The Song of Songs

Transcriber's Note: Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/3398065
Third Edition .
In 1898 I published a translation of Sudermann's Der Katzensteg, under the title of Regina ; in 1906 of Es War, under the title of The Undying Past, and in 1908 of Der Täufer, under the title of John the Baptist. All these books were translated by Miss Beatrice Marshall, and the translations were received in England, America, and Germany with enthusiasm alike by critics and the public. I was therefore naturally anxious to publish Herr Sudermann's great novel, Das hohe Lied, on which he had been working for a great number of years, but I found that Mr. B. W. Huebsch of New York, the well-known American publisher, had purchased the world rights in the translation. My only chance therefore was to purchase from him the translation he had had made, and this I acquired in sheet form, as he had already copyrighted the book in this country. My edition of the work appeared here in October, 1910, under the title of The Song of Songs.
Serious objections were then raised to it in certain quarters, and I should like to place on record here exactly what happened and in proper sequence, by first of all printing a letter which I wrote to Sir Melville Macnaghten. Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department, Scotland Yard; a circular letter which I sent to the book trade; and a circular letter which I sent to the Incorporated Society of Authors and the following well-known novelists, together with such replies as I received:
London, W.,
December 9th , 1910.
Sir Melville Macnaghten,
Criminal Investigation Department,
New Scotland Yard, S.W.
Dear Sir,
I am told that Inspectors Lawrence and Duggan called at my office to-day to inform me that complaint had been made of The Song of Songs, by Hermann Sudermann, which was described as an obscene book. Through ill-health I have not been at my office for several weeks, although I happen to be in London to-day on my way to Brighton; but my manager immediately came to me and communicated what had passed. The officers informed him that you do not associate yourself at the present juncture with the opinion that has been expressed upon the book, but that their object was to draw my attention to the fact that complaint had been made.