| 240 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/240 | The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890) | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+01+Issue+02+%28June+1890%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 02 (June 1890)</a> | | | <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&view=1up&seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a> | 1890-06-16-The-Author-1-2 | | | | | 25–58 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1">1</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-06-16">1890-06-16</a> | | | | | | | 2 | | | 18900616 | Vol. 1.—No. 2.)<br />
JUNE 16, 1890<br />
[Price, Sixpence.<br />
The Author.<br />
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS<br />
(INCORPORATED).<br />
CONDUCTED BY<br />
WALTER BESANT.<br />
Published for the Society be<br />
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE<br />
LONDON, E.C.<br />
1890.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 24 (#42) ##############################################<br />
<br />
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
The RIGHT HON. THE LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.<br />
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, K.C.S.I.<br />
ROBERT BATEMAN.<br />
Walter BESANT.<br />
Rev. PROF. BONNEY, F.R.S.<br />
J. COMYNS CARR.<br />
EDWARD CLODD.<br />
THE EARL OF DESART.<br />
A. W. DUBOURG.<br />
PROF. MICHAEL FOSTER, F.R.S.<br />
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.<br />
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.<br />
EDMUND GOSSE,<br />
H. RIDER HAGGARD.<br />
THOMAS HARDY.<br />
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
Rev. W. J. LOFTIË, F.S.A.<br />
George MEREDITH.<br />
HERMAN C. MERIVALE.<br />
J. C. PARKINSON."<br />
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY<br />
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.<br />
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
George AUGUSTUS SALA.<br />
W. BAPTISTE' Scoones.<br />
J. J. STEVENSON.<br />
JAS. SULLY.<br />
William MoY THOMAS.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.<br />
Auditor—Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE, F.L.S.<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br />
Chairman-Walter BESANT.<br />
1. H. Rider HAGGARD.<br />
I J. M. Lely.<br />
ROBERT BATEMAN.<br />
EDMUND Gosse.<br />
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK.<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
Solicitors.<br />
Messrs. Field, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.<br />
OFFICES.<br />
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 24 (#43) ##############################################<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. I.—No. 2.]<br />
JUNE 16, 1890.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
News and Notes<br />
"Thou shah not Steal," by Wilkie Collins<br />
The Troubles of a Beginner<br />
"Cursed Coincidences"<br />
The Exchange of Books<br />
Leaflet No". II.—On Royalties<br />
Royal Literary Fund<br />
A Hard Case, No. II<br />
PACE<br />
... 35<br />
... 31<br />
- 35<br />
... 37<br />
- 37<br />
... 38<br />
- 39<br />
... 41<br />
The Chestnut Bell<br />
"The Art of Authorship" ...<br />
Notes<br />
Literary Puzzles<br />
Questions, Cases, and Answers<br />
At Work<br />
New Books and New Editions<br />
Advertisements<br />
**AOE<br />
. . 42<br />
... 44<br />
... 47<br />
... 49<br />
... 50<br />
... 52<br />
... 54<br />
... 56<br />
NEWS AND NOTES.<br />
AMONG other suggestions received from<br />
readers some have been sent anony-<br />
mously. I thought it was unnecessary to<br />
warn correspondents that no notice can be taken<br />
of unsigned communications. As, however, the<br />
warning has to be made, I hope that this note will<br />
be sufficient.<br />
It was stated in our last number that we proposed<br />
inviting the First Lord of the Treasury to receive<br />
a deputation on the Administration of the Civil<br />
List Pension. A memorial was prepared and<br />
sent with the letter. The following is the reply of<br />
the Right Hon. W. H. Smith. The memorial will<br />
be published in our next number with a lew obser-<br />
vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr.<br />
Smith's letter in especial:—<br />
Downing Street,<br />
June 6th, 1890.<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge<br />
the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward-<br />
ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of<br />
the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him<br />
to receive a deputation on the subject.<br />
Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements<br />
and suggestions placed before him, and he need<br />
not say that he would be glad to receive such a<br />
vol. 1.<br />
deputation if any useful purpose could be served<br />
thereby; but he fears that there is some misappre-<br />
hension as to the power of the First Lord of the<br />
Treasury in regard to the Fund.<br />
The administration is governed strictly by Act<br />
of Parliament, and the intervention of the First<br />
Lord is limited to that discretion which must in<br />
such cases finally rest with some one responsible<br />
minister; his decisions, although not subject to the<br />
review of Parliament, are by Act yearly brought<br />
under the cognisance of both Houses and of the<br />
public, by the annual return of all pensions granted<br />
within the year.<br />
To make such changes as the memorial suggests<br />
would necessitate a new Act of Parliament, and<br />
Mr. Smith does not think that there has been any<br />
such expression of dissatisfaction either in the<br />
House or outside of it as would justify the<br />
proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that<br />
Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an<br />
increase of the sum annually set apart for the<br />
Pension List.<br />
Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures<br />
in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct,<br />
show that the practical administration of the<br />
Fund is almost identical with the distribution<br />
proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to<br />
the services rendered to the Sovereign and under<br />
the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives<br />
of Science, Literature, and Art.<br />
With this explanation, and looking also to the<br />
extreme pressure of engagements on his time,<br />
c<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 24 (#44) ##############################################<br />
<br />
Zhe Society of Hutbors (Jncorporateb),<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
The Right Hon. the LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.<br />
George Meredith.<br />
Herman C. Merivale.<br />
T. C. Parkinson.<br />
The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
Walter Herries Pollock.<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
George Augustus Sala.<br />
W. Baptiste' Scoones.<br />
J. J. Stevenson.<br />
Jas. Sully.<br />
William Moy Thomas.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Bon. Con/isei—'E. M. Underdown, Q.C.<br />
Auditor—Ret. C. H. Middleton-Wake, F.L.S.<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br />
Chairman—Walter Besani<br />
Robert Batbman. H. Rider Haggard.<br />
Edmund Gosse. J. M. Lely.<br />
Solicitors.<br />
Messrs. Field, Roscoe. & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
Secretary—S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
OFFICES.<br />
4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I.<br />
Robert Bateman.<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
Rev. Prof. Bonney, F.R.S.<br />
J. Comyns Carr.<br />
Edward Clodd.<br />
The Earl of Desart.<br />
A. W. Dubourg.<br />
Prof. Michael Foster, F.R.S.<br />
Herbert Gardner, M. P.<br />
Richard Garnett, LL.D.<br />
Edmund Gosse.<br />
H. Rider Haggard.<br />
Thomas Hardy.<br />
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock.<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 25 (#45) ##############################################<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. I.—No. 2.]<br />
JUNE 16, 1890.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
News and Notes<br />
"Thou shall not Steal," by Wilkie Collins<br />
The Troubles of a Beginner<br />
"Cursed Coincidences"<br />
The Exchange of Books<br />
Leaflet No~ II.—On Royalties<br />
Royal Literary Fund<br />
AHardCase.No.il<br />
I ACE<br />
... 25<br />
... 31<br />
••■ 35<br />
... 37<br />
■•• 37<br />
... 38<br />
... 39<br />
... 41<br />
The Chestnut Bell<br />
"The Art of Authorship" ...<br />
Notes<br />
Literary Puzzles<br />
Questions, Cases, and Answers<br />
At Work<br />
New Books and New Editions<br />
Advertisements<br />
PAGE<br />
• • 42<br />
... 44<br />
... 47<br />
... 49<br />
... 50<br />
... 52<br />
••■ 54<br />
... 56<br />
A copy of this paper will be sent free to any member of the<br />
Society for one twelvemonth. It is hoped, however, that most<br />
members will subscribe to the paper. The yearly subscription is<br />
6s. 6d. including postage, to be sent to the Society, 4, Portugal<br />
Street, W.C.<br />
111C XVIglJl HUH. »». 11. OllllLU. inv. uuuuuu. .....<br />
be published in our next number with a few obser-<br />
vations on the whole subject in general and on Mr.<br />
Smith's letter in especial:—<br />
Downing Street,<br />
June 6th, 1890.<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
Mr. W. H. Smith desires me to acknowledge<br />
the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., forward-<br />
ing a memorial in regard to the Administration of<br />
the Civil List Pension Fund, and requesting him<br />
to receive a deputation on the subject.<br />
Mr. Smith has carefully read the statements<br />
and suggestions placed before him, and he need<br />
not say that he would be glad to receive such a<br />
vol. 1.<br />
nOUSC Or UUIS1UC VI 11 tu mmu jUu...;<br />
proposal, while on the other hand, he fears that<br />
Parliament would be very unlikely to agree to an<br />
increase of the sum annually set apart for the<br />
Pension List.<br />
Mr. Smith must also point out that the figures<br />
in the memorial, accepting them as fairly correct,<br />
show that the practical administration of the<br />
Fund is almost identical with the distribution<br />
proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third to<br />
the services rendered to the Sovereign and under<br />
the Crown, and two-thirds to the representatives<br />
of Science, Literature, and Art.<br />
With this explanation, and looking also to the<br />
extreme pressure of engagements on his time,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 26 (#46) ##############################################<br />
<br />
26<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Mr. Smith hopes that the gentlemen represented<br />
in the memorial will not feel it necessary to seek<br />
for a personal interview.<br />
I remain, Dear Sir,<br />
Yours faithfully,<br />
S. S. Sprigge, Esq. C. Maude.<br />
It is pleasant to find that one's efforts are<br />
appreciated by all the persons concerned. I am<br />
therefore glad to report that The Author has<br />
received a cordial welcome from the Publisher's<br />
Circular. It has also received the kind of criticism<br />
which somewhat cools the cordiality. Let us re-<br />
peat, therefore, one point on which we have always<br />
insisted and which those who profess to write in<br />
the trade interest always try to evade or else boldly<br />
deny, viz., that there is very little speculation or<br />
risk in modern publishing. However, since the<br />
Publisher's Circular declares that the Society has<br />
their "most hearty sympathy" in asking for "just<br />
and honest treatment, fair and open agreements,<br />
and honourable observance of those agreements,"<br />
we will not find fault with these criticisms, and<br />
we shall look for the practical co-operation of the<br />
Publisher's Circular, especially in our determination<br />
to show authors what, in their agreements, they<br />
concede to publishers and what they keep to them-<br />
selves.<br />
I am happy to report that The Author has met<br />
with a very satisfactory reception from all quarters.<br />
The "literary ladies " met at dinner on the 30th<br />
of May at the Criterion. The chair was occupied<br />
by Mrs. L. T. Meade, who was supported by Miss<br />
Mabel Collins, Mrs. Pennell, Miss Corkran, and<br />
Mrs. Grahame R. Tomson. Letters of apology<br />
for non-attendance were read from Lady Colin<br />
Campbell, Miss Jessie Fothergill, Mrs. Crawford,<br />
Miss Sarah Tytler, and Mrs. Leith Adams. Let us<br />
hope that a pleasant evening was the result. We<br />
shall be very glad to see the literary ladies side by<br />
side with the literary men at our own dinner next<br />
month. And I, for one, have no doubt as to which<br />
will prove the pleasanter function. Literature, like<br />
the world itself, is of both sexes, and therefore<br />
happiest when fully represented.<br />
The fusion of the two old publishing firms of<br />
Longman and Rivington, or rather the absorption<br />
of the latter by the former, destroys one of the few<br />
remaining old publishing firms. The history of<br />
Literature in all ages is that of the publication<br />
of new works, if only for the simple reason<br />
that authors must work to live, and that if men<br />
are not forced to work they will for the most part<br />
produce nothing. The history of Literature in the<br />
eighteenth century is very closely bound up with the<br />
two houses of Longman and Rivington. If it were<br />
written, which never has been done, we should learn<br />
howtheliterary public—the people who read and look<br />
for new books, and buy them—gradually increased<br />
during this century, until by its close publishing<br />
was no longer a speculative and uncertain business<br />
conducted in ignorance by persons who had small<br />
means of judging the state of the market, who<br />
bought MSS. for so many guineas apiece, losing<br />
largely by one work, and doing pretty well by<br />
another. By the end of the eighteenth century the<br />
reign of the Book Clubs had already well set in;<br />
these were literary centres in provincial towns, such<br />
as Norwich and Birmingham; the clergy were<br />
scholars and students; a publisher knew where he<br />
could "place" a certain number of every good<br />
book; and a great change had come over the<br />
whole art and mystery of publishing books. Prac-<br />
tically, "Risk," that good old Bogey whose demise<br />
is still so persistently denied, had already vanished.<br />
♦<br />
There appeared lately in the New York Tribune<br />
a communication signed by the well-known letters,<br />
G. W. S., which, beginning with the relations of<br />
bookseller to publisher, passed on to the questions<br />
in which we ourselves are mainly interested. It is<br />
this portion of the letter which we reproduce, sup-<br />
pressing the name referred to, as it has nothing to<br />
do with the argument.<br />
"It is A. B. who, among others, makes himself<br />
responsible for the statement that it is rapidly<br />
becoming impossible for a bookseller, pure and<br />
simple, dealing in current literature, to make a living<br />
profit from his business. No doubt A. B. is right,<br />
if the publisher's view of what constitutes a 'living<br />
profit' is to prevail. A. B. is a partner in a very<br />
eminent publishing house, and anything he says<br />
on the publishing or selling of books deserves<br />
attention. He has written a long letter about<br />
bookselling to a trade organ, and expresses some<br />
sympathy with the booksellers in their present<br />
difficulties. Before we proceed with that, might<br />
I suggest to A. B. that some of his sympathies<br />
might be bestowed on another person concerned<br />
in the book business, the author? If the figures<br />
I have given above are correct, the seller of books,<br />
even in his present wretched estate, makes a profit<br />
of 30 per cent. Will A. B. be so kind as to tell<br />
us in what proportion the profits on a successful<br />
book are distributed between author and publisher?<br />
Does the author make a ' living profit' on what<br />
is commonly the only capital he possesses, his<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 27 (#47) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
27<br />
brains? Let us take an imaginary case. We will<br />
suppose that an eminent firm publishes a book,<br />
say, of reminiscences in two handsome volumes at<br />
$7.50, and that, notwithstanding the high price,<br />
the public buys four editions of it. That, surely,<br />
is a successful book, and one that ought to pay<br />
everybody concerned a living profit, and perhaps<br />
something more. Does A. B. think he could find<br />
out what share of the proceeds the author received<br />
and how much the publisher kept for himself, and,<br />
if he could, will he let us know?<br />
"A private transaction? Oh, no, A. B., that is<br />
one of several mistakes into which you publishers<br />
occasionally fall. It is a matter of very considerable<br />
public interest. It concerns the community deeply<br />
that literature should be encouraged, and should<br />
be profitable to the producer of it. The patron on<br />
whom the author once in some measure depended<br />
has disappeared. The publisher has taken his<br />
place. He is, or ought to be, the Maecenas of the<br />
nineteenth century. But if Johnson were living<br />
now, do you think he would soften the terrible<br />
lines which he wrote under the sting of Lord<br />
Chesterfield's neglect?<br />
'There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,—<br />
Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail.'<br />
"To substitute publisher for patron would spoil<br />
the metre. Would it much affect the sense?<br />
The publisher is a man of business, the author is<br />
not, or seldom is. Do you think publishers have<br />
always borne that in mind? They have drawn<br />
their own contracts. Have the interests of the<br />
author or of the publisher been most carefully<br />
considered in those printed forms, filled up ac-<br />
cording to circumstances which are presented to<br />
the author, all unacquainted as he is with affairs,<br />
for him to sign?<br />
"Do not imagine, my dear A. B., that I address<br />
these questions to you because I mean to imply<br />
that you personally do not conduct your business<br />
on the most honourable principles. I am per-<br />
suaded that you do. But I apprehend you would<br />
admit, or perhaps even assert, that among your<br />
many rivals in the business of publishing books<br />
are to be found some whose treatment of authors is<br />
less considerate than your own. I will not say, and<br />
perhaps you would not, that any of them are dis-<br />
honest. I prefer to use a word which was a<br />
favourite with Matthew Arnold, and to suggest<br />
that in their dealings with the authors on whose<br />
productions their own prosperity depends, some<br />
of them are sometimes indelicate. You would not,<br />
I think, refuse to go as far as that. You would<br />
say, no doubt, there are publishers and publishers,<br />
and that not every firm is so scrupulous in its trans-<br />
actions or so high-minded as your own.<br />
"If they were, how would you explain, for ex-<br />
ample, the existence of the Incorporated Society of<br />
Authors, and what construction would you put<br />
upon some of its recent proceedings? Some of<br />
the most respected and popular authors of the<br />
day are members of that Society. They have<br />
an executive committee, and that committee<br />
go so far as to declare that there are firms<br />
of so-called publishers which exist solely by<br />
robbery and cheating. Surely you, and all other<br />
publishers of high character and repute, must<br />
desire to dissociate yourselves as widely as possible<br />
from the scoundrels who profess to carry on the<br />
same business that you do. You would agree with<br />
the committee, would you not, in their urgent re-<br />
commendation that authors should send their<br />
agreements with publishers for examination by the<br />
Society before signing? If there were clauses in<br />
those agreements injurious to the author, he would<br />
be warned not to sign. If there were none, no<br />
harm would be done. You would heartily dis-<br />
approve, I am sure, every attempt to induce an<br />
unwary writer to bind himself not to publish in<br />
future with any other house than that which was<br />
then to issue a particular book—an attempt which<br />
Mr. Besant calls monstrous and indecent. You<br />
would, if the Society called upon you for advice,<br />
strike out that agreed statement of the cost of<br />
production which the less delicate publisher some-<br />
times inserts; and is sometimes careless enough<br />
to exaggerate. You would not justify for a<br />
moment the refusal of a publisher to submit his<br />
books to examination, in order that his statement<br />
of the expenses of publication, of the number of<br />
copies printed and sold, and other such interesting<br />
and vital particulars, might undergo an indepen-<br />
dent audit. You will rejoice in the appearance of<br />
that little treatise on 'The Cost of Production,'<br />
and that other now preparing on 'The Different<br />
Methods of Publishing'; including, I think, the<br />
Half-Profit System, and probably pointing out the<br />
method by which the indelicate publisher charges<br />
the author full price for advertisements which cost<br />
the publishers nothing, and omits to deduct the<br />
discount he obtains on the nominal prices of paper,<br />
printing and other important items. Mr. Besant,<br />
less scrupulous in his choice of words than our<br />
lamented friend Arnold, talks of frauds. You<br />
would join him in exposing and repressing and<br />
preventing them. In short, you and the Incor-<br />
porated Society of Authors have so many aims<br />
and interests in common that you will perhaps<br />
permit me to wonder that you are not already a<br />
member of it. For the one person to whom it is<br />
of the utmost consequence that the business of<br />
publishing should be freed from all stains and all<br />
suspicion is the publisher."<br />
vol.. 1.<br />
c 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 28 (#48) ##############################################<br />
<br />
28<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
The death of Mr. Fletcher Harper, the senior of the<br />
