Cirrus@Austlit

A collection of short items, largely derived from international newspapers, concerning happenings in the worlds of literature and art. Events mentioned include:

• the publication by Sir Samuel Baker of a new work entitled The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia and Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs
• developments in photographic techniques
• the extinction of copyright in the works of 'Schiller and Goethe, Jean Paul Wieland, Herder, and every German author who died before the 9th of November 1837'
• 'a sensational description of the death of Miss Avonia Jones, the widow of poor G. V. Brooke
• the 'decoration' of some French journalists by Emperor Francis Joseph
• heightened expectation over the impending publication of Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861: To Which Are Prefixed and Added Extracts from the Same Journal Giving an Account of Earlier Visits to Scotland and Tours in England and Ireland, and Yachting Excursions
• the death of the pseudonymous 'Peter Parley' (said to be William Martin)
• the distribution of books to Japan by US publisher G. P. Putnam and Son
• the completion of Richard Morris's Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• a new volume of Thackeray's work, published by Smith, Elder & Co
• and various other minor publications