On not keeping our opinions to ourself

From the April 16, 1989 edition of Publishers' Weekly [No. 1368]

NOTES ON AUTHORS

ROBERT BARR, the novelist, on the 12th inst. recovered a verdict of $1000 damages in a libel suit against the New York Sun in the United States Circuit Court. The suit has been pending for some time. On May 17, 1896, the Sun published a paragraph in its London cable news saying that "Robert Barr, the novelist" had been sent to an asylum for inebriates. It turned out that the Robert Barr who was sent to the institution mentioned was a former Canadian politician, and not the novelist. A retraction was demanded, but it was not forthcoming until the following November, when the Sun in the course of a review of on of Mr. Barr's books, alluded jokingly to its mistake and explained how it occurred. In the meantime many papers throughout the country had published the Sun's story as fact and commented on it editorially.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

RAND, MCNALLY & Co. have just issued "a Valuable Life," by Adeline Sergeant, who is possessed of the almost lost art- good storytelling. The love histories embodied in the romance runs through three generations. The scene is rural England and the interest centers in the transmitting of a great inheritance.

MRS. WRIGGINS vivacious story, "Penelope's Progress," will be published shortly, and as it relates wholly to Scotland, it is to be bound in Scotch plaid. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., in order to procure precisely the plaid which seemed most fitting, have had it made specially for the book at the famous Anderson factory in Glasglow. The result promises to be eminently satisfactory; a volume somewhat rare in American bookmaking.