second generation of the brothers, removes another<br />
of the American firm which first began to recognize<br />
the right of English authors. Perhaps the child<br />
is already born in the United States who will,<br />
before he finally droops his snow-white head, see<br />
a tardy justice sullenly granted. But we must not<br />
hold out illusive hopes. The great American<br />
public from whom are taken the members of<br />
Congress are not exactly composed of gentlemen,<br />
nor are they in their public, any more than their<br />
private acts, guided by the delicate sense of honour<br />
for which we ourselves still try to retain a traditional<br />
reverence. In fact we are too apt to suppose that<br />
the cultivated, well-bred American cousin we meet<br />
here is a specimen—perhaps a little favourable—<br />
of the ordinary citizen of that big Republic which<br />
will perhaps some day be great as well as big.<br />
The attitude taken by the American editors and<br />
authors alike on the Copyright Question is every-<br />
thing that can be desired, or, indeed, expected of a<br />
body of gentlemen. It must not be thought, there-<br />
fore, that in publishing Wilkie Collins's views we<br />
are in the least reflecting upon our American con-<br />
jrlres. One of them writes, "The Copyright Bill<br />
was defeated by ignorance misled by greed, but we<br />
hope to retrieve our reputation soon. Everybody<br />
is hard at work to this end." Wilkie Collins says<br />
nothing so severe.<br />
Here is a practical suggestion. Some time ago<br />
we poor English had to pay, justly or unjustly,<br />
^3,000,000 for the Alabama claims. The claims<br />
did not amount to half that money. Suppose the<br />
Government of the U.S.A. were to hand over the<br />
difference to British authors. The moral effect in<br />
the States of such an act of reparation would be<br />
enormous, while its material effect in this country<br />
would be, to say the least, extremely beneficial to a<br />
hard-working and deserving set of men and women.<br />
This is what Mr. Lowell says :—" I have had too<br />
long experience of the providential thickness of<br />
the human skull, as well as of the eventual success<br />
of all reasonable reforms, to be discouraged by the<br />
temporary defeat of any measure which I believe<br />
to be sound. I am too old to be persuaded by any<br />
appearances, however specious, that truth has lost or<br />
can lose that divine quality which gives her immortal<br />
advantage over error. Foreign right to property in<br />
books stands precisely on the same footing as Ameri-<br />
can home right, and the moral wrong of stealing<br />
either is equally great. But literary property is at<br />
a disadvantage, because, as the appropriation is not<br />
open, gross, and palpable, it is not regarded as<br />
wrongful. It touches the public conscience more<br />
faintly. In ordinary cases it is the thief, but in<br />
this case the thing stolen, that is invisible. To<br />
steal is no doubt more immediately profitable than<br />
acquisition by the more tedious methods of honesty,<br />
but it is nevertheless apt to prove costlier in the<br />
long run. How costly our own experiments in<br />
larceny have been, only those know who have<br />
studied the rise and progress of our literature,<br />
which has been forced to grow as virtue is said to<br />
do, in spite of weight laid upon it. But, even if<br />
this particular form of dishonesty against which we<br />
are contending, were always and everywhere com-<br />
mercially profitable, I think the American people<br />
are so honest that they may be made to see that<br />
profit which is allowed to be legitimate by us alone<br />
among all civilised nations, profit, too, which goes<br />
wholly into the pockets of a few unscrupulous men,<br />
must have something queer about it, something<br />
which even a country so rich as ours cannot afford.<br />
I have lived to see more than one successful appeal<br />
from the unreason of the people's representatives to<br />
the reason of the people themselves. I am there-<br />
fore not to be tired with waiting. It is wearisome<br />
to ourselves and to others to go on repeating<br />
arguments which we have been using these forty<br />
years, and which to us seem so self-evident, but<br />
I think it is true that no reformer has ever gained<br />
his end who has not first made himself an intoler-<br />
able bore to the vast majority of his kind."<br />
Out of the fine chorus of indignation which has<br />
ascended from the better class of American papers<br />
unto the heavens like incense, and, like that fragrant<br />
smoke, probably of small practical use, I extract<br />
the following from "America," a Chicago paper of<br />
great promise.<br />
"The International Copyright Bill has been<br />
slaughtered in the House by protectionists after<br />
almost all the authors' interests in it had been<br />
sacrificed to the manufacturers and mechanics in<br />
order to get protectionist votes for the bill. There<br />
was very little protection for authors in the bill,<br />
and a great deal of protection for publishers and<br />
paper-makers and type-setters, and then the bill<br />
was knifed by the statesmen who have great respect<br />
for manual labourers, who are numerous on election<br />
day, and none for authors, whose vote is not a<br />
political factor. We Americans look well, do we<br />
not, rejecting an International Copyright Law for<br />
fear that it would make books dear; that is, after<br />
paying for the paper and the type-setting, we flatly<br />
refuse to pay anything additional for the author.<br />
Our statesmen oppose the bill because they want<br />
cheap books for the people. By all means then,<br />
let us steal the books as well as the learning, or the<br />
imagination contained therein. Let us repeal the<br />
law against horse stealing, and we may all ride.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 29 (#49) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
29<br />
This objection to the International Copyright Bill,<br />
that under it book purchasers would have to pay the<br />
foreign author of the book something, is the most<br />
shameful proposition I have happened to hear in<br />
Congress. The interest of the American author<br />
is perfectly plain; if the American publisher can<br />
get English copy for nothing, he will be propor-<br />
tionately unwilling to buy a copy of an American<br />
author. The Congress that proposes to pass the<br />
McKinley bill for the additional protection of<br />
American manual labour, refuses to pass the In-<br />
ternational Copyright Bill for the protection of<br />
American intellectual labour. It is easy to see<br />
what kind of labour we value most highly."<br />
How it strikes the American author, again, is set<br />
forth by Mr. J. D. Gilden, in "The Critic."<br />
Says Pirate A. to Victim B. :—<br />
"You've got no reason to complain;<br />
Just see how popular you be;<br />
Your books is read from Tex. to Maine.<br />
"Were not the foreign stuff ' free grat.'<br />
I'd buy some native fellow's wares;<br />
Just paste that 'memo.' in your hat,<br />
And don't go puttin' on such airs."<br />
"Aye, true enough my books are read,—<br />
No doubt your imprint makes them sell;<br />
But if on air I must be fed,<br />
Why won't that fare serve you as well?<br />
"Henceforth we both will write for fame,—<br />
I write, you publish, free of charge;<br />
Whatever type proclaims my name,<br />
Yours shall be printed just as large.<br />
"Should profits by some chance accrue,<br />
Deed them forthwith to charity:<br />
I'm rich, of course; and as for you,<br />
What's wealth to popularity?"<br />
How the present question struck Wilkie Collins<br />
is pretty well known. The paper printed in this<br />
number by him was recovered by accident, and is<br />
here published by permission of his literary executor.<br />
Mr. Edwin Waugh, the poet, is dead. With him<br />
dies a pension on the Civil List. It has been pro-<br />
posed to the First Lord of the Treasury that he<br />
should transfer this pension to Mr. Ben. Brierly,<br />
the well-known Lancashire writer. Mr. W. H.<br />
Smith cannot transfer a pension which dies with its<br />
recipient. He will, however, consider Mr. Brierly's<br />
claims.<br />
The centenary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund<br />
took place on May 14th, the Prince of Wales being<br />
in the chair. This venerable Society was founded,<br />
and still exists, for the purpose of granting doles<br />
to distressed authors. It administers a good deal<br />
of money in this way every year. It is sad that<br />
there should be distressed literary men and it is<br />
very good indeed that there should be a fund for<br />
their relief. The Prince of Wales, in an excellent<br />
speech, dwelt largely on the precarious nature of<br />
the literary calling. The occupation of the literary<br />
man, he said, is uncertain; his remuneration is<br />
not high. There is no flow of promotion for literary-<br />
men. All this is true indeed; it is said every year<br />
at the dinner; never once has it been asked by the<br />
Council of this Society why this remuneration of<br />
the literary man is so small—why his calling is so<br />
uncertain. Well: it is small and uncertain because<br />
there is no rule arrived at as to the share which he<br />
should justly take in the proceeds of his own labours.<br />
When that rule is airived at and put into practice<br />
the labours of the Royal Literary Fund will be con-<br />
fined to the relief of the distressed incompetent.<br />
It may be asked why our Society does not at once<br />
lay down this Golden Rule; well, there are two<br />
reasons, of which the first should be enough, viz.,<br />
(1) that the Society has not yet arrived at the Golden<br />
Rule, though it is getting nearer, and (2) that there<br />
is no use in laying it down until public opinion is<br />
riper. It is a rule well known in legislation that<br />
to make laws before the people are ready for them,<br />
unless you can carry them out in spite of popular<br />
resistance and apathy, is not good government.<br />
Let us go on a little longer teaching people the<br />
reality of literary property and its sacredness. Let<br />
us go on a little longer hammering into the heads of<br />
authors their folly and madness in signing agree-<br />
ments by which they ignorantly give themselves<br />
away and go into slavery. We shall then have a<br />
better chance with our Golden Rule.<br />
♦<br />
Mr. John Morley, who always speaks" well on<br />
literature, made a very curious slip the other day.<br />
He stated that there are not fifty or even twenty<br />
men and women who live by authorship. Why, by<br />
the writing of novels alone there are at least fifty<br />
who make over a thousand a year, let alone a vast<br />
number, especially ladies, who live on incomes of<br />
a hundred or two made by authorship. As for this<br />
great mass we may find at an early opportunity some-<br />
thing profitable as well as interesting to say about<br />
them and their incomes and their methods of work.<br />
I have written a small pamphlet for the Publi-<br />
cation Committee of the Society for the Promotion<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 30 (#50) ##############################################<br />
<br />
3°<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
of Christian Knowledge. My intention has been<br />
to point out to this body, first, certain elementary<br />
laws which govern literary property and its ad-<br />
ministration, &c, and next, to set forth certain<br />
cases which illustrate their own administration of<br />
the literary property in their hand. Lastly, I have<br />
invited them to draw their own conclusions for<br />
themselves as to their own methods. There is no<br />
desire to make any money by this pamphlet—■<br />
which is published by Mr. Henry Glaisher in the<br />
Strand—and if any member of this Society would<br />
like a copy I will send him one on the simple con-<br />
dition that he undertakes to read it and to pass it<br />
on to some person interested in the Society for the<br />
Promotion of Christian Knowledge.<br />
The following explains itself. The ingenious<br />
Rand, M'Nally and Company, of Chicago and<br />
New York, have added a new terror to literary men.<br />
Not only do they steal their works but they alter<br />
and mutilate and ruin them. The idea will doubt-<br />
less be copied and widely adopted in Pirate-land.<br />
In a few years, probably, there will be two Rider<br />
Haggards in the field, one of Great Britain and the<br />
other of that other country, totally unlike each<br />
other and of literary reputation entirely different.<br />
Let us have patience.<br />
"Gentlemen, June $rd, 1890.<br />
"A pirated edition of my novel ' Beatrice' has<br />
been forwarded to me, bearing your names as its<br />
publishers. I find, on lookng through it, that the<br />
book has been hacked and hewed till it bears<br />
about as much resemblance to the work which left<br />
my hand as an oaked felled and barked does to the<br />
same tree in leaf.<br />
"Thus, to take one or two examples among<br />
many which offer:—Chapter 18 has been reduced<br />
to little more than three pages, and from chapters<br />
25 and 26 some 16 pages have been omitted bodily.<br />
Nor is this all; another chapter has been mis-<br />
named, and in one place, at least, your editor, or,<br />
judging from the style, perhaps I should hazard, your<br />
compositor, has tried his hand at improving my text<br />
—has printed under my name words which I never<br />
wrote. In short, the story is turned into a string<br />
of disjointed situations, its life, spirit, and meaning<br />
are gone, all of which is done without warning to<br />
the reader, and, I need hardly add, without reference<br />
to the author.<br />
"At first I believed that these evils must have<br />
been wrought maliciously, perhaps to save expense<br />
in the printer's bill, but reflection shows me that it<br />
cannot be. Of course, when the Legislature of your<br />
country, alone among those of civilized nations,<br />
has hoisted the black flag, not merely by tolerating<br />
an established custom but publicly and after full<br />
debate—thereby declaring the labour of foreign<br />
writers to be the spoil of any who wish to profit by<br />
it—it would be Quixotic of you to refuse to sail<br />
beneath that flag. But I feel convinced that your<br />
native courtesy and kindness would prevent you<br />
knowingly from treating an author as I have been<br />
treated in this instance. You would remember<br />
that in America almost the only good left to an<br />
English writer is his chance of a literary reputation,<br />
and this, at least, you would strive to protect in<br />
every way as some small return for the amusement<br />
he affords your readers and the money which he<br />
earns for you. Certainly, therefore, you would not<br />
send his work willingly from your press in such a<br />
questionable shape, and thus expose him to the<br />
contempt of critics and the wonder of your reading<br />
public.<br />
"This being so, I have to ask, I am sure not in<br />
vain, that for the sake of your own fair name, as<br />
much as for the sake of mine, you will withdraw<br />
from circulation the pages of printed matter which<br />
are being passed off, no doubt unwittingly, by you<br />
among the American public as a reprint of my<br />
novel 'Beatrice,' and that you will give this letter<br />
of repudiation every publicity in your power.<br />
Awaiting the favour of a reply,<br />
"I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,<br />
"H. Rider Haggard.<br />
"To Messrs. Rand, M'Nally, &■> Co., Publishers,<br />
"Chicago and New York."<br />
Coincidences (see p. 37) are interesting. Here<br />
is one sent me by a correspondent from the North.<br />
The editor of a certain paper lately received the<br />
scenario of a story submitted tor his approbation.<br />
He liked it, and commissioned the author to write<br />
it for him. The day after he received the same<br />
story, that is, the same plot and the same set of<br />
characters distributed in the same way, from another<br />
correspondent writing from a different part of<br />
England. Therefore one of two things. Either<br />
two minds were at the same moment pursuing the<br />
same imaginary series of events, or two minds were<br />
at the same time cribbing from the same source.<br />
One would like to read the scenario. Perhaps it<br />
was only a commonplace plot such as one may read<br />
in any penny novelette. There is another ex-<br />
planation possible. One lady at least there is<br />
among us who adds to her income by the sale of<br />
plots for stories. There may be more than one<br />
plot inventor among us, and he—or she—may have<br />
sold the same plot twice over, a thing which has<br />
happened once or twice in the buying and selling<br />
of sermons.<br />
The Editor.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 31 (#51) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
3i<br />
"THOU SHALT NOT STEAL:"<br />
Considerations on the Copyright Question.<br />
Addressed to an American friend by<br />
WILKIE COLLINS.<br />
YOU were taking leave of me the other day,<br />
Colonel, when I received from the United<br />
States a copy of a pirated edition of one<br />
of my books. I threw it into the waste-paper<br />
basket with an expression of opinion which a little<br />
startled you. As we shook hands at parting, you<br />
said, "When you are cool, my friend, I should like<br />
to be made acquainted with your sentiments on<br />
the copyright question." I am cool now, and here<br />
are my sentiments.<br />
I shall ask permission to begin by looking back<br />
to the early history of your own family. The fact<br />
is, that I wish to interest you personally in the<br />
otherwise unattractive subject on which I am about<br />
to write.<br />
I.<br />
At the beginning of the seventeenth century,<br />
one of your ancestors, voyaging with the illustrious<br />
Hendrick Hudson, got leave of absence from the<br />
ship and took a walk on Manhattan Island, in the<br />
days before the Dutch settlement. He was pos-<br />
sessed, as I have heard you say, of great ability in<br />
the mechanical arts. Among the articles of per-<br />
sonal property which he had about him was a<br />
handsome watch, made by himself, and containing<br />
special improvements of his own invention.<br />
The good man sat down to rest and look about<br />
him at a pleasant and pastoral spot—now occu-<br />
pied, it may be interesting to you to know, by a<br />
publishing house in the city of New York. Having<br />
thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze and the bright<br />
view, he took out his watch to see how the time<br />
was passing. At the same moment, an Iroquois<br />
chief—whose name has, I regret to say, escaped<br />
my memory— passed that way, accompanied by a<br />
suitable train of followers. He observed the hand-<br />
some watch; snatched it out of the stranger's<br />
hand; and, then and there, put it into the Indian<br />
substitute for a pocket—the name of which, after<br />
repeated efforts, I find myself unable to spell.<br />
Your ancestor, a man of exemplary presence<br />
of mind, counted the number of the chiefs fol-<br />
lowers; perceived that resistance on his single<br />
part would be a wilful casting away of his own<br />
valuable life; and wisely decided on trying the<br />
effect of calm remonstrance.<br />
"Why do you take my watch away from me,<br />
sir?" he asked.<br />
The Indian answered with dignity, "Because I<br />
want it."<br />
"May I ask why you want it?"<br />
The Indian checked off his reasons on his fin-<br />
gers. "First, because I am not able to make such<br />
a watch as yours. Secondly, because your watch is<br />
an article likely to be sufficiently popular among<br />
the Indians to be worth . . Thirdly, because the<br />
popularity of the watch will enable me to sell it<br />
with considerable advantage to myself. Is my<br />
white brother satisfied?"<br />
Your ancestor said that he was not satisfied.<br />
"The thing you have taken from me," he said, "is<br />
the product of my own invention and my own<br />
handiwork. It is my watch."<br />
The Indian touched his substitute for a pocket.<br />
"Pardon me," he replied, "it is mine."<br />
Your ancestor began to lose his temper; he<br />
reiterated his assertion. "I say my watch is my<br />
lawful property."<br />
The noble savage reasoned with him. "Possibly<br />
your watch is protected in your country," he said.<br />
"It is not protected in mine."<br />
"And therefore you steal it?"<br />
"And therefore I steal it."<br />
"On what moral grounds, sir, can you defend<br />
an act of theft?"<br />
The chief smiled. "I defend it on practical<br />
grounds. There is no watch-right treaty, sir, be-<br />
tween my country and yours."<br />
"And on that account you are not ashamed to<br />
steal my watch?"<br />
"On that account I am not ashamed to steal<br />
your watch. Good morning!"<br />
The prototypes of modern persons have existed<br />
in past ages. The Indian chief was the first<br />
American publisher. Your ancestor was the parent<br />
of the whole European family of modern authors.<br />
II.<br />
You and I, Colonel, are resolved to look this<br />
copyright question fairly in the face. Suppose we<br />
look at it from the historical point of view to begin<br />
with. The Dutch emigrants settled on Manhattan<br />
Island about two hundred and fifty years ago.<br />
They might have pirated the Island on the ground<br />
that it was not protected by treaty. But they were<br />
loth to commit an act of theft; they asked the<br />
Indians to mention their price. The Indians men-<br />
tioned twenty-four dollars. The noble Dutchmen<br />
paid, and a very good price, too, for a bit of un-<br />
cultivated ground, with permission to move your<br />
"Wigwam" to the neighbouring Continent.<br />
In due course of time arose the Dutch City of<br />
New Amsterdam. Civilization made its appear-<br />
ance on Manhattan Island; and with civilization<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 32 (#52) ##############################################<br />
<br />
32<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
came Law. Acting as the agent of Justice, Law-<br />
protected property. In those days of moral im-<br />
provement, if an Indian stole a Dutchman's watch,<br />
he committed an offence, and he was punished ac-<br />
cordingly—for, observe, a watch was now property.<br />
Later dates brought their changes with them.<br />
The English forced themselves into the Dutch-<br />
men's places. New Amsterdam became New<br />
York. As time went on, a foolish English King,<br />
and a tyrannical Government were deservedly<br />
beaten on a trial of strength with the descendants<br />
of the first English settlers. The Republic of the<br />
United States started on its great career. With<br />
peace came the arts of peace. The American<br />
author rose benignly on the national horizon.<br />
And what did the American Government do?<br />
The American Government, having all other<br />
property duly protected, bethought itself of the<br />
claims of Literature; and, looking towards old<br />
Europe, saw that the work of a man's brains, pro-<br />
duced in the form of a book, had been at last<br />
recognised as that man's property. by the Law.<br />
Congress followed this civilised example, and re-<br />
cognised and protected the published work of an<br />
American citizen as that citizen's property.<br />
Having thus provided for the literary interests<br />
of its own people within its own geographical<br />
limits, Congress definitely turned its back on all<br />
further copyright proceedings in the Old World.<br />
After a certain lapse of time, the three greatest<br />
nations on the Continent of Europe, France, Ger-<br />
many, and Italy, agreed with England that an act<br />
of justice to Literature still remained to be done.<br />
Treaties of international copyright were accord-<br />
ingly exchanged between these States. An author's<br />
right of property in his work was thus recognised<br />
in other countries than his own. It was legally<br />
forbidden to a foreign bookseller to republish his<br />
work for foreign circulation without his permission;<br />
for the plain and unanswerable reason that his<br />
work belonged, in the first place, to him and to no<br />
other person.<br />
With this honourable example set before it by<br />
other Governments, what has the United States<br />
done? Nothing! To this day it refuses to the<br />
literary property of other people the protection<br />
which it gives to the literary property of its own<br />
people. To this day the President and Congress<br />
of America remain content to contemplate the<br />
habitual perpetration, by American citizens, of the<br />
act of theft.<br />
III.<br />
Having now done with our historical survey—in<br />
plainer words, having now got our facts—we may<br />
conveniently confront the grave question :—Why<br />
does the Government of the United States refuse<br />
to foreign writers the copyright in their works<br />
which it concedes to the works of its own<br />
citizens?<br />
Colonel, when honest men perceive an act of<br />
justice to be done, and determine really to do it,<br />
there are never any insuperable difficulties in the<br />
way. On the plain merits of the case—work that<br />
if you please, you will see why—there are no more<br />
difficulties in the way of international copyright<br />
between England and America than between<br />
England and France, England and Germany,<br />
England and Italy. The cases run on parallel<br />
lines; the necessity of foreign translation, in the<br />
European case, being an accidental circumstance<br />
which adds to the expense of publishing the book,<br />
and nothing more. My work is republished in<br />
America in English, and republished in French.<br />
Whatever difference there may be in the language<br />
of the republication, the fact of the republication<br />
remains the same fact in both instances.<br />
1 am very careful to put this plainly; there must<br />
be some clear ground to stand on before I can<br />
attempt to clear away the extraordinary accumu-<br />
lation of delusions under which the unfortunate<br />
question of copyright has been suffering in recent<br />
years. If you see any difficulty in accepting my<br />
statement of the case thus far, let us revert to first<br />
principles, and ask ourselves—What is the object<br />
to be obtained by the thing called International<br />
Copyright?<br />
In answering this question I will put it person-<br />
ally for the greater facility of illustration. The<br />
object of International Copyright is to give me, by<br />
law (on considerations with which it is possible for<br />
me to comply), the same right of control over my<br />
book in a foreign country, which the law gives me<br />
in my own country.<br />
In Europe, this is exactly what we have done.<br />
When I publish my book in London, I enter it<br />
at Stationers' Hall, and register it as my property—<br />
and my book is mine in Great Britain. When I<br />
publish my book in Paris, I register it by the per-<br />
formance of similar formalities—and again my book<br />
is mine in France. In both cases my publisher<br />
(English or French) is chosen at my own free will.<br />
His position towards me is the position of a person<br />
who takes the business of publishing and registering<br />
off my hands, in consideration of a bargain pre-<br />
viously made between us—the essence of which<br />
bargain is, that the book is my property, and that<br />
my written permission is necessary before he can<br />
obtain his right to publish the book, and his ex-<br />
clusive claim (for a greater or lesser period of time)<br />
to the privilege of selling it. Why can I not do<br />
the same thing in the free Republic of the United<br />
States?<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 33 (#53) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
do<br />
IV.<br />
Here the Colonel lays down my letter for a<br />
while, and looks bewildered.<br />
"The copyright difficulty, as stated by Mr.<br />
Wilkie Collins," he says, "appears to be no diffi-<br />
culty at all. What am I to think of the multitu-<br />
dinous objections from the American point of view,<br />
raised in leading articles, pamphlets, speeches, and<br />
so forth?" My good friend, a word in your ear.<br />
The American objections (I say it with all due<br />
respect for the objections) are, one and all, Ameri-<br />
can delusions. The main object of this letter is,<br />
if possible, to blow these delusions away. I<br />
promise not to be long about it, and to keep my<br />
temper—though I have lost some thousands of<br />
pounds by American pirates.<br />
Let us begin with the delusion—the most extra-<br />
ordinary in the whole list—that the American<br />
people have something to do with the question of<br />
International Copyright.<br />
An American citizen sees a reprinted English<br />
book in a shop window, or has it pitched into his<br />
lap by a boy in a railway train, or hears from a<br />
friend that it is well worth reading. He buys the<br />
book, and reads it—and, as I can gratefully testify<br />
from my own personal experience, he feels, in the<br />
great majority of cases, a sincere respect for litera-<br />
ture and a hearty gratitude to the writer who has<br />
instructed or interested him, which is one among<br />
the many honourable distinctions of the national<br />
character. When he has done all this, what in<br />
Heaven's name has author, publisher, orator, or<br />
leading-article writer any further right to expect<br />
from him? When I have paid for my place at<br />
the theatre, and added my little tribute of applause<br />
in honour of the play and the actors, have I not<br />
done my duty as one of the audience? Am I<br />
expected to insist on knowing whether the author's<br />
rights have been honestly recognised by the mana-<br />
ger, and the players' salaries regularly paid without<br />
reductions once a week? It is simply ridiculous<br />
to mention the American people in connection<br />
with the settlement of the copyright question.<br />
The entire responsibility of honourably settling the<br />
question in my country rests with the Legislature.<br />
In the United States the President and Congress<br />
are the guardians and representatives of American<br />
honour. It is they, and not the people, who are<br />
to blame for the state which book-stealing has set<br />
on the American name.<br />
Ixt us get on to another delusion which has<br />
amused us in England.<br />
We are gravely informed that the United States<br />
is the paradise of cheap literature, and that In-<br />
ternational Copyright would raise the price of<br />
American books to the inordinately high level of<br />
the English market. Our circulating Library system<br />
is cited as a proof of the truth of this assertion.<br />
There can be no two opinions on the absurdity of<br />
that system—but, such as it is, let us, at least,<br />
have it fairly understood. When a novel, for<br />
example, is published at the preposterous price of<br />
a guinea and a half, nobody pays that price. A de-<br />
duction of one-third at least is made. An individual<br />
speculator buys the book, and lends it to the public.<br />
Even this man, as an annual subscription, demands<br />
the nominal price originally asked for the book (a<br />
guinea and a half), and he will send you at least<br />
three novels a week, for a whole year. If this is<br />
not cheap reading, what is? But you will say<br />
the public may want to buy some of the best of<br />
these novels. Very well. Within a year from the<br />
date of its first issue, the book is republished at<br />
five or six shillings (a dollar and a half); and is<br />
again republished at two shillings (fifty cents).<br />
Setting the case of stolen literary property out of<br />
the question, are these not correct American prices?<br />
But why should the purchaser be made to wait<br />
till the book can be sold at a reasonable price?<br />
I admit the absurdity of making him wait. But<br />
is that absurdity likely, under any conceivable<br />
circumstances, to be copied in America? In<br />
England the circulating library is one of our old<br />
institutions which dies very slowly. In America<br />
it is no institution at all. Is it within the limits of<br />
probability that one of your citizens should prefer<br />
lending a novel to a few hundred subscribers,<br />
when he can sell it to purchasers by the thousand?<br />
It is a waste of words to ask the question. The<br />
one thing needful, so far as works of fiction are<br />
concerned, is to shew you that our popular price<br />
for a novel is the American popular price. Look<br />
at the catalogue of " Harper's Library of American<br />
Fiction," and you will find that the prices range<br />
from two to three shillings—fifty to seventy per<br />
cent.<br />
Turning to literature in general let us consult<br />
Messrs. Harper again. I am away from home<br />
while I write, and I have no means of quoting from<br />
a more recent catalogue than the summer list of<br />
1878. However, the prices of less than two years<br />
ago in New York cannot be obsolete prices yet.<br />
Here are some specimens :—<br />
"The Atlantic Islands." Illustrated. 8vo.<br />
Cloth. $3 (twelve shillings).<br />
"Annual Record of Science and Industry for<br />
1877." Large i2mo. Cloth. 82 (eight<br />
shillings).<br />
"The Student's French Grammar." i2mo.<br />
Cloth. $1.40 (say five shillings and six-<br />
pence).<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 34 (#54) ##############################################<br />
<br />
34<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
"Art Education applied to Industry." Illus-<br />
trated. 8vo. Cloth gilt. (Sixteen shillings.)<br />
"Harper's Travellers' Handbooks for Europe<br />
and the East. $3 per volume (twelve<br />
shillings).<br />
I am quite ready to believe that every one of<br />
these books is well worth the price asked for it.<br />
But don't tell me that American books are always<br />
cheap books, and let it at least be admitted that<br />
English publishers are not the only publishers who<br />
charge a remunerative price for a valuable work,<br />
which has proved a costly work to produce and<br />
which is not always likely to command a large circu-<br />
lation. To sum it up, literature which addresses all<br />
classes of the population is as cheap in England as it<br />
is in America. Literature which addresses special<br />
classes only will on that very account always be<br />
published at special prices (with or without inter-<br />
national copyright) on both sides of the Atlantic.<br />
V.<br />
I must not try your patience too severely,<br />
Colonel. Let me leave unnoticed some of the<br />
minor misunderstandings which obscure the<br />
American view of the copyright case, and let me<br />
occupy the closing lines of this letter with a really<br />
mischievous delusion. Just consider what this extra-<br />
ordinary delusion really amounts to. "We don't<br />
deny (the American publishers say) that you<br />
English authors have a moral right of property in<br />
your books, which we are quite ready to make<br />
a legal right, on conditions that we are to dictate<br />
the use which you make in America of your own<br />
property. If we confer on you international copy-<br />
right, we see with horror a future day when<br />
English publishers and English printers may start<br />
in business under our very noses, and we will only<br />
give you your due, with the one little drawback that<br />
we prohibit you to employ your countrymen to pub-<br />
lish your books in our country. Our respect for<br />
justice is only matched by our respect for our<br />
purses. Hurrah for honourable dealings with the<br />
British author—so long as there is no fear of a<br />
decrease in the balance at our bankers! Down<br />
with the British author, and away with the national<br />
honour if there is the slightest danger of the<br />
almighty dollar finding its way into other pockets<br />
than ours!"<br />
Am I exaggerating? Let two of the American<br />
publishers speak for themselves.<br />
Hear Messrs. Harper Brothers first. After<br />
reciting the general conditions on which they pro-<br />
pose to grant us copyright in the United States,<br />
they proceed as follows :—" And provided further,<br />
that within six months after registration of title the<br />
work shall have been manufactured and published<br />
in the country, and by a subject or citizen of the<br />
country in which such registration has been made."<br />
Mr. \V. H. Appleton, writing to the Ixmdon Times<br />
(in a curiously aggressive tone), expresses himself<br />
more plainly. "Our people," he says, evidently<br />
meaning our printers and publishers, "would<br />
rejoice to open this vast opportunity of your<br />
intellectual labours . . . But they hold them-<br />
selves perfectly competent to manufacture the<br />
books that shall embody your authors' thoughts, in<br />
accordance with their own needs, habits, and tastes,<br />
and in this they will not be interfered with."<br />
(Extracted from Messrs. Harper Brothers pamphlet,<br />
"New York, March 17th, 1879.")<br />
To argue the question with men who are of this<br />
way of thinking would be merely to waste your<br />
time and mine. It we are ever to have international<br />
copyright between the two countries we must have<br />
the same unreserved recognition of a moral right,<br />
the same ungrudging submission to the law of<br />
honour, which has produced the treaties exchanged<br />
between the European Powers. In this respect<br />
England has set the example to the United States.<br />
And, let me add, England has no fear of compe-<br />
tition. I have put the question myself to eminent<br />
London publishers ; they have no idea of intruding<br />
their trade interests into a gTeat question of national<br />
justice. They are ready to welcome wholesale<br />
competition in an open market. If they set up<br />
branch establishments in New York, the American<br />
publishers shall be free to follow their example in<br />
London. What does Mr. Marston (of the London<br />
firm of Sampson Low, Marston and Co.) say on this<br />
subject, in his letter to The Times, published May<br />
12th, 1879 ?—<br />
"As a publisher, I trust I shall l>e absolved from the<br />
charge of advocating trade interests, when I express my<br />
strong conviction that the only Convention between the<br />
two countries which can possibly bear the test of time, must be<br />
one based upon the original and inherent rights of property!<br />
Let registration in Washington and London, within a month<br />
or two months of first publication in either country, convey<br />
respectively to English and American authors the same right<br />
in each other's country as in their own, and one's sense of<br />
justice will be satisfied. . . . Such restrictions as those<br />
proposed by American publishers exist in no other Conven-<br />
tions; they arise out of a most unfounded and unnecessary<br />
fear of competition by English publishers!"<br />
There is the opinion of one member of the<br />
representative of the trade. I could produce<br />
similar opinions from other members, but I must<br />
not needlessly lengthen my letter. Hear, instead,<br />
an American citizen who agrees with Mr. Marston,<br />
and with me. Let Mr. George Haven Putnam<br />
speak—delivering an address on International<br />
Copyright in New York, on the 29th of January,<br />
1879:-<br />
"I believe that in the course of time the general<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 35 (#55) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
35<br />
laws of trade would and ought to so regulate the<br />
arrangements for supplying the American public<br />
with books that, if there were no restriction as to<br />
volumes, the author would select the publishing<br />
agent, English or American, who could serve him<br />
to best advantage, and that agent would be found<br />
to be the man who would prepare for the largest<br />
possible circle of American readers the editions<br />
best suited to their wants ... If English pub-<br />
lishers settling here could excel our American<br />
houses in this understanding and in these facilities<br />
they ought to be at liberty to do so, and it would<br />
be for the interest of the public that no hindrance<br />
should be placed in their way."<br />
I have now, I hope, satisfied you that I do not<br />
stand quite alone in my way of thinking. If you<br />
make inquiries you will find that other American<br />
citizens, besides Mr. Putnam, can see the case<br />
plainly as it stands on its merits.<br />
Thus far I have been careful to base our claim<br />
to international copyright on no larger ground than<br />
the ground of justice. Would you like, before I<br />
conclude, to form some idea of the money we lose<br />
by the freedom of robbery which is one of the<br />
freedoms of the American Republic?<br />
Take-the illustrious instance of Charles Dickens.<br />
The price agreed on with his English publishers for<br />
the work interrupted by his death, " Edwin Drood,"<br />
was seven thousand five hundred pounds, with a<br />
promise of an addition to this sum if the work<br />
exceeded a certain circulation. Even Dickens'<br />
enormous popularity in England is beaten by his<br />
popularity in the United States. He was more<br />
read in your country than in mine, and, as a<br />
necessary consequence (with international copy-<br />
right) his work would be worth more in America<br />
than in England. What did he get in America<br />
for the "advance sheets?" With the pirates to<br />
be considered in making the bargain? Less than<br />
a seventh part of what his English publisher has<br />
agreed to give him before a line of his novel was<br />
written—one thousand pounds!<br />
But the case of Charles Dickens is a case of a<br />
writer who stands apart, and without a rival in<br />
popularity. Take my case, if you like, as repre-<br />
sentative, the position of writers of a lesser degree<br />
of popularity. I fail to remember the exact price<br />
which Messrs. Harper paid me for the advance<br />
sheets of "The Woman in White." It was certainly<br />
not a thousand pounds; perhaps half a thousand, or<br />
perhaps not so much. At any rate (with the<br />
pirates in the background waiting to steal) the<br />
great firm in New York dealt with me liberally.<br />
It has been calculated by persons who under-<br />
stand the matter better than I do that for every<br />
one reader in England I have ten readers in the<br />
United States. How many nnauthorized editions<br />
of this one novel of mine—published without my<br />
deriving any profit from them—made their appear-<br />
ance in America? I can only tell you, as a basis<br />
for calculation, one American publisher informed a<br />
friend of mine that he had sold one hundred and<br />
twenty thousand copies of "The Woman in White."<br />
He never sent me sixpence!<br />
Good-bye for the present, Colonel. I must go<br />
back to my regular work, and make money for my<br />
American robbers, under the sanction of Congress.<br />
*<br />
THE TROUBLES OF A BEGINNER.<br />
THE perusal of a " Hard Case" in the first<br />
issue of The Author tempts me to put on<br />
paper my own experiences as a beginner.<br />
Owing to what might be called a mild inoculation<br />
of the fraudulent publisher at the commencement<br />
of my career, the consequences of my gullibility<br />
have not proved so pecuniarily serious as they<br />
were in a "Hard Case"; but that has not been<br />
for lack of trying on the part of the various so-called<br />
societies, or dishonest tradesmen, who thrive on<br />
the inexperience and vanity of the literary fledgling.<br />
I launched my first effort in the shape of a short<br />
story, under the auspices of the "London Literary<br />
Society." Their prospectus was all that could be<br />
desired. For the modest sum of one guinea per<br />
annum my literary success was assured. They<br />
undertook to place MSS. in the hands of magazine<br />
editors, who (apparently) had no other means of<br />
obtaining copy for their publications. Thus young<br />
and unknown authors were placed upon the first<br />
rung of the ladder of fame, and it would be their<br />
own fault if they did not eventually reach the top.<br />
By thus establishing a regular method of communi-<br />
cation between author and publisher, interest and<br />
prejudice, so fatal to beginners, would be over-<br />
ridden, and a long-felt want supplied. So it would,<br />
—but the "long-felt want" was that experienced<br />
by the organizers of the Society.<br />
I sent in my guinea and my MS., and waited<br />
hopefully for the result. The receipt for the money<br />
was a work of art; it was no common receipt, it was<br />
a Diploma informing me that I had been enrolled a<br />
member of the London Literary Society, and re-<br />
questing that in future I would add L.L.S. after<br />
my name when communicating with the Secretary.<br />
In due course I received an official looking docu-<br />
ment which proved to be a criticism of my story.<br />
Then for the first time I knew, what I had hitherto<br />
only suspected, that I was undoubtedly a writer of<br />
merit! According to the criticism nothing stood<br />
between me and success but the narrow-minded-<br />
ness and prejudice of undiscriminating editors.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 36 (#56) ##############################################<br />
<br />
3«<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
The document concluded by recommending me to<br />
send my story to a publication entitled Lloyd's<br />
Magazine.<br />
Of course I was delighted. Certainly I could<br />
not remember having ever heard of Lloyd's Maga-<br />
zine, but then it was hardly to be expected that I<br />
had heard of all the magazines published, and at<br />
any rate I hoped they would pay well. It was<br />
probably connected with Lloyd's paper. The<br />
editor was very civil, and assured me he would be<br />
pleased to print my story, adding casually that<br />
some alterations would have to be made, and little<br />
technicalities attended to, before the MS. would be<br />
ready for the printer's hands, but that half a guinea<br />
would cover these necessary expenses. Hard as it<br />
may be to believe, I sent my half guinea! How I<br />
marvel at my credulity. But then I knew nothing<br />
of such things, and it seemed quite possible that a<br />
tyro like myself might have made technical mistakes<br />
that would entail a certain amount of trouble.<br />
I also received a prospectus setting forth the<br />
advantages enjoyed by subscribers to Lloyd's<br />
Magazine. "Every talented author would ensure<br />
immediate appearance in print;" this, it was as-<br />
serted, would prove most beneficial in treating with<br />
editors who objected to unknown writers. "Ster-<br />
ling merit would be amply remunerated;" this was<br />
satisfactory, as the verdict of the Literary Society-<br />
had inferred that my particular qualifications came<br />
under that head. In fact, the advantages were so<br />
great, and so plausibly set forth, that I felt I really<br />
must get into Lloyd's Magazine at any price.<br />
Finally, the editor wrote to say that the MS. was<br />
now corrected and ready for the press, and that if<br />
I invested in twenty-four copies of the magazine, at<br />
6d. apiece, my story should appear in the next<br />
issue! Having already paid so much, I took the<br />
twenty-four copies, thinking, as so many beginners<br />
do, that to get a story printed in anything was<br />
better than not getting it printed at all, and trust-<br />
ing to the promises of the prospectus as to the<br />
future. However, one glance at Lloyd's Magazine<br />
was sufficient to dispel any such hopes. To judge<br />
by the calibre of its contents all the contributors<br />
must have paid as heavily as myself, to induce<br />
anyone to print their productions; and heartily<br />
disgusted I sent in my resignation to the London<br />
Literary Society.<br />
I was informed in return that not having given<br />
three months' notice I was liable for my subscrip-<br />
tion. I sent it, and at the same time an intimation<br />
that I wished to withdraw. The following year I<br />
received a claim for my subscription, upon which<br />
I drew the attention of the Secretary to my previous<br />
communication. The only answer to this was<br />
another claim, of which I took no notice. Again,<br />
the year after I was sent a request for two years'<br />
subscription, which was quickly followed by a letter<br />
threatening me with the law. Whether further<br />
proceedings would have been taken against me I<br />
never knew, as the Secretary solved the question<br />
by going bankrupt. The Court of Bankruptcy<br />
informed me that I was down on the books of the<br />
Society for two guineas, but on explaining matters<br />
the affair was dropped, and my dealings with the<br />
London Literary Society became a thing of the<br />
past I think that I bought my experience<br />
cheaply.<br />
One of the most ingenious attempts at fraud of<br />
the kind was perpetrated by a Society calling itself<br />
the "Southampton Association." Upon seeing<br />
the advertisement of a new magazine entitled Pen<br />
and Ink, I sent in a sample MS. In response, I<br />
got a letter informing me that, after looking through<br />
my MS., the Society was prepared to accept me as<br />
a "staff member" of the Association. This, at<br />
first sight, seemed all I could wish for—there is a<br />
peculiarly fascinating ring about the word "staff"<br />
to a beginner's ear. The letter, however, went on<br />
to explain what the privileges of a staff member<br />
were, i.e., "one whose contributions can be accepted<br />
and paid for," not will be "immediately proofs are<br />
passed by the editor."<br />
The wording of this sounded suspicious, and<br />
when the epistle concluded by a casual request<br />
that I would fill up the form enclosed and return<br />
it, the said form being a pledge on my part to pay<br />
a guinea to the Society, I decided to have nothing<br />
further to do with it. My course of the Literary<br />
Society had rendered me proof against any more<br />
attacks of the same sort.<br />
I was very nearly falling a prey, however, to the<br />
wiles of the fraudulent publisher. I had perpetrated<br />
a one volume novel, and sent it up to Messrs.<br />
A. and B. Of course it was "favourably reported<br />
on" by the reader, and was going to make a<br />
great impression. The firm offered to publish it<br />
and pay half expenses, if I would pay the other<br />
half, the profits to be also equally shared. This<br />
offer sounded reasonable to inexperienced ears,<br />
and I asked for an estimate. The answer was, that<br />
my half share would amount to ^55 io*. (Refer-<br />
ence to a little book since published by the Society<br />
of Authors will show that the entire cost of publish-<br />
ing such a volume is £25 18*. yd.!) Fortunately<br />
I was alarmed at the sum asked, and declined the<br />
offer. They wrote again, offering to publish the<br />
book if I would pay ^40 towards it, and receive<br />
one-third of the profits; this I also declined.<br />
They then suggested bringing it out in is. form<br />
for the book stalls, my share to be ^28 10s.<br />
At this point, however, I became a member of<br />
the Society of Authors, and on sending the whole<br />
correspondence to the Secretary, received a letter<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 37 (#57) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
37<br />
in reply, which saved me from the clutches of<br />
the respectable A. and B., and quite decided me<br />
that it was better posterity should suffer from the<br />
loss of my book, than that I should suffer from the<br />
loss of my money.<br />
I may add that the above are a few of the ex-<br />
periences to which any beginner is liable when<br />
acting without advice. In my successful under-<br />
takings I have been fortunate enough to fall into<br />
the hands of one of the most honourable members<br />
of the profession.<br />
*<br />
"CURSED COINCIDENCES."<br />
London, June io, 1890.<br />
There is a source of great annoyance and<br />
pecuniary loss to authors for which it is possible<br />
that some remedy may be found by your aid. I<br />
can best set it forth by stating the simple fact that<br />
every one of the last six works which I have<br />
written, or on which I have collaborated, has been<br />
met or anticipated by a similar publication on the<br />
same subject; in every instance to my own detri-<br />
ment and annoyance, or that of others. In some of<br />
thesecases the coincidence was doubtless accidental;<br />
and I am satisfied that the authors of the books<br />
were as ignorant that I was engaged on a like work,<br />
as I was of their intentions. Could we have known<br />
it I am sure that we should have been spared in<br />
one way or the other great trouble, loss, and<br />
vexation.<br />
It is true that such an extraordinary run of bad<br />
luck savours of the marvellous; but if anyone who<br />
reads this suspects me of mistake or exaggeration,<br />
I shall be glad to supply him with all the details,<br />
and refer him to my publishers, who will fully<br />
confirm my assertions. But the history of literature<br />
is full of instances of men who, after devoting<br />
months or years to a work, have had the sorrow to<br />
learn that another had been engaged in a similar<br />
task.<br />
The very obvious remedy for this among honour-<br />
able men would be for authors to announce their<br />
intentions, and make it known in your columns<br />
what they are actually engaged on and really<br />
intend to publish. On the other hand, there are<br />
innumerable hacks and quacks in literature who<br />
would avail themselves of these very announce-<br />
ments to "hurry up " works on the same subjects,<br />
to say nothing of the half-honest scribes who would<br />
pre-empt a subject by declaring that they are<br />
engaged on it—the engagement being like that of<br />
the American young woman who admitted, in a<br />
breach of promise case, that she had nothing<br />
written to prove a betrothal, nor had the defendant<br />
ever spoken to her, but that "looks had passed<br />
between them." Many men seem to think that<br />
if they have only looked at a subject it is their<br />
property for ever.<br />
If there were a real guild of literary men holding<br />
and exercising power—such as the Society of<br />
Authors may become—this great evil of "the<br />
unlucky chance," or cursed coincidence, could<br />
really be obviated. For it could declare thieves<br />
and plagiarists "niddering" or infamous, and by<br />
establishing and exacting a high code of honour it<br />
could eliminate much of the disreputable Bohe-<br />
mianism or carelessness as to morals from the<br />
profession of letters. And if it be not really a<br />
profession it would soon become one by the<br />
simple process 01 outlawing all who disgrace<br />
it. For in fact the dishonest writer is as great an<br />
injury to his betters in the craft as the dishonest<br />
publisher, and deserves even greater punishment.<br />
A few cases of flagrant meanness vigorously exposed<br />
would soon end the career of many literary<br />
sharpers.<br />
Charles G. Leland.<br />
THE EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.<br />
WOULD it be possible 10 open a Book<br />
Exchange in the pages of The Author?<br />
I am myself continually compelled to<br />
buy books which serve their purpose and are hence-<br />
forth of no more use to me. I buy them not for<br />
their rarity but for their practical use. Others there<br />
are who are always looking out for the completion<br />
of sets or the improvement of collections, for first<br />
editions, for books specially bound, for books<br />
privately printed (of which a certain second-hand<br />
bookseller is now bringing out a catalogue).<br />
Everybody who wants books depend upon those<br />
excellent people, the second-hand booksellers and<br />
their lists. They depend upon the people who,<br />
like myself, are always wanting to get rid of books.<br />
Why cannot The Author give us space, if only<br />
a page, to advertise our wants and our wares?<br />
Members of the Society should, perhaps, be<br />
allowed to take up a certain space for the mere<br />
cost of the printing and paper. Other people<br />
might be made to pay for the privilege at such a<br />
rate as would assist the finances of the paper.<br />
Can my suggestion find a corner?<br />
F. R. S.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 38 (#58) ##############################################<br />
<br />
3«<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
LEAFLET No. II.<br />
On Royalties.<br />
WHAT is loosely and ignorantly called<br />
"The Royalty System"—a system where<br />
all is chaos—may be defined as pay-<br />
ment by results. It came into existence chiefly<br />
as a sop to authors who were discontented with<br />
the so-called half-profit system, after it had been<br />
worked into a system which gave all the profits<br />
to the publisher. "At least," they thought, "there<br />
will be something for us if we are to have so much<br />
for every copy sold." They therefore signed any<br />
agreement in this sense that was placed in their<br />
hands without asking what it meant—what the<br />
proposed arrangement kept for the publisher and<br />
what it would give them. They signed what they<br />
were told to sign, and they took what was offered<br />
them. They began to sign these royalty agreements<br />
about twenty years ago, when the "system" first<br />
came into use. They have continued to sign<br />
them; they are signing them every day, and it is<br />
not too much to say that not one single author up<br />
to this day of writing, outside the office of the<br />
Society, knows when he signs, what he has kept<br />
for himself, or what proportion of the results of his<br />
labour he has given to the man who sells his book.<br />
In accordance with the principles of this Society,<br />
which endeavours to throw light upon everything<br />
connected with the production and sale of books,<br />
or in other words, enables authors to understand<br />
exactly what they give away and what they reserve<br />
—what, in fact, an agreement means—the Leaflet<br />
of this month is devoted to a very brief statement of<br />
the "Royalty System " in its various forms applied to<br />
author and publisher.<br />
The discovery that the author was as easily<br />
gulled by a Royalty as by a show of half profits,<br />
caused certain gentry to introduce improvements<br />
into the original plan. Thus the Royalty at first<br />
offered and eagerly taken by the ignorant author<br />
was 10 per cent, on the published price from the<br />
beginning. Then one man sharper than his<br />
brothers discovered that his authors would take 5<br />
per cent, from the beginning; another that his men<br />
would take 10 per cent, on the trade price; a<br />
third, and this was the most happy discovery of<br />
all, that his men would take 10 per cent, to begin<br />
when a great number of copies had been first sold.<br />
In the forthcoming work on "Methods of<br />
Publication," the author prints a table which<br />
shows the working of the system and the results to<br />
author and publisher.<br />
He takes as an example an ordinary novel in<br />
one volume, sold at 6s., a very common form of<br />
book at this day. These six shilling novels vary<br />
considerably in length, running from 70,000 words<br />
to 180,000 words—or even more. The average<br />
length, however, may be taken as from 70,000 to<br />
100,000 words.<br />
The cost of producing such a work is, with a<br />
liberal allowance for advertising, as follows :—<br />
(1) For the first 1,000 copies nearly £100.<br />
(2) For the second edition of 3,000 copies,<br />
£120, or with a liberal increase of adver-<br />
tising, .£150.<br />
(3) If the success be so great as to justify a large<br />
edition of 10,000, the cost of production of<br />
this edition would be about ^360, or with<br />
increased advertising say ^400.<br />
(4) The trade price of the book varies from<br />
3s. 4</. to 3-r. Sd. We may fairly take it at<br />
3*. 6d.<br />
The trade price is generally arrived at by -<br />
taking two-thirds of the published price and<br />
allowing thirteen copies as twelve. In the<br />
case of the great distributing houses an<br />
additional 10 per cent, is allowed. There<br />
are also cases in which lower terms are<br />
given for special reasons. Many copies,<br />
however, are sold at a higher price.<br />
(5) The publisher therefore obtains—<br />
a. For the first edition of 1,000 copies,<br />
^175-<br />
/3. For a second edition of 3,000 copies,<br />
7. For an edition of 10,000 copies, ^1,750.<br />
Out of this he has to pay the author, printer, paper-<br />
maker, binder, and the advertisements.<br />
We might proceed at once to our table, but for<br />
one objection which will be raised. It is this.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 39 (#59) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
39<br />
Suppose the publisher prints io,ooo copies and<br />
sells only 1,000 copies, he then has 9,000 copies on<br />
his hands. That is true. To overprint is a mistake<br />
that inexperienced publishers often make: experi-<br />
enced, rarely. The wise publisher feels his way<br />
even though to print 3,000 only will cost him a<br />
halfpenny more on each copy than boldly to order<br />
10,000. When the demand for a popular book<br />
ceases, which is not suddenly but gradually, the<br />
prudent publisher is not generally left with many<br />
copies on hand. It must be remembered that we<br />
are here speaking of a popular and successful book,<br />
of which there are a great many issued every year.<br />
Now, then, for our table. We deduct from the<br />
publisher's profits (1) what he pays to the author,<br />
(2) what he pays for production. The reader will<br />
see set forth in order the respective shares of profit<br />
presented by a 5 per cent, up to a 35 per cent,<br />
royalty to author and to publisher. The per-<br />
centage is taken on the published price, the full<br />
price of 6s.<br />
I. On the sale of the first 1,000.<br />
Per cent.<br />
■<br />
10<br />
■5<br />
20<br />
25<br />
30<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
Publisher<br />
60<br />
45<br />
3°<br />
—<br />
—<br />
Author ...<br />
'5<br />
3°<br />
45<br />
60<br />
75<br />
90<br />
II. On the sale of the next 3,000.<br />
Per cent.<br />
5<br />
10<br />
"5<br />
20<br />
3°<br />
35<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
Publisher<br />
33°<br />
285<br />
•40<br />
195<br />
■ 50<br />
105<br />
Author ...<br />
45<br />
90<br />
13s<br />
180<br />
225<br />
270<br />
315<br />
III. On the sale of an edition of 10,000.<br />
Pe<br />
r cent.<br />
5<br />
IO<br />
IS<br />
20<br />
3"<br />
35<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
£<br />
C<br />
£<br />
Publisher<br />
1,300<br />
1,050<br />
900<br />
750<br />
600<br />
45°<br />
300<br />
Author ...<br />
150<br />
450<br />
600<br />
75°<br />
900<br />
1,050<br />
Since it is more common to meet with a success<br />
corresponding with the second than with the first<br />
table, let us consider what the figures mean. They<br />
speak for themselves, but to those who cannot<br />
understand figures let us explain.<br />
"Your publisher, dear Sir or Madam, when he<br />
benevolently offers you a 5 per cent, royalty, will<br />
on a second edition of 3,000 copies make ^330 to<br />
your ^45, i.e., eight times your share. If he gives<br />
you 10 per cent.—which is common—he will<br />
make ,£285 to your £90, that is, three times your<br />
share. If 15 per cent, he will make ^240 to your<br />
^135, i.e., twice your share. If 20 per cent., .£195<br />
to your ;£i8o. If 25 per cent., ^170 to your<br />
.£225. If 30 per cent., £10$ to your ^270.<br />
Consider this, and refuse the 10 per cent, with<br />
indignation."<br />
As for the "fancy" royalties, those on trade<br />
price, those to begin when a certain number of<br />
copies have gone and so forth, the reader may<br />
calculate for himself the meaning of these pro-<br />
posals. We will, however, on a future occasion<br />
assist his calculations. With the help of these<br />
tables, too, the reader will be able to make an<br />
intelligent attempt towards finding an answer to<br />
the question, "What proportion of profit should<br />
in equity be the share of the publisher in the case<br />
of a book which has no risk?"<br />
*<br />
THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND.<br />
"Yours be the task to foster and protect<br />
Genius in rags and learning in neglect."<br />
W. T. I- ITZGERALD.<br />
THE object of the Royal Literary Fund, as<br />
summed up in Mr. Fitzgerald's Anniversary<br />
Ode, is one of which all of us, members of<br />
this Society, must cordially approve.<br />
Here are its aims set forth a little more at<br />
length:—■<br />
"To administer assistance to Authors of published<br />
works of approved literary merit and of important<br />
contributions to periodical literature, who may be<br />
reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or<br />
deprived by enfeebled faculties, or declining life, of<br />
the power of literary exertion. This assistance may<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 40 (#60) ##############################################<br />
<br />
40<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
be extended at the death of an Author to his widow<br />
and children."<br />
Every one may not know the pathetic incident to<br />
which the Fund actually owed its origin. It was<br />
this. A member of a club in London, much<br />
frequented by literary men, being arrested for a<br />
small debt, died in consequence. It then leaked<br />
out that the unfortunate scholar had lived for years<br />
in the extremest poverty, but had borne his suffer-<br />
ings in silence. Some fifteen years before this<br />
occurrence, in the very club of which he was a<br />
member, an attempt had been set on foot to found<br />
some sort of pension scheme, but it had fallen<br />
through, after a few desultory meetings. This,<br />
however, galvanized it into life again.<br />
Mr. David Williams was from the first the life<br />
and soul of the movement. He had been the<br />
person with whom the idea first originated, and he<br />
was the first to assist in its resuscitation. He<br />
organized the scheme, and was indefatigable in its<br />
promotion. He levied taxes on all his friends and<br />
acquaintances, and persuaded actors, poets, and<br />
princes to sound the praises of the new institution.<br />
We fear he must have been, good worthy man, a<br />
terrible bore.<br />
We learn that he himself made house-to-house<br />
visits in behalf of his project, and collected large<br />
sums of money in that way. In addition to which<br />
he gave personal attention to all the routine business,<br />
with the result that, when the Society had literally<br />
thousands invested, and a most magnificent roll of<br />
supporters, the executive expenses were returned<br />
as only £$o.<br />
In 1818 the Society was incorporated.<br />
After Williams's death, however, the Society had<br />
rather a stormy time. This was not only due to<br />
the loss of their indefatigable leader. The extreme<br />
secrecy with which the doles were made, while show-<br />
ing the kindly delicacy of the administrators, might,<br />
it is obvious, if sufficient care were not taken, be the<br />
source of abuse. Sufficient care was not taken, and<br />
abuses followed.<br />
The affairs of the Society were at that time<br />
administered by an Executive Committee and a<br />
Council. The Executive Committee did the work,<br />
and the Council lent their name. When some of<br />
the work could not be approved of, a quarrel took<br />
place between the Council and the Committee.<br />
Many of the Council joined in the general demand<br />
for an investigation into the manner in which the<br />
Society's affairs had been conducted.<br />
Then came an agitation for reform. The leader<br />
of this was Dickens, who attributed the malpractices,<br />
which had undoubtedly occurred, to the demoral-<br />
izing effect inflicted upon men by much sitting on<br />
boards of direction. The demand was to a certain<br />
extent acceded to, and Dickens, Mr. Wentworth<br />
Dilke, and Sir E. L. Bulwer were placed upon the<br />
first Committee of reform, and no one has since<br />
that day breathed a word against the way in which<br />
the Fund is administered.<br />
The benefits are disposed entirely without regard to<br />
religious sect, the only disqualification being offences<br />
against public morality. Neither are they con-<br />
fined to Englishmen. At the dinner of 1822, when<br />
Chateaubriand's health was proposed by the Duke<br />
of York, as the ambassador of France, he mentioned,<br />
in his acknowledgment of the toast, that he was<br />
himself aware of the benevolent character of the<br />
Fund, for, during the period of the French<br />
Revolution, a French literary gentleman was in<br />
difficulties, and these difficulties having been repre-<br />
sented to the Committee by one of his friends, a<br />
sum was voted sufficient to relieve him from all<br />
anxiety, and that at a time when the institution<br />
was itself struggling into notice. ' This gentleman,<br />
Chateaubriand continued, was thus enabled to<br />
maintain his ground. At the Restoration he<br />
returned to France to acquire fresh honours as a<br />
literary man, and to rise in the favour of his<br />
Sovereign. He had now returned to England, but<br />
in a different capacity—as the ambassador of his<br />
Sovereign; and he was that man.<br />
When Macaulay inveighed against all institutions<br />
having for their object the pecuniary relief of authors,<br />
he was taking a position he might be expected to<br />
take, one which it was dignified for him to take,<br />
and one which we sincerely wish could rationally<br />
be taken. Macaulay's contention was that good<br />
work would always find sufficient pay, and that<br />
therefore the very people who would require such<br />
assistance were the people who did not do good<br />
work. That, in fact, all such Societies must lead to<br />
the encouragement of the incompetent. This of<br />
course is very far from being the case. A great<br />
deal of admirable work, useful to mankind, and<br />
most creditable to the author, never can command<br />
sufficient circulation to make it remunerative.<br />
The Fund most wisely allows for the fact that,<br />
whereas while the author is able to work at full<br />
pressure, he may keep his head above water, there<br />
may come a time when such "H state cannot be<br />
continued. His methods may get out of date.<br />
The very lucidity of his teaching may have enabled<br />
some younger man, more in touch with modern<br />
thought, to carry similar work to a point of higher<br />
perfection. Old age and sickness may arrive. At<br />
once poverty stares the author of unremunerative<br />
work in the face. He need be in no way impro-<br />
vident and yet be unable to lay aside money to<br />
meet such an emergency.<br />
It is in such cases as these that the bounty of<br />
the Royal Literary Fund is freely and delicately<br />
bestowed.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 41 (#61) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
4-<br />
It is in such cases as these that such assistance<br />
is too often urgently necessary.<br />
There exists another institution for the relief of<br />
authors. There is a provision on the Civil List for<br />
pensions to the amount of ^1,200 per annum,<br />
which should be devoted to the reward of (1)<br />
Persons having just claims on the Royal benevo-<br />
lence; (2) Persons who have rendered personal<br />
service to the Crown; (3) Persons who have<br />
benefited the public by discoveries in science;<br />
(4) Persons who have benefited the public by<br />
their attainments in literature and the arts.<br />
Mr. Colles' book* has shown very clearly that<br />
these pensions are awarded in a most reprehensible<br />
manner, and are very generally devoted to the<br />
relief of people often having no claim to charity at<br />
all, certainly having no claim upon this establish-<br />
ment, and occasionally having a distinct claim to<br />
bounty from other sources. The author may well<br />
look somewhat askance at an institution whose<br />
benefits are administered with so much caprice,<br />
and so regularly reaped by the wrong people.<br />
While there is no doubt that the writers of much<br />
good work do not derive much good pay from it,<br />
so that in certain cases the assistance of charity be*<br />
comes absolutely needful, it is perfectly certain that<br />
there would be fewer such cases if the literary man<br />
were more alive to his own interests, mors careful<br />
of his own property. We learn from the Prince of<br />
Wales's speech that the Royal Literary Fund has<br />
lately made grants to the families of the late J. G.<br />
Wood and the late R. A. Proctor. These men's<br />
names were household words; their teaching and<br />
their books were known in every family. They<br />
were not devoted to abstract and abstruse science;<br />
they did not produce works of great research,<br />
appealing necessarily to so small a public as to<br />
make it impossible that their work should be<br />
pecuniarily successful. On the contrary, they were<br />
the most popular expositors whom the world has<br />
ever seen of the physical and natural wonders of<br />
the world. Their books had an enormous popular<br />
circulation, and the fact that it has been necessary<br />
for their families to apply for assistance to the<br />
Royal Literary Fund speaks volumes for the<br />
statement made so often in the paper of this<br />
Society. "The nature of literary property is mis-<br />
understood and its very reality is hardly recog-<br />
nized." Had these writers understood the value<br />
of their own property they would never, perhaps,<br />
have become the recipients either in life, or through<br />
their widows, after death, of the Literary Fund<br />
Bounty.<br />
* "Literature and the Pension List," by W. Morris Colles.<br />
Cr. 8vo., y. td. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.<br />
VOL. I.<br />
A HARD CASE.<br />
No. II<br />
THIS publisher, Mr. Henry Skimpington-<br />
Brown, prided himself on his double-<br />
barrelled name. It certainly lent weight<br />
to his assurances that he was in a position to pro-<br />
duce guarantees from most influential people that<br />
he was honest—nay more, that he was generous.<br />
He came under the notice of the Society of<br />
Authors in the following way. He was an adver-<br />
tising person, whose letter paper bore the elastic title<br />
of "publisher" upon it, and whose address was in<br />
Fleet Street. An author, bitten by one of his<br />
specious circulars, sent a manuscript to him for his<br />
consideration. Here is the author's account of<br />
what followed :—<br />
"I unfortunately entrusted my book to Mr. Skim-<br />
pington-Brown. He engaged to publish for me any<br />
number of copies required " up to 1,000," beginning<br />
at 200. The book came out. I at once began to<br />
receive letters from friends, acquaintances, and<br />
book-sellers, complaining that they could not obtain<br />
copies through the ordinary channels. Mr. Mudie<br />
also informed me privately that my publisher was<br />
quite unable to meet his orders. I wrote re-<br />
peatedly to Mr. Skimpington-Brown demanding an<br />
explanation. Sometimes I got an evasive answer;<br />
generally no notice was taken of my letters. By<br />
this time I was quite certain that something was<br />
wrong, and a friend of mine, who interviewed him<br />
for me, elicited from him :—that he had only<br />
printed 100 copies; that the type had been broken<br />
up; and that he had not enough money to pay for<br />
composition again."<br />
The author had given the man £%o to produce<br />
the book. Now, although a part of the money<br />
paid was for advertisement of the book, no adver-<br />
tisements were ever seen except in a trade circular<br />
once or twice. Hardly any copies were sent out<br />
for review. What reviews were obtained were very<br />
good ones.<br />
Therefore when the author applied to the Society<br />
of Authors, the position of affairs was thus:—He had<br />
been induced to pay the publisher a sum of money<br />
equivalent to double as much as was actually spent<br />
in bringing the little book out; also an extra ^5<br />
on some pretext or other; third, a large sum for<br />
author's corrections. Only 100 copies were printed.<br />
The circulating libraries could not put the book on<br />
their lists, because they could get no copies. The<br />
author had received nothing back but a small sum<br />
obtained by privately disposing of a few copies to<br />
his friends.<br />
A few letters were written which seemed to have<br />
11<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 42 (#62) ##############################################<br />
<br />
42<br />
THE AUTHOR<br />
the effect of temporarily frightening Mr. Skimping-<br />
ton-Brown, for it was at this time that he sent to<br />
the Society a letter in which he said that most in-<br />
fluential people were willing to come forward and<br />
speak to his honesty and generosity.<br />
It happened that another author had some idea<br />
of publishing a work with Mr. Skimpington-Brown.<br />
To this gentleman, whom he seemed to think might<br />
possibly prove a new victim, the worthy publisher<br />
mentioned the first author's book, and stated that he<br />
was bringing out a second edition of it, for which<br />
there was already a demand for neatly 3,000 copies!<br />
But the two authors were acquainted with each<br />
other, and this communication reached the first<br />
author. As he said, "the state of things is worse<br />
now than ever. As long as the book was prac-<br />
tically unpublished, there was a chance of getting<br />
a new publisher for it; but if this man, hiving<br />
evidently no position, no capital, and, indeed, no<br />
right to the name of publisher, really keeps his hold<br />
on the book, it is a ruined work. He cannot,<br />
in fact, publish it himself, and yet he deprives the<br />
author of his chance of finding another publisher."<br />
So it was determined that, at all events, the<br />
book must be got out of his hands, and that after-<br />
wards the possibility of making him disgorge some<br />
of the plunder must be considered.<br />
The agreement was unstamped, that is, for prac-<br />
tical purposes. It must be admitted that it had<br />
affixed to it a penny postage stamp. In it the<br />
publisher covenanted to "print,publish, and push(\)<br />
the book, and meet all demands up to 1,000<br />
copies." This latter phrase alone would have put<br />
anyone of experience upon his guard. It is almost<br />
invariably the prelude to the following dodge for<br />
extortion. A large number of copies is named,<br />
say 10,000; then a correspondingly large figure is<br />
named as the publisher's risk, say £50. The<br />
author may feel that £50 is not much for 10,000<br />
copies; more, he may ask someone who knows,<br />
and will be informed that the demand is not very<br />
exorbitant. So he pays it. Then only 100 copies<br />
are printed. The author objects. The other per-<br />
son says: "I never said I should produce 10,000<br />
copies. No good publisher ever produces such<br />
large editions of new men's work. I said I would<br />
'meet demands' up to that number. I have as<br />
yet not been asked for more than I have printed."<br />
But the author may say: "It did not cost you<br />
,£50 to produce 100 copies." To which the other<br />
person may reply: "I never said it did."<br />
Only in one way had Mr. Skimpington-Brown<br />
contracted to do something definite. He said he<br />
would advertise up to £20. He was asked to pro-<br />
duce vouchers for this sum. He then said that he<br />
had only advertised to the extent of j£g, and that,<br />
of course, the surplus would be refunded.<br />
The Society of Authors made an appointment<br />
with this honest tradesman to meet their accountant.<br />
But the accountant found the office locked up,<br />
and received a note stating that his books were<br />
at his suburban office!<br />
At last, upon threats of legal procedure, Mr.<br />
Skimpington-Brown appeared, and, with tears in his<br />
eyes, refunded j£io. He said that was all he pos-<br />
sessed.<br />
This was all the satisfaction that could be<br />
possibly obtained for the author. Nothing would<br />
have been gained by legal procedure, and the<br />
author was advised to take Mr. Skimpington-<br />
Brown's little all.<br />
*<br />
THE CHESTNUT BELL.<br />
THE sound of the Chestnut Bell is now be-<br />
coming rare in America; heard indeed as<br />
seldom as those of the Sunken City, comme-<br />
morated by Riickert, which "peal once more their<br />
old melodious chime" but once or twice in a century,<br />
and then only to the Sunday child who is born to<br />
hear what is inaudible to the Philistine. But before<br />
the last Ming of this extraordinary instrument dies<br />
away, it may be worth while to record its history,<br />
and give for the first time what is probably a true<br />
clue to its origin.<br />
About four years ago Senator Jerome, of New<br />
York who, because of his immaculate life, admir-<br />
able gravity, and personal resemblance to a famous<br />
picture byMurillo, has always been known as Saint<br />
Jerome—was one day pouring forth in a speech a<br />
grand series of moral axioms, which, however<br />
admirable, "had not," as Heine says, "novelty for<br />
merit," when all at once Senator Riddleberger,<br />
of Virginia, the licensed clown, jester, and mischief<br />
maker of the Senate, called to a point of order.<br />
And on being asked what it was he replied: "Mr.<br />
Speaker, I want the Senator from New York to stop<br />
ringing that d -d old Chestnut bell of his."<br />
The mot was new and it spread "like wildfire"<br />
over the Union. Wherever the Frenchman of<br />
1840 would have cried connu, the American roared<br />
Chestnut. If an orator uttered a truism—if any<br />
body dared to say " be virtuous and you will be<br />
happy"—"Chestnut!"was sure to be heard. Woe<br />
to the narrators of old Joes, for the nuts were cast<br />
at them, and they were abashed. Ere long the<br />
Chestnut Bell itself appeared. It was a small<br />
highly resonant apparatus of a tintinnabulistic or<br />
campanological nature, worn as an appendage to the<br />
button hole—it went with a spring, and its sound<br />
became a terror in the land. I am now in posses-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 43 (#63) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
43<br />
sion of six different kinds of Chestnut Bells—none<br />
of them are loud, but all are of piercing, insulting,<br />
aggravating, tone. It has happened that even<br />
clergymen when using platitudes or dropping into<br />
cant, have been called to silence by the dreadful<br />
bell.<br />
It is usual in the United States whenever a new<br />
slang term appears for all the minor literati of the<br />
press to at once invent Jts origin. Consequently<br />
there were innumerable anecdotes, every one more<br />
anthentic than the others, telling how and when the<br />
term Chestnut came into existence. Of these I<br />
have made a collection, with the result of distrust-<br />
ing them all. In such cases it is almost invariably<br />
"the oldest which is truest." The oldest in this<br />
case is Italian. In Northern Italy, especially in<br />
Florence, when a man would discredit or snub<br />
another, and intimate that what he says is untrue,<br />
or contemptible, or worn out, he puts his thumb<br />
between his fore and middle finger, and presents<br />
it. This is called making the Chestnut. In<br />
Naples they call it la fica, or the fig, but the<br />
castagna or Chestnut is the most ancient term.<br />
All of the American origins confine themselves<br />
to the Chestnut, but say nothing of the bell.<br />
For the bell is the real object, "Chestnut" being<br />
only the adjective which qualifies it. This part of<br />
the problem is specially interesting.<br />
There has long been known in Bavaria, possibly<br />
in other parts of Germany, but I have only known<br />
it in the Bayerisches Land, what is called the<br />
Lugnermesser or Liar's Knife. This is a knife of<br />
wood exactly resembling those which are used by<br />
grocers in England to scoop butter or lard.<br />
There is a hole iri it in which hangs a hawk's<br />
bell, and on the blade is an inscription of which<br />
the following is, though not a translation, a toler-<br />
able imitation:—<br />
Who liftes thys Knyfe<br />
Nor ringes y* Bell,<br />
Ne'er in his Lyfe<br />
A Lye did tell.<br />
The most remarkable of these knives which I<br />
have ever seen is in the possession of Miss Mary<br />
B. Reath, of Philadelphia. Another was in the<br />
great Art Exhibition at Munich in 1888. A third<br />
is in the Artists' Club of Munich. Whenever a<br />
member tells a doubtful or a worn-out or commonly<br />
known story, and tries to pass it off for new, some<br />
one rings the bell. All three bore inscriptions in<br />
old Bavarian which were, however, so peculiar and<br />
requiring so much explanation, that it is hardly<br />
worth while to give them here.<br />
The ringing of the Liar's Bell is a kind of shut-<br />
ting off or condemnation, and as such is manifestly<br />
derived from the " bell, book, and candle," the form<br />
vol. 1.<br />
of excommunication of the Church of Rome, ending<br />
by closing the book against the offender, extin-<br />
guishing the candle, and ringing the bell.<br />
(" Reliq. Antiq., i, 1, Gawaine and Gavin, 3023—<br />
Halliwell.") Also to bear the bell, to carry off the<br />
prize, to be unsurpassed as a liar. For a bell, a<br />
whetstone, a knife, and, in America, a hat have<br />
here or there been substituted.<br />
It is very strange that Friedrich in his "Symbolik<br />
der Natur," says of the chestnut that it is a type of<br />
the unchangeable, of the old which ever persists in<br />
remaining—which is the very spirit of all that is<br />
hackneyed, "the reason for this being that its<br />
leaves femain so long unchanged." "And as<br />
most races name their national fools from some<br />
popular dish, as Jack Pudding, in England;<br />
Hanswurst, in Germany; Pickle Herring, in<br />
Holland; Jean Potage, in France; so the Italians<br />
call a silly, stupid, would-be witty fellow a Marone,<br />
which is a large kind of chestnut." But the<br />
real ancient meaning of the nut is Beharrlich-<br />
keit, obstinate endurance, like that of an old<br />
story which holds its own for ever. Therefore<br />
the Greeks called it the Euboic acorn, and con-<br />
secrated it to Jupiter, he being of all the gods<br />
the most unyielding.<br />
It is also to be noted that the Greeks and<br />
Romans carried little silver bells, the tinkling of<br />
which drove away witchcraft and evil spells—which<br />
latter certainly include old Joe Millers, so well<br />
known to possess a kind of dire and intolerable<br />
fascination. I have a fac simile of one of these<br />
ancient chestnut bells, with its strange incantation,<br />
which I carry in my dressing case as a warning.<br />
I trust that the reader will not conclude, from what<br />
I have written, that I need it!<br />
C. G. Leland.<br />
*<br />
The Death of a Scholar.—" Come and see<br />
the difference there is between the powerful Rabbis<br />
of the Land of Israel and the pious Rabbis of<br />
Babylon. Resh Lakish made a funeral oration<br />
in honour of a certain disciple of the wise, and<br />
exclaimed, 'Alas! the I and of Isiael has lost a<br />
great man!' Whereas Rabbi Nachman at Babylon<br />
declined delivering a funeral oration on a similar<br />
occasion; for, said he, 'What can I say more than<br />
Alas! a basketful of books is lost'?"—Talmud<br />
Megillah.<br />
*<br />
i) 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 44 (#64) ##############################################<br />
<br />
44<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
"THE ART OF AUTHORSHIP."<br />
In August, 1888, a well-known English novelist<br />
received the following letter :—<br />
"Coventry,<br />
"Dear Madam, "August 21, '88.<br />
"I am wanting to address our young people, in<br />
response to their request, by way of a lecture upon<br />
the art of composition and the means essential to<br />
secure a forcible and interesting style of expression.<br />
I have thought that the only way by which I could<br />
add any considerable interest and usefulness to an<br />
evening's pleasant intercourse upon such a topic<br />
would be to secure, if at all possible, a personal<br />
testimony of the experience of one or two of our<br />
most skilful and honoured authors.<br />
"To that end I have taken the very great liberty<br />
to write to you and solicit your generous help.<br />
May I be permitted to ask whether in early life you<br />
pave yourself to any special training with a view to<br />
the formation of style, and also whether you can<br />
give us any information of your own methods that<br />
would aid us to realize, in some degree at least, the<br />
secrets of your own great powers in the use of a<br />
clear and forcible English.<br />
"I write to you because your finely conceived<br />
novels are cherished friends of my own, delightful<br />
companions which give me more pleasure than I<br />
can well say; and also because I feel in asking such<br />
a favour, that you must be so accustomed to people<br />
getting truly attached to you by reason of your<br />
beautiful stories, that you will very readily forgive<br />
the request even though you cannot grant it. But<br />
if you are able to spare a few minutes to do me this<br />
kind service, I can assure you of the gratitude of<br />
many beside myself.<br />
"Pray excuse this long letter, and if I am giving<br />
you any trouble, or ignorantly making an undue<br />
demand on your time, do more than forgive me,<br />
take no notice of me, and you will be appreciated<br />
and understood by<br />
"Yours most faithfully and respectfully,<br />
"GEORGE BAINTON."<br />
"Mrs. Parr.<br />
Now this was really a very polite and appreciative<br />
letter, and to it she returned a courteous answer.<br />
It was nice to be considered among "one or two<br />
of the most skilful authors," and kindness of heart<br />
prompted her to assist a clergyman in his task of<br />
lecturing to his young people upon a subject that,<br />
like Ah Sin, "he did not understand."<br />
But in May, 1890, she received the following letter<br />
from her correspondent:—<br />
"Dear Madam, "May 2, '90.<br />
"Some time since I wrote to you concerning a<br />
lecture I was about to give to a number of young<br />
men upon the art of composition, and asked your<br />
aid. You most generously responded to my appeal,<br />
and gave me the privilege of using your kind words<br />
of counsel and experience in the event of my being<br />
desirous to put the lecture into printed form. I<br />
thought you would like to see the extract from your<br />
letter thus incorporated into the lecture—a lecture<br />
I have expanded into book form and published<br />
through Messrs. Clarke & Co., Fleet St., under the<br />
title'The Art of Authorship.' The little volume<br />
now issued is simply the lecture amplified—matter<br />
growing under my hands until it far exceeded the<br />
limits of the pamphlet I at first intended.<br />
"For your valued aid I again thank you most<br />
heartily, and am<br />
"Very faithfully yours,<br />
"Mrs. Louisa Parr. "George Bainton."<br />
The author gave the Correspondence to this<br />
Society. She denies having given Mr. Bainton<br />
leave to print her letter, and considers that its<br />
appearance in a collection of letters headed "The<br />
Art of Authorship," and published as a book by<br />
Mr. Bainton, is a breach of faith.<br />
On receiving these letters it was decided to in-<br />
vestigate the case a little and to appeal to a few of<br />
our members, whose names were mentioned both in<br />
the book and in public advertisement as "personal<br />
contributors," and ascertain if they thought like-<br />
wise.<br />
It will not be possible to print all the replies in<br />
full, but here are a few extracts :—<br />
Mr. Alfred Austin says:—<br />
"I answered Mr. Bainton's enquiries concerning<br />
how I formed my style, from motives of courtesy<br />
and good nature, and I hear of the use he has<br />
made of what I wrote with surprise and regret."<br />
Mr. Hall Caine :—<br />
"The man wrote to me to say that he was about<br />
to lecture on style to his young men, who were<br />
enthusiastic readers of mine, etc., etc., and would<br />
take it as an honour, etc., if I would write them a<br />
letter on my personal aims and endeavours, early<br />
efforts, etc., with much of the same sort. Of<br />
course I was drawn by the silly subterfuge, and<br />
when, some time later, a second letter asked for<br />
permission to print my answer in a pamphlet that<br />
was to contain 'the text of the lecture,' I was<br />
once more made victim. It was not until the<br />
book appeared that I realized that the man had<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 45 (#65) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
45<br />
written to everybody, that his 'young men ' were<br />
all fudge, that the book was the thing, and that,<br />
thanks to the folly of folks like myself, he had got<br />
it cheap."<br />
Here it becomes evident that, at any rate to<br />
novelists, Mr. Bainton employed an almost in-<br />
variable form—the letter, in fact, which we began<br />
by quoting. For Mr. Grant Allen, Mr. R. D.<br />
Blackroore, Mrs. Lovett Cameron, Mr. W. S.<br />
Gilbert, Mr. Rider Haggard, Mrs. Kennard, Mr.<br />
George Meredith, Miss F. M. Peard, Mr. F. W.<br />
Robinson, John Strange Winter, Mr. Edmund<br />
Yates, and Miss Charlotte Yonge all were ignorant<br />
that Mr. Bainton intended to print their remarks;<br />
all believed that their assistance was being asked<br />
by a clergyman and a stranger for his young people,<br />
and none had an idea that they were being vic-<br />
timised by a circular letter.<br />
This simplicity is the more excusable that in the<br />
specimens before us as we write, Mr. Bainton<br />
distinctly says he is applying to "one or two"<br />
authors. Unless one knows him personally before-<br />
hand, how is the ordinary gentleman, how is the<br />
ordinary lady, to have an idea that by this state-<br />
ment Mr. Bainton may mean one or two hundred<br />
authors?<br />
Space will not allow that we should print more<br />
than brief extracts from these authors' letters.<br />
Mr. Rider Haggard says :—<br />
"Some years ago Mr. Bainton, or some person,<br />
wrote to me saying he was going to give a lecture,<br />
and asked my opinion on certain literary matters.<br />
I replied, and, if my memory serves me, stipulated<br />
that if he printed anything, I should have a proof.<br />
The other day I received a printed slip, which I<br />
took for and corrected as a proof. On further<br />
examination of covering letter, however, I found<br />
it was an exiract from a printed book forwarded<br />
for my perusal.<br />
"I think it quite unjustifiable that matter<br />
obtained for one purpose should be used for another<br />
without reference to its author."<br />
Mr. Bainton does appear in Mr. Rider Haggard's<br />
case to have gone through the form of obtaining<br />
permission to print his remarks, although he disre-<br />
garded the stipulation that his request evoked. But<br />
in some cases he appears to have gone more<br />
directly to work.<br />
Mr. George Meredith says:—<br />
"I received a letter some weeks back from Mr.<br />
Bainton, enclosing two printed pages of his book,<br />
with his thanks to me for 'my kind permission'<br />
that he might make public use of my private remarks<br />
to his young men, through him, at his request, upon<br />
styles in writing. I am not aware of having even<br />
granted the permission. It would not have been in<br />
accord with a system I hold to—which is, to spare<br />
the public any talk upon my methods and doings.<br />
If I wrote the words of the grant, I must have done<br />
so heedlessly, and I shall require to see them in my<br />
handwriting, before I can attach any belief to the<br />
statement made by Mr. Bainton. The one object<br />
of my writing, was to be of service to an audience<br />
that he, ' a stranger to me, wrote of as being hungry<br />
for literary instruction.'"<br />
Mr. George Meredith is not singular in his belief<br />
that, albeit Mr. Bainton says so, he never received<br />
any permission.<br />
Miss Charlotte Yonge believes the same. So<br />
does Professor Huxley. Miss F. M. Peard<br />
writes :—<br />
"I am more surprised and annoyed than I can<br />
say at hearing of the use Mr. Baintdn has made of<br />
my answer. I imagined him to be a clergyman<br />
rather at his wits' ends for subjects for parish<br />
entertainments or lectures, and that he was merely<br />
getting up the subject in the abstract. It did not<br />
even occur to me that he would use my name in<br />
talking about it, much less that he would drag it<br />
into print. You will see that he speaks of 'an<br />
e\ening's pleasant intercourse.'"<br />
Miss Peard encloses Mr. Bainton's first—and<br />
only—letter to her, which is almost the exact<br />
counterpart of his letter to Mrs. Parr. Miss Peard,<br />
like Mrs. Parr, is one out of "one or two," and<br />
she also is appealed to because her books are<br />
Mr. Bainton's cherished friends. Mr. Bainton is<br />
evidently a man of lively sympathies.<br />
Mr. Grant Allen says:—<br />
"I was not aware Mr. Bainton meant to publish<br />
in book form. Mr. Bainton only mentioned that he<br />
wished for the information for an apparently private<br />
lecture to young people. I was much annoyed at<br />
the use Mr. Bainton made of my letter (which he<br />
printed incorrectly). The details I gave were far<br />
more personal than I should have dreamt of making<br />
them had I expected them to be published. What<br />
is perfectly allowable in answer to a private question<br />
about one's own methods mayseem like impertinence<br />
and bad taste if obtruded on the general public,<br />
which never asked to know how one writes one's<br />
books or articles."<br />
Mr. R. D. Blackmore writes:—<br />
"When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request<br />
I was not aware that he intended to publish or even<br />
print my words. His letter suggested that he wanted<br />
aid in a lecture to young people and would use my<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 46 (#66) ##############################################<br />
<br />
46<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
reply for that purpose, and (as I naturally concluded)<br />
for that purpose only. Now that I know the nature<br />
of Mr. Bainton's book I do object to the use he<br />
has made of a reply procured through the goodwill<br />
due to a clergyman and for clerical purposes."<br />
Mr. W. S. Gilbert writes :—<br />
"When I complied with Mr. Bainton's request I<br />
was not aware that it was that gentleman's intention<br />
to publish my letter in book form. His first letter<br />
to me suggested that he wanted aid in compiling a<br />
lecture. I consider that he was not justified in<br />
publishing my letter without my express permission.<br />
His action appears to me to amount to a breach of<br />
faith."<br />
Mrs. Lovett-Cameron says:—<br />
"I certainly had not the smallest idea that he<br />
intended to publish the letter which I wrote to him.<br />
He informed me that he was about to give a lecture<br />
to young people, and I understood most clearly that<br />
it was for this purpose alone that my letter would<br />
be made use of. I do most strongly object to the<br />
use he has made of my letter, and consider that in<br />
publishing letters written to him for private use<br />
only Mr. Bainton is guilty of a most unwarrantable<br />
breach of faith."<br />
On the other hand, the Bishop of Carlisle, Mr.<br />
Thomas Hardy, and Sir John Lubbock have no<br />
objection to the use Mr. Bainton has made of their<br />
letters, while Mr. T. Marion Crawford writes as<br />
follows : —<br />
"Two or three years ago Mr. Bainton wrote<br />
requesting me to give him an expression of my<br />
opinions in regard to the course to be followed by<br />
beginners, who would acquire some practical skill<br />
in the use of the English language. I believe that<br />
was the substance of his letter. Mr. Bainton<br />
stated clearly that he wished to make use of my<br />
answer in lecturing to young people.<br />
"I complied with his request and wrote at some<br />
length. I said that I would prefer my letter not<br />
to be printed. Mr. Bainton wrote again to thank<br />
me, but added, that if I would not consent to his<br />
printing the matter, it could be of little service to<br />
him. I then replied that since he so much desired<br />
it, he might make any use he pleased of my com-<br />
munication. The correspondence ended, and I<br />
considered Mr. Bainton at liberty to print the<br />
whole, parts, or a part of what I had written. I<br />
now learn for the first time that he has published<br />
a book, and I infer that something of mine has<br />
appeared in it. I do not consider myself in any<br />
way aggrieved, as Mr. Bainton's conduct towards<br />
me was perfectly frank and consistent throughout."<br />
But Mr. Marion Crawford has been better<br />
used than many of Mr. Bainton's contributors.<br />
It may seem that we have gone into this matter<br />
at more length than the circumstances warranted.<br />
As long as ladies and gentlemen are so far polite that<br />
when they receive a letter, made to bear all thestamp<br />
of a private letter in contradistinction to a circular,<br />
they answer it, and so far charitable that, when they<br />
are told a thing by a person they know nothing of,<br />
they accept his statement, so long will ladies and<br />
gentlemen be victims.<br />
To the Editor of The Author.<br />
Sir,<br />
When I sent Mr. Bainton the letter published in<br />
his book, I was not aware that it would ever be<br />
printed. He wrote to me in September last, saying<br />
that he wished to address "our young people"<br />
upon the art of composition, and he had thought<br />
that it would add "considerable interest and use-<br />
fulness to an evening's pleasant intercourse" on<br />
such a topic, if a few authors would give him their<br />
personal experiences in acquiring their respective<br />
styles.<br />
It will be obvious to anyone, from the compo-<br />
sition of my letter, that I had no thought of my<br />
words being used verbatim. Some time afterwards<br />
he wrote asking if he might make use of some parts<br />
of my letter in a pamphlet in which he proposed to<br />
preserve his lecture, and I gave him permission to<br />
do so.<br />
I cannot say that / particularly object to the use<br />
he has made of it, though I do not think it was<br />
quite fair to issue the opinions of authors in book-<br />
form, after winning their confidences for a benevo-<br />
lent purpose; but I do most utterly and strongly<br />
condemn the great discourtesy of issuing such a<br />
book without sending proofs of the matter to each<br />
author (and I know one author of high standing<br />
whose permission to print Mr. Bainton did not<br />
trouble to ask for at all). I think far more of that<br />
than I do of his having picked our foolish brains<br />
to make profit for himself.<br />
In my own case, probably a glance at proof<br />
sheets would have caused me to amplify one of my<br />
statements—that when I was a very young writer<br />
"I found myself slipping into the Rhoda Broughton<br />
school"—in such a way as to give a would-be witty<br />
reviewer less chance of misrepresenting my meaning<br />
and making merry over my comprehensive phrase.<br />
For myself I would be the last to discuss criticism,<br />
however flippant or unjust; but as Miss Broughton<br />
may have seen the much-quoted article, and per-<br />
haps have felt some annoyance through reading my<br />
meaning with the writer's eyes, may I say here that<br />
I meant no disrespect for the strong, vigorous, and<br />
fascinating author, whose books have always<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 47 (#67) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
47<br />
charmed me, and whose portrait hangs near me<br />
each day as I work—but very much the reverse,<br />
Miss Broughton would probably join her con-<br />
tempt to mine for the host of imitators of her<br />
style, whose work is a weak reflection of her<br />
manner without any of her genius or her strength—<br />
the "school" to designate which her name is com-<br />
monly employed—and entirely agree with me that<br />
if, as an inexperienced writer, I felt myself drifting<br />
toward this justly despised group, it was well for<br />
me—and perhaps for others—that I should re-<br />
solutely set myself to work out a style of my own<br />
rather than become even a successful imitator of<br />
another.<br />
It seems to me that cheap sneers at this kind of<br />
effort are a little unworthy of a great literary<br />
Review.<br />
I am, Sir,<br />
Your obedient servant,<br />
John Strange Winter.<br />
*<br />
NOTES.<br />
I. Copyright.<br />
UNDER this head, and that of "The First<br />
Principles of Literary Property," in the<br />
first number of The Author, I find one<br />
or two statements which, if not in terms erroneous,<br />
are capable of misleading or unduly alarming<br />
readers who do not know any law.<br />
"Literary property," it is said, "is subject to the<br />
laws which protect all other property." That it is<br />
recognized and protected by law as something of<br />
value is quite true; and probably this is all that<br />
the writer meant. But "the laws which protect<br />
property" differ greatly according to the kind of<br />
property. Land is not protected in exactly the<br />
same way as goods, and a trade mark and a copy-<br />
right are again protected by means different from<br />
those in use for tangible property, and differing in<br />
details from one another. Let not the unwary<br />
reader therefore imagine that he or she can have a<br />
literary pirate dealt with as a thief. Copyright is<br />
not, in the legal sense, a thing capable of being<br />
stolen.<br />
It is asked, "Does anybody take the trouble to<br />
secure his copyright in a public lecture?" (meaning,<br />
by the process of giving notice to two Justices of<br />
the Peace as provided by the Act 5 and 6 Wm. IV,<br />
c. 65). The answer is, probably not. But there<br />
is an excellent reason for not doing it which the<br />
author of "Notes on Copyright" seems to have<br />
overlooked. The common law gives a sufficient<br />
remedy without the help of the Act, as was decided<br />
by the House of Lords in 1887, in Professor Caird's<br />
case in Scotland {Caird v. Sime, 12 App. Ca. 326).<br />
It is a question of fact whether the delivery of a<br />
lecture implies authority to the hearers to republish<br />
it. Whatever may have been the opinion of the<br />
framers of the Act of William IV (which expressly<br />
preserves the general law, only giving the benefit of<br />
special new sanctions to lecturers who fulfil the<br />
formalities of notice to two justices), no such<br />
authority is presumed, as a matter of law, from the<br />
mere fact of a lecture being delivered to a more or<br />
less numerous audience. If there be any presump-<br />
tion it seems to be the other way. In truth the<br />
right to restrain the publication of an orally<br />
delivered lecture is not copyright at all. It is<br />
distinct from and antecedent to copyright, like the<br />
right to restrain publication of one's private letters.<br />
As that right is unaffected by the original letter<br />
having become the property (for all purposes short<br />
of publication) of the person to whom it was sent,<br />
so the lecturer's right is unaffected by his lecture<br />
having been orally delivered to a particular audience<br />
or any number of audiences. The commentator<br />
goes on to say that "a lecturer is powerless to protect<br />
himself against unauthorized re-delivery." I am not<br />
aware of any authority for this statement as regards<br />
an unpublished lecture, and am not at all disposed<br />
to agree with it. As for the exception of university<br />
and certain other public lectures and discourses in<br />
the Act of William IV, it has, by its express terms,<br />
only the effect of leaving them in the same con-<br />
dition as if the Act had not passed. Caird v. Sime<br />
shows that at least some university lectures are<br />
efficiently protected by the general law. Therefore<br />
a person acting on the commentator's opinion that<br />
sermons "seem to be clearly public property"<br />
would be more likely to make practical acquaintance<br />
with the nature and operation of an injunction than<br />
to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of pulpit<br />
eloquence. When the writer adds that "there is<br />
seldom any very great demandfor sermons, university<br />
or college lectures," he is so far right that in these,<br />
as in other kinds of literary production, the suc-<br />
cessful and popular authors are a minority. Still,<br />
both sermons and lectures are known to become<br />
fairly successful books. It is the fact that the greater<br />
part of Sir Henry Maine's works (for example) was<br />
first delivered in the form of lectures. An uncon-<br />
trolled right to print the matter which afterwards<br />
became "Village Communities" from notes taken<br />
in Maine's lecture room at Oxford would have been<br />
a right of no small value. And the fact that no<br />
attempt was ever made to exercise such a supposed<br />
right is some evidence that no one at the time<br />
imagined it to exist.<br />
I have made these remarks only for the purpose<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 48 (#68) ##############################################<br />
<br />
48<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
of preventing misapprehension as to the existing<br />
law. But I wish to add that I am wholly adverse<br />
to the proposal of creating a new kind of performing<br />
right in the recitation of verses or prose already<br />
printed and published, and therefore already<br />
enjoying the protection of ordinary literary copy-<br />
right. Where is this kind of thing to stop? Why<br />
should not Sydney Smith have had an exclusive<br />
"performing right" in his jokes and anecdotes?<br />
The author of "recitations" who wants to keep them<br />
to himself has only not to publish the text, a pre-<br />
caution quite consistent with privately printing any<br />
number of copies that may be convenient. He can<br />
then make his own terms with anyone who desires<br />
to use it.<br />
Frederick Pollock.<br />
II. Charges for Corrections.<br />
I suppose all authors have their grievances against<br />
publishers. I have had mine. Yet, taking all in<br />
all, I must say that I have been well treated oy my<br />
English publisher. My advice to young authors<br />
is—find a respectable publisher and stick to him.<br />
But I have had a long-standing grievance against<br />
printers, and I wonder whether The Author can<br />
help me. Is there no means of checking the<br />
charges for corrections?<br />
I know that in good printing offices there is a<br />
man specially appointed to check off charges for<br />
corrections. But, in spite of that, there must be<br />
something wrong in the system. The estimate<br />
one receives from a printer seems at first sight<br />
very reasonable. But when the bill comes, there<br />
are always high charges for corrections, for extra-<br />
small type, for foreign matter, for reading and<br />
putting to press, &c, so that one has often to pay<br />
twice as much as the original estimate.<br />
Much seems to me to depend on the judgment<br />
and the good-will of the compositor in making<br />
corrections. If a few words are put in by the<br />
author, surely, with a little management, they<br />
could be squeezed in; some other words might<br />
be left out, or two paragraphs might be run into<br />
one. But if, instead of that, ten or twenty pages<br />
are disturbed, of course the bill is very much<br />
swelled. One line too much on any one page is<br />
looked upon as high treason in every printing office.<br />
But surely it would matter less than twenty shillings<br />
for re making twenty pages.<br />
I know quite well what compositors will say.<br />
Copy your MS., or have it copied and carefully<br />
revised, and then the charges for corrections will<br />
be next to nothing. My answer is, I am willing<br />
to pay what is reasonable for my own careless<br />
writing, and for my changing my mind at the last<br />
moment. But I do not like to see corrections<br />
treated as mere " fat."<br />
F. Max Muller.<br />
III. American Rights.<br />
Before the collaboration of an American citizen<br />
can procure copyright, the following conditions<br />
must be borne in mind.<br />
1. The American collaborator must not receive<br />
a lump sum for his share of the work, but must<br />
receive a portion of the royalty, i.e., he must have<br />
a continuous interest in the sale of the work.<br />
2. He must be a bond fide collaborator. Some<br />
people suppose that it is sufficient for an American<br />
citizen to write a paragraph, or even a sentence<br />
only, put his name on the title page with that of<br />
the author, and that the copyright is secured. It<br />
is not so. In case of such a book being " pirated,"<br />
he might be called to swear what he wrote before<br />
a judge, who would order the " pirate " to take out<br />
of the book the paragraph or sentence, or whatever<br />
the American wrote, and then advise the " pirate"<br />
to help himself to the rest. The collaborator must<br />
be able to swear that he is the author of the book<br />
quite as much as the European one, that there is<br />
not in the book a single sentence he did not<br />
approve of and sign, whether he actually wrote it<br />
or not.<br />
3. The European author must have a contract<br />
with his American collaborator, in which the above<br />
conditions are set down; and a copy of it must be<br />
in the hands of the American publisher.<br />
I think that all the good American publishers<br />
would tell you that I am right.<br />
At any rate, these are the conditions on which I<br />
have published my " Jonathan and his Continent"<br />
in America; and the "pirates." knowing it, have<br />
not touched it—to the comfort of<br />
Paul Blouet.<br />
IV. The Raising of the Dead.<br />
I have received the first number of The<br />
Author, and, on lroking through it, it has<br />
occurred to me that our members might possibly<br />
be interested in the following personal experiences<br />
bearing on the question as to whether a book that<br />
has practically fallen dead can by any possibility<br />
be revived.<br />
The work to which I refer was, on its first<br />
appearance, absolutely ignored by the London<br />
literary organs of opinion, and the sales in con-<br />
sequence fell, after the advertisements had ceased to<br />
appear, to about ten copies a year. This continued<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 49 (#69) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
49<br />
for three years, during which time I left no stone un-<br />
turned in my efforts to bring the book into notice.<br />
I sent copies to the number of thirty or more to such<br />
of our most eminent thinkers and writers as 1 deemed<br />
most likely to give it a favourable reception ; at the<br />
same time sending second copies to the editors of<br />
the most important literary journals, soliciting a<br />
second inspection, and explaining in justification<br />
that the work had not been run off at the point of<br />
the pen, but had occupied ten years in preparation,<br />
and four in actual construction and writing. But<br />
the eminent writers, as Was only to be expected in<br />
the case of a work sent to them in forma pauperis,<br />
replied by courteous acknowledgments merely;<br />
while my efforts to get a second hearing fiom the<br />
editors completely failed—with the exception of the<br />
editor of T/ie Spectator, who, with his usual fair-<br />
mindedness, and a generosity which I shall not<br />
soon forget, at once gave me a long and complU<br />
mentary review, expressing at the same time his<br />
surprise that the work had been allowed to fall<br />
through. But it was too long after publication to<br />
be of any service; the sales fell lower and lower;<br />
and it seemed as if the book would now slip<br />
quietly into oblivion.<br />
Meantime one or two of the well-known writers,<br />
to whom I had sent private copies, had evidently<br />
glanced into the work, and had become sufficiently<br />
interested in it to express the opinion that some-<br />
thing further ought to be done to try and revive it.<br />
After some consideration, and with the consent of<br />
the publishers, I determined on my plan of campaign,<br />
which was this: to bring out the unsold copies as<br />
a new edition; to reduce the price from 14*. 10 51.;<br />
to write a fresh preface; and, most important of all,<br />
to concentrate and mass together in large advertise-<br />
ments the best extracts I could select from the<br />
various scattered notices which in the interim I<br />
had succeeded in extorting from more or less un-<br />
willing editors!<br />
The effect of this new move was immediate and<br />
decisive. The whole unsold edition of some 700<br />
or 800 copies went off at the rate of forty or fifty a<br />
month until it was exhausted; the demand increas-<br />
ing rather than diminishing at the time when the<br />
last copies were sold out.<br />
The above recital, in view of the common<br />
tradition that a book, once practically fallen dead,<br />
cannot again be revived, seems to me to have some<br />
interest for young authors struggling against adverse<br />
fate; and it may perhaps be worth while to ask<br />
here to which of the above circumstances the<br />
resuscitation of the work was principally due. My<br />
own feeling is that it was due not to the reduction<br />
of price, for purchasers of that class of work are<br />
not much affected by its price, in the first instance<br />
at least; nor yet to the press notices taken singly,<br />
although these no doubt were exceptionally strong;<br />
but rather to their being massed together so as to<br />
catch the eye in large and glaring advertisements.<br />
At any rate it was on this theory that I acted at the<br />
time, and the event, it must be admitted, fully<br />
justified my anticipation. Now. that a work of a<br />
serious character, on a wide and all-important<br />
subject of human interest, and professing at least<br />
to add another story to the hitherto existing super-<br />
structures of thought on the same subject ; that a<br />
book of this kind, I say, should have to save itself<br />
from extinction by methods suitable rather to the<br />
sale and success of some '" Pears' Soap" or " Hol-<br />
loway's Pill," must give rise to considerations on<br />
the curious conditions of literary success at the<br />
present time well worthy the attention of all thinking<br />
minds.<br />
J. B. C.<br />
*<br />
LITERARY PUZZLES.<br />
THE Ballad of Bold Turpin is to be found in<br />
a volume called "Gaieties and Gravities,"<br />
written by one of the authors of " Rejected<br />
Addresses." The "one," I believe, was Horace<br />
Smith. It was published in 1825, when Dickens<br />
was a boy of fourteen, by Henry Colburn, of<br />
New Burlington Street. It occurs in a sketch<br />
called " Harry Halter the Highwayman," in which<br />
two other efforts in verse also occur—the volumes,<br />
indeed, are crammed with verses, sprightly and<br />
jolly, and full of mad rhymes. The song, for<br />
instance, called "Bachelor's Fare " follows that of<br />
"Bold Turpin."<br />
Funny and free are a Bachelor's revelries,<br />
Cheerily, merrily passes his life;<br />
Nothing knows he of connubial devilries,<br />
Troublesome children and clamourous wife,<br />
Free from satiety, care, and anxiety,<br />
Charms in variety fall to his share,<br />
Bacchus's blisses and Venus's kisses,<br />
This, boys, this is the Bachelor's Fare.<br />
A wife like a canister, chattering, clattering,<br />
Tied to a dog for his torment and dread,<br />
All bespattering, bumping and battering,<br />
Hurries and worries him till he is dead.<br />
Old ones are two devils haunted with blue devils,<br />
Young ones are new devils raising despair;<br />
Doctors and nurses combining their curses,<br />
Adieu to full purses and Bachelor's Fare.<br />
Through such folly days, once sweet holidays,<br />
Soon are embittered by wrangling and strife<br />
Wives turn jolly days to melancholy days,<br />
All perplexing and vexing one's life.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 50 (#70) ##############################################<br />
<br />
50 THE AUTHOR.<br />
Children are riotous, maid-servants fly at us,<br />
Mammy to quiet us growls like a bear;<br />
Polly is squalling and Molly is bawling,<br />
While dad is recalling his Bachelor's Fare.<br />
When they are older grown, then they are bolder<br />
grown,<br />
Turning your temper and spurning your rule,<br />
Girls through foolishness, passion or mulishness,<br />
Parry your wishes and marry a fool.<br />
Boys will anticipate, lavish and dissipate,<br />
All that your busy pate hoarded with care;<br />
Then tell me what jollity, fun or frivolity,<br />
Equals in quality Bachelor's Fare?<br />
*<br />
QUESTIONS, CASES, AND<br />
ANSWERS.<br />
Now that authors have a medium to voice their<br />
woes and, let us hope, their victories, we may look<br />
forward to many questions of interest being thrashed<br />
out. And, in order to set the ball rolling ever so<br />
little a distance, may I crave space to point out<br />
how—as it seems to me—authors can combine<br />
and gather strength even in their hours of ease?<br />
In short, what is wanted is an "Authors'<br />
Club." There are many clubs in existence which<br />
are partly intended for literary men and largely<br />
patronised by them; but in every instance where<br />
the club is accessible to the mass, other interests<br />
have been introduced to the prejudice of literature<br />
and the literary profession. In one case, it may<br />
be the egotistic actor; in another, the aesthetic or<br />
impressionistic painter; in a third, that blight on<br />
society—the man who wishes you to remember<br />
that he is a tenor. These introduce an element<br />
which many authors feel to be jarring, if not<br />
actually antagonistic. The general desire is for a<br />
Lotos Eater's Land where neither jar nor an-<br />
tagonism is possible; what is really sighed for is<br />
"The Authors'Club."<br />
Is not the profession strong enough to support<br />
such a club? Cannot the Society of Authors pro-<br />
vide the men who will help to make it a success?<br />
Who will adopt the idea and give it their personal<br />
support and service? The financial details could<br />
easily be arranged, if a strong committee were ap-<br />
pointed; and if the matter be mooted now, by the<br />
time that the evenings draw in and the days grow<br />
chill, "The Authors' Club" should be a fait<br />
accompli. A. M.<br />
Allow me to bring the following facts before the<br />
readersof The Author. About two years ago I<br />
had printed a mathematical work which I brought<br />
to a well-known firm for publication in England in<br />
conjunction with my Irish publishers. I paid the<br />
former ;£io for advertising, but all that I ever saw<br />
were two or three in the Saturday Revieiv. As a<br />
result I find they have practically sold no copies<br />
in England, and all that they have sold are about<br />
30 copies in America, from which I infer that ad-<br />
vertisement money has been spent there. Conse-<br />
quently nearly all sales of my book were in Ireland,<br />
and these have all been effected without any ad-<br />
vertisement expenses. At the time of the publi-<br />
cation of my book, the author of a book on the<br />
same subject as my own was under an apprehen-<br />
sion that the sale of the latter might interfere with<br />
that of his, and I have reason to believe exerted<br />
pressure on his publishers the same as those of my<br />
book, not to push or in any way promote the sale<br />
of the latter. All that they have done is to sell it<br />
in America, which is but a poor return, as, besides<br />
the difficulty of getting it off there, I am only<br />
allowed barely 50 per cent, of the published price.<br />
A. B.<br />
The following case is submitted with the con-<br />
viction that it is not by any means an isolated one.<br />
A gentleman proposes to the Editor of a Magazine<br />
to write a short article on a new book, and the<br />
proposal is immediately accepted in writing. The<br />
article is sent in, and at the request of the con-<br />
tributor (who is leaving England for some months)<br />
the Editor shortly afterwards forwards him a proof<br />
of the article and a cheque at the current rate of<br />
remuneration. A letter of inquiry from the writer<br />
some months afterwards as to why the article has<br />
not appeared elicits no information, and it turns<br />
out that the article is not published. Has the<br />
contributor any claim in this case for the loss of<br />
that part of the remuneration which, it need hardly<br />
be said, may be indirectly of quite as much<br />
pecuniary consequence to him as the money-<br />
payment? In the case of a daily paper a review-<br />
is, as we all know, liable to be crowded out by<br />
press of matter. But is the case of a magazine,<br />
that does not in a general way review books, on<br />
precisely the same footing?<br />
As an aggravated instance of the business<br />
methods described under "QuestionsandAnswers,"<br />
No. 3, at page 9, of the May number of The Author,<br />
I offer the following personal experience. I sent<br />
a short story to the Editor of a fairly reputable and<br />
outwardly prosperous London periodical, no doubt<br />
regarded by its numerous readers as a marvel 01<br />
enterprise and cheapness, enclosing, as I always<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 51 (#71) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
5*<br />
do, a stamped directed envelope for the return of<br />
the MS. if not required. I received neither manu-<br />
script nor answer of any kind. I wrote repeatedly<br />
after waiting some months, when to my surprise I<br />
heard quite accidentally through a friend who<br />
recognised my nam de plume that my story was then<br />
actually being published in the magazine I had sent<br />
it to, and which I do not always see. I waited a<br />
month or two and wrote for payment. I wrote<br />
two or three times more, but from first to last<br />
I never had a reply to a single communication. I<br />
then got the Secretary of the Society to write, and<br />
he very kindly did write a pretty strong letter con-<br />
taining a plain threat of the legal proceedings;<br />
that produced an interview with the editor, an<br />
apology, and a cheque. The whole affair took<br />
about a year. Now does anyone believe that if I<br />
had not by the merest fluke found that the story<br />
had been printed, I should ever have had the<br />
money to this day? I do not. I may add that<br />
others have had similar experiences in the same<br />
quarter, and the periodical in question continues<br />
to be a marvel of enterprise and cheapness.<br />
M. O. H.<br />
What is the true position of affairs in such a<br />
case as this? An author (young, struggling, and<br />
inexperienced) fires off a composition—say a short<br />
story—at the editor of a magazine. He either<br />
writes with it to say he "encloses a MS. and hopes<br />
it will prove suitable," or writes his name and<br />
address on the back of it, and sends postage<br />
stamps for its return.<br />
The editor "begs to accept it, and encloses a<br />
cheque from the proprietors for £5."<br />
A few years later, less young, and perhaps less<br />
struggling, the author wishes to republish some of<br />
his former efforts in a volume, or has a chance of<br />
re-selling them, but is confronted with the difficulty<br />
that he really does not know whether he has the<br />
right to with regard to a story originally disposed<br />
of as indicated above. He asks himself and other<br />
persons, "Who has the copyright?" Has the<br />
writer been employed by the proprietor of the<br />
magazine?<br />
Have they a joint ownership?<br />
Has the author sold the copyright right out?<br />
Or has he only sold "serial rights?"<br />
Ought not all books to be dated on the title-<br />
page with the year and month of publication?<br />
Ought not reviewers to state the price of books<br />
in reviewing them, and if not, why not?<br />
Is a contributor on the staff of more magazines<br />
than one justified in proposing an article on the<br />
same subject to them all contemporaneously, and<br />
if more than one accept, selecting the acceptance<br />
which pleases him best?<br />
Ought a reviewer to write more than one review<br />
of the same book?<br />
Ought a publisher's advertisements in his own<br />
magazine to be charged to the author? And can<br />
a publisher charge such advertisements to the<br />
author without first obtaining his consent to an<br />
expenditure which goes into the publisher's own<br />
pocket?<br />
%—<br />
In answer to your query I am detailing briefly<br />
my own experience, and I understand that many<br />
other authors have suffered similar treatment.<br />
In 1882 I sent an article to""<br />
(a well-known monthly): it was accepted. It ap-<br />
peared 17 months afterwards. I was paid, however,<br />
directly it appeared.<br />
In 1885 I sent an article to""<br />
(another well-known monthly), and I heard no<br />
more of it. It may have appeared, or it may have<br />
been lost. I have never seen it in proof, and I<br />
have never been paid for it.<br />
In this year I sent a short story to a journal with<br />
a fair reputation and position. They cut it down,<br />
and in so doing cut out a small episode—of itelf<br />
unimportant—to which reference happened to be<br />
made twice later on in the story. That is, they<br />
made nonsense of my work. They did not pay<br />
until three months after printing the story.<br />
In 1889 I sent a story to a daily paper. They<br />
did not accept it or refuse it, or acknowledge it.<br />
One day I saw it in print, and three monihs after-<br />
wards I received most inadequate payment for it.<br />
It appears, however, that I have no remedy.<br />
A Scribbler.<br />
I sent a story to a weekly journal. They printed<br />
it without acknowledgment almost directly after-<br />
wards. I wrote a second—not knowing the fortu-<br />
nate fate of the first—and sent it to them. Then<br />
I heard that the first one had been printed. I<br />
wrote to ask for payment. They did not answer.<br />
I wrote again. They did not answer, but printed<br />
my second story. Months afterwards, with no<br />
apology, I received a cheque for both of them.<br />
If these people had accepted my first story in the<br />
usual manner, I should have looked for it, and<br />
if I had been paid for it at the rate I eventually<br />
received for the two, I should have never sent them<br />
the second story. I can get more from a daily<br />
provincial paper and get my money promptly, as<br />
well as have proofs sent to me for correction. The<br />
paper was" ."<br />
A. E.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 52 (#72) ##############################################<br />
<br />
52<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
AT WORK.<br />
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the<br />
Society, who are invited to keep the Editor<br />
acquainted with their work and engagements.<br />
<br />
R. WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI<br />
is at present engaged upon an annotated<br />
edition of Shelley's "Adonais" for the<br />
Clarendon Press. It will contain a considerable<br />
amount of prefatory matter, and a long series of<br />
notes. Mr. Rossetti is also engaged u|.on a scries<br />
of articles, bearing the title "Portraits of Robert<br />
Browning," which are appearing, with copious<br />
illustrations, in J he Magazine of Art.<br />
Mrs. Brightwen, who is one of the Vice-Presi-<br />
dents of the Selborne Society, is issuing a small<br />
book, entitled "Wild Nature Won by Kindness."<br />
It will be illustrated partly by the author, and<br />
partly by Mr. Carruthers Gould, and will be pub-<br />
lished by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin.<br />
Mr. T. Bailey Saunders has in the press<br />
"Counsels and Maxims," being the second part<br />
of Arthur Schopenhauer's "Aphorismen zur Le-<br />
bensweisheit." It is to be uniform with the<br />
"Wisdom of Life," the first part of the same work<br />
(Swan, Sonnenschein, & Co., 1 vol., 2s. 6d.). His<br />
translation of Schopenhauer's "Religion: a Dia-<br />
logue," and other Essays, is going into a second<br />
edition.<br />
Mr. H. G. Keene, CLE., is engaged in editing<br />
an Oriental Biographical Dictionary. The work—■<br />
founded on materials collected by the late Mr.<br />
Thomas Beale, an assistant of Sir H. Elliot's—<br />
was originally brought out in Calcutta undrr the<br />
auspices of the Government of the North-West<br />
Provinces. As the editor was at a distance from<br />
the press, and his time was much forestalled by<br />
his official occupation, a good many clerical and<br />
typographical errors escaped attention; but the<br />
book was found useful by scholars, and is now<br />
scarce. Mr. Keene's edition, besides containing<br />
corrections of these errors, will also include con-<br />
siderable additional matter. It will be published<br />
by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., and the price, to<br />
subscribers, will be 15J.<br />
In the new edition of " Chitty on Contracts," now<br />
being issued under the auspices of Mr. J. M. Lely<br />
and Mr. Nevill Geary, there will be found (p. 665) a<br />
recently settled agreement for publication on com-<br />
mission, the author retaining his copyright. The<br />
agreement was settled by the Society of Authors.<br />
Miss Charlotte M. Yonge has in preparation a<br />
story entitled "The Slaves of Sabinus." The scene<br />
is laid in the time of Vespasian, and the book will<br />
be published in the autumn season. The seventh<br />
series of the "Cameos of English History," by the<br />
same author, is now appearing.<br />
Mr. W. A. Copinger, F.S.A., the author of<br />
"The Law of Copyright in Works of Literature<br />
and Art," has now in hand a Bibliography of the<br />
various editions of the Latin Bible in the fifteenth<br />
and sixteenth centuries, with full collations, and<br />
fac similes of pages of the principal editions.<br />
The life of "Carmen'Sylva," Queen of Rou-<br />
mania—a translation from the German (Messrs.<br />
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co.)—contains<br />
numerous extracts from the illustrious lady's poetry,<br />
which have been gracefully rendered into English<br />
by Sir Edwin Arnold.<br />
"Thomas Dain, the Memoirs of an Irish Patriot,<br />
1840-1846," is also announced by the same pub-<br />
lisher. The author is Sir Charles Gavan Duffy<br />
K.C.M.G.<br />
M. Jusserand, author of "English Wayfaring<br />
Life," and an honorary foreign member of our<br />
Society, has revised and enlarged his work, "Le<br />
Roman au temps de Shakespeare," and a translation<br />
of it has just been issued (Mr. T. Fisher Unwin).<br />
Miss Jane E. Harrison, author of " Myths of the<br />
Odyssey, &c," has written an introductory essay, with<br />
archaeological comments, to Miss Verrall's work<br />
upon Ancient Athens (Messrs. Macmillan & Co.).<br />
The Rev. Charles D. Bell, D.D., of Cheltenham,<br />
has just published "A Winter on the Nile"<br />
(Hodder and Stoughton, price 6s.), containing the<br />
record of a tour up the Nile as far as the Second<br />
Cataract, with a sojourn at Luxor and a description<br />
of recent discoveries and antiquities at Bubastis<br />
and the Fayoum.<br />
Marion Crawford's new book, "A Cigarette<br />
Maker's Romance," will be published this month<br />
(Macmillan).<br />
Mr. Edward Clodd's "Story of Creation" will<br />
be issued in a cheaper edition next month by<br />
Messrs. Longmans. An Italian translation will<br />
also be published in Rome shortly.<br />
Mr. Edmund Gosse announces the first three<br />
volumes of an International Library, under his<br />
editorship (William Heineman). Cine is from<br />
the French, one from the German, and one from<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 53 (#73) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
53<br />
the Norwegian. A search is to be made on all<br />
hands and in all languages for such books as com-<br />
bine the greatest literary value with the most<br />
curious and amusing qualities of manner and<br />
matter. If such a search is only rewarded by<br />
a modicum of success a large body of readers<br />
should be placed under a great debt to editor and<br />
publisher.<br />
A new edition of Lamb's "Adventures of Ulysses'<br />
will be issued shortly, edited by Mr. Andrew<br />
I-arig.<br />
The Open Court—a Chicago journal—is at<br />
present publishing a series of papers by Mr. T.<br />
Bailey Saunders, constituting a short critical re-<br />
view of recent theories on the Origin of Reason.<br />
Miss Mary Rowsell is engaged upon a biography<br />
of Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby<br />
(the I^idy of Lathom), (Vizetelly & Co.). The book<br />
is to form one of a series of Romantic Biographies.<br />
Miss Rowsell is also dramatizing her novel "The<br />
Red House."<br />
Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G., Her Majesty's<br />
Consul at Oporto, author of " Portugal: Old and<br />
New," "Beyond the Seas," "Sylvia Arden," is<br />
working upon the final revise of "Round the<br />
Calendar in Portugal," a book dealing chiefly with<br />
rural life and rural themes in that country. The<br />
work is copiously illustrated by Miss Dorothy<br />
Tennant, Mrs. Arthur Walter, Miss Alice Wood-<br />
ward, Miss Winifred Thomson, Mr. Tristram Elles,<br />
Mr. Ambrose Lee, and the author.<br />
Mr. William Sharp has written a memoir of the<br />
great critic to be prefixed to Sainte Beuve's Essays,<br />
which are announced by Mr. David Stott, as a<br />
volume in a new series, entitled " Masterpieces of<br />
Foreign Authors."<br />
The latest volume of the Camelat Series,<br />
"Northern Studies," is by Mr. Edmund Gosse;<br />
the latest volume of the Canterbury Series, "Great<br />
Oder," has been selected and edited by Mr.<br />
William Sharp (Walter Scott).<br />
A new edition of "The Story of a Marriage," by<br />
L. Baldwin, will appear immediately (Ward and<br />
Downey).<br />
"The Roll of the Highland Clans." This is a<br />
sheet somewhat similar to "The Roll of Battle<br />
Abbey," about 34 inches by 24 inches, on which is<br />
an inner scroll bearing the names of the principal<br />
cadets, the badge, and coloured specimen of the<br />
Tartan of each Clan. It has been prepared by<br />
Mrs. Philip Champion de Crespigny, and is sub-<br />
scribed in a limited edition by Mr. Bernard<br />
Quaritch, at a guinea.<br />
Dr. Beattie Crozier, whose book, "Civilization<br />
and Progress," met with such success last year, has<br />
in hand a book dealing with the Labour Question.<br />
The book will be a sequel to "Civilization and<br />
Progress," and will be published by Messrs. Long-<br />
mans & Co.<br />
Mrs. Kennard has begun a new novel in London<br />
Society, entitled "A Homburg Beauty." Her<br />
story, "That Pretty Little Horse-breaker," will run<br />
upon the Syndicate System with Mr. Tillotson, at<br />
the end of this year.<br />
"John Strange Winter " will also employ the Syn-<br />
dicate System over her new novel. This will run<br />
as a serial in various newspapers from September<br />
to December.<br />
Mr. H. J. B. Montgomery, author of "The<br />
British Navy in the present Year of Grace," is<br />
publishing some reminiscences of the Naval<br />
Service in the Naval and Military Argus. These<br />
will shortly appear in book form.<br />
The names of subscribers to Mr. W. F. Smith's<br />
"Rabelais " are rapidly coming in. It is expected<br />
that the book will go to press almost immediately.<br />
The agent for The Author is Mr. A. P. Watt.<br />
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's "A Conference of the<br />
Powers," which appeared in The United Services<br />
Magazine in this country, was also published<br />
simultaneously in America, Australia, and India.<br />
Mr. Bret Harte is engaged writing a short story<br />
for a syndicate of newspapers.<br />
Henry Herman is about to issue shortly<br />
"Between the Whiffs" (Arrowsmith). The book is<br />
a collection of theatrical anecdotes which have<br />
appeared in various journals.<br />
William Werlah is writing a fifty thousand word<br />
romance for Lippincotfs Magazine, which will<br />
probably appear in the August number. The<br />
title of it is "Roy the Royalist." It is mainly a<br />
romance of adventure, but in part historical. The<br />
interest centres round the siege of St. Jean d'Acre<br />
(1799), and among the characters introduced are<br />
Bonaparte, Sir Sidney Smith, and Ahmed Dgezzar,<br />
the famous Pacha of Syria.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 54 (#74) ##############################################<br />
<br />
54<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.<br />
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Eminent Actor Series. Kegan Paul, Trench,<br />
Triibner and Co. 1 vol. 2s. 6d.<br />
Besant, Walter. Herr Paulus. Chatto and<br />
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"Bickerdyke, John." The Book of the All-round<br />
Angler. L. Upcott Gill. 1 vol. 5s. 6d.<br />
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Black, William. The Penance of John Logan.<br />
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol.<br />
6s.<br />
Blackmore, R. D. Mary Annesley. Cheap<br />
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Springhaven: a Tale of the Great War.<br />
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 1 vol. 6*.<br />
Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bash-<br />
kirtseff. Cassell and Co. 1 vol.<br />
Bramston, M., and Coleridge, C. R. Truth<br />
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Browning, Oscar. The Life of George Eliot.<br />
1 vol. Walter Scott.<br />
Calmour, A. C. Confessions of a Doormat. F. V.<br />
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Clifton, Alice. An Unwilling Wife. Reming-<br />
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Collins, Mabel. Ida; An Adventure in Morocco.<br />
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Garnett, Dr. Richard. Iphigenia in Delphi;<br />
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<br />
<br />
## p. 55 (#75) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
55<br />
Kipling, Rudyard. The Story of the Gadsleys.<br />
Sampson Low, Marston and Co. i vol<br />
is.<br />
Lankester, Prof. E. Ray, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.<br />
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well, Limited. 1 vol.<br />
Lytton, Earl, G.C.B. The Ring of Amasis.<br />
Macmillan and Co. 1 vol. 3*. 6d.<br />
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McCarthy, Justin, M.P., and Praed, Mrs.<br />
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<br />
## p. 56 (#76) ##############################################<br />
<br />
56<br />
A D VER TISEMENTS.<br />
"THE LITERARY HAJYDJWAID OF THE<br />
CHURCH."<br />
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING.<br />
NOW READY.<br />
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation' issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for<br />
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will<br />
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid<br />
of the Church of England throughout the world."<br />
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide<br />
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as<br />
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of<br />
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THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION,<br />
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This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to<br />
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<br />
<br />
## p. 57 (#77) ##############################################<br />
<br />
A D VER TISEMEN IS.<br />
57<br />
MESSRS. WHITTAKER'S BOOKS OF REFERENCE.<br />
Large post Zvot doth js. 6d.; half bound, 9*.<br />
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in every well-chosen library."—Morning Post.<br />
A Dictionary 0/Parisisms and French Slang. Large Post Bcw, ior. &/.<br />
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A Companion to the Works op Allan Ramsay, R. Burns, Sir<br />
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Containing the following Standard Works, which they<br />
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Works of Reference.<br />
Bibliotheca Classica. 26 vols. (Onlyfewsetsleft).<br />
Bohn's Dictionary of Poetical Quotations.<br />
Fourth Edition.<br />
Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and<br />
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Walter Armstrong and others.<br />
Cooper's Biographical Dictionary. 2volumes.<br />
Denton's England in the Fifteenth Century.<br />
Dodd's Epigrammatists. The most complete<br />
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Gasc's Concise Dictionary of the French<br />
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Lupton's Life of Dean Colet.<br />
Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the<br />
English School.<br />
Smith's Synonyms and Antonyms.<br />
Sowerby's English Botany. 12 volumes.<br />
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Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction.<br />
Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Pro-<br />
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Archer's British Army.<br />
Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Architecture. 3 vols.<br />
Burn's Rome and the Campagna.<br />
Burn's Old Rome.<br />
Castle's Schools and Masters of Fence.<br />
Davies's Supplementary English Glossary.<br />
Dyer's Ancient Athens.<br />
Palmer's Desert of the Exodus. 2 Volumes.<br />
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London: GEORGE BELL & SONS, York St., Covent Garden.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#78) ##############################################<br />
<br />
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Type-writers sent out to Hotels.<br />
For further particulars write or call at—<br />
TYPE-WRITING HEADQUARTERS,<br />
Type-Writers Sold and Let on Hire.<br />
38, KING WILLIAM STREET, E-C.<br />
Booh and Jobbing Printers, and Lithographers.<br />
THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL OF SHORTHAND, Ltd.,<br />
27, Chancery Lane, W.C.<br />
Estimates given for all kinds ok Printing.<br />
TELEPHONE NO. 2801. TELEGRAMS "SHORTHAND." LONDON.<br />
MRS. OXXiIi,<br />
Misses GILL & CARPENTER,<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,<br />
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUDGATE HILL, EX.<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,<br />
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from<br />
i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy<br />
(carbon) supplied free of charge.<br />
6, ADAM STREET,<br />
References kindly permitted to many<br />
well-known Authors and Publishers.<br />
Further particulars on application.<br />
STRAND, W.C.<br />
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The maintenance, definition, and defence of literary property.<br />
2. The consolidation and amendment of the laws of Domestic Copyright.<br />
3. The promotion of International Copyright.<br />
The first of these objects requires explanation. In order to defend Literary Property, the Society acts as<br />
follows:—<br />
a. It aims at defining and establishing the principles which should rule the methods of publishing.<br />
ft. It examines agreements submitted to authors, and points out to them the clauses which are<br />
injurious to their interests.<br />
7. It advises authors as to the best publishers for their purpose, and keeps them out of the hands<br />
of unscrupulous traders.<br />
f.. It publishes from time to time, books, papers, &c, on the subjects which fall within its province.<br />
6. In every other way possible the Society protects, warns, and informs its members as to the<br />
pecuniary interest of their works.<br />
WARNINGS.<br />
Authors are most earnestly warned—<br />
(1) Not to sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,<br />
unless an opportunity of proving the correctness of the figures is given them.<br />
(2) Not to enter into any correspondence with publishers, who are not recommended by experienced<br />
friends, or by this Society.<br />
(3) Never, on any account whatever, to bind themselves down to any one firm of publishers.<br />
(4) Not to accept any proposal of royalty without consultation with the Society.<br />
(5) Not to accept any offer of money for MSS., without previously taking advice of the Society.<br />
(6) Not to accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility without advice.<br />
(7) Not, under ordinary circumstances, when a MS. has been refused by the well-known houses,<br />
to pay small houses for the production of the work.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#79) ##############################################<br />
<br />
A D VER riSEMEN TS.<br />
iii.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writer's cramp.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents round shoulders.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace<br />
with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental<br />
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate<br />
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.<br />
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as<br />
such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the<br />
cost of a Bar-Lock.<br />
Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System.<br />
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.<br />
W. J. RICHARDSON k Co, 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C.<br />
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building,<br />
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance oi<br />
Literary Property.<br />
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer^. 2.?. The Report of three Meetings on the<br />
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.<br />
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry<br />
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4s. 6d.<br />
S The History of the Socidte" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the<br />
Society. is.<br />
6. The Cost Of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of<br />
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds<br />
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d.<br />
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled<br />
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers<br />
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various<br />
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The<br />
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession willfollow.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#80) ##############################################<br />
<br />
IV.<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
CHEAP PRINTING, A NECESSITY OF THE AGE!!!<br />
Attention U called to the following important features of this Company:—<br />
There is no Promotion Money to be paid. There is no Payment for Goodwill or Old and Worn-out Machinery and Plant.<br />
There are no Founders' Shares, all the Profits belonging to tin Shareholders without preference or distinction<br />
The ECONOMIC PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY, Limited.<br />
Incorporated under the Companies Acts, 1862 io 18S6.<br />
O^.X*XT^.Z. - - - £100,000.<br />
100,000 SHARES OK £1 EACH UPON WHICH IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT NOT MORE THAN ioj. PER SHARE WILL BE<br />
CALLED UP AT PRESENT.<br />
ISSUE OF 100,000 SHARES, payable as follows:-2s. Bd. per SHARE on APPLICATION, 2s. 6d. per SHARE on ALLOTMENT<br />
Two Months' notice will be given oj subsequent Cells, -which are not Co excxfJ 3s. M. each.<br />
DIRECTORS.<br />
JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Esq., M.P., 20, Cheyne Gardens, S.W., Chairman.<br />
JOSEPH HOULTON, Esq. (Messrs. Joseph Houlton & Co., Limited), Printers and Publishers, Worship Street, E.C.<br />
A. MONTAGUE HAINES, Esq. (Messrs. Haines & Co.), 155, Fenchurch Street, E.C, and Lloyd's.<br />
CAMPBELL PRAED, Esq., 30, Norfolk Square.<br />
HENRY P. WELCH, Esq. (Messrs. Welch, Perrin, & Co.), 7, Mark Lane, E.C.<br />
And one or two Directors to be chosen by the Board from the first Shareholders.<br />
Bankers.—Messrs. WILLIAMS, DEACON & Co., 20, Birchin Lane, E C.; Messrs. PRAED & Co., 189, Fleet Street, E.C.<br />
Solicitors.—Messrs. SAUNDERS, HAWK.SFORD, BENNETT, & Co., 68, Coleman Street, London, E.C.<br />
Broker.—TAMES GILLISPIE, Esq., 11, Copthall Court, E.C, and Stock Exchange.<br />
Auditors.—Messrs. PiXLEY it Co., Chartered Accountants, 24, Moorgate Street, E.C.<br />
Architect.—WILLIAM DAWES, Esq., Manchester and London.<br />
Secretary {pro />/».).—A. G. SYMONDS, Esq., M.A. Oxon. Registered Offices (pro tern.).—68, Coleman Street, London, E.C.<br />
1'<br />
I;,<br />
PROSPECTUS.<br />
The Company is formed for the purpose of engaging in the business of<br />
cheap printing and publishing on a large scale. The demand for cheaper<br />
books, magazines, and newspapers, is rapidly on the increase owing to<br />
the spread of education and the growth of population. Hundreds of the<br />
best serial publications and standard works are beyond the reach of the<br />
masses by reason of their virtually prohibitive prices ; whilst the works of<br />
specialists in the various scientific and learned professions find but a<br />
limited field amongst those for whom they are intended, because the<br />
purchasing of books, varying in price from six shillings to thirty shi lings<br />
a volume, constitutes a severe tax on the fixed incomes of many pro-<br />
fessional men.<br />
Recent developments in printing machinery prove that cheap and<br />
good books, magazines, and general literature is certainly attainable,<br />
especially if modern plant and appliances be combined under one<br />
administration and under one roof.<br />
A Printing Establishment combining all the aforesaid requisites in one<br />
set of hands, with abundance of the newest plant, and placed in the<br />
position of a ready cash purchaser of paper, will be enabled to produce<br />
printed literature—the greatest necessity of the age—cheaply and on a<br />
large scale, and in a quarter of the time it would otherwise take to turn<br />
out work.<br />
Good printing or publishing houses, even in the worst times, are<br />
hardly ever idle ; and the continuous high dividends declared by them<br />
attest the solid and profitable nature of the printing and publishing<br />
industry generally.<br />
The following are the only firms whose Shares are quoted in the Stock<br />
Exchange Official List, &c. :—<br />
Ord. Share<br />
Capital.<br />
£363,890<br />
j£toO|Coo ... 10 ... 10 ... 21<br />
The Shares in these and other similar Companies are held in high<br />
repute, and are difficult to obtain, the concerns being in some cases little<br />
more than private family partnerships, from participation in the profits<br />
of which both author*, customers, and the general public are shut out.<br />
Accordingly, the Company will erect entirely new workshops on an<br />
eligible site near London which the Directors have in view. Some of<br />
the best modern printing works are now situated at Guildford, Aylesbury,<br />
Redhill, Kingston, and other places outside I,ondon.<br />
The Company's workshops will have good railway and cartage facilities.<br />
They will be erected from the designs of Mr. William Dawes, Architect,<br />
of Manchester and London. Their estimated cost is moderate, and the<br />
buildings are designed on such a scale as will admit of gradual expansion<br />
in sections as business grows. The first sec.ion can be open for business,<br />
already promised, within a few monthi of the allotment of shares.<br />
They will be fitted throughout with the electric li.-;ht, a great boon in<br />
itself to compositors. As they will be new, great expenses for repairs<br />
will be avoided; and, