper & Brothers--honorable then as now--in view of the unfortunate situation in which their author had placed himself, voluntarily canceled the first contract and restored Du Maurier to a royalty basis. The fear in the English home then was that this arrangement would come too late to bring in anything. Not only, however, did the book continue to sell, but the play came on, and together the rights afforded George du Maurier a competency that banished further worry from the home." _THE NOVEL MUST GO_ WILL N. HARBEN The novel is doomed. If the automobile, the aeroplane, and the moving picture continue to develop during the next ten years as they have developed during the last ten, people will cease almost entirely to take interest in fiction. It was not Henry Ford who told me this. Neither was it Mr. Wright, nor M. Pathe. The man who made this ominous prophecy about the novel is himself a successful novelist. He is Will N. Harben, author of _Pole Baker_, _Ann Boyd_, _The Desired Woman_, and many other widely read tales of life in rural Georgia. Although he is so closely associated with the Southern scenes about which he has written, Mr. Harben spends most of his time in New York nowadays. He justifies this course interestingly--but before I tell his views on this subject I will repeat what he had to say about this possible extinction of the novel. "You have read," he said, "of the tremendous vogue of _Pickwick Papers_ when it was first published. No work of fiction since that time has been received with such enthusiasm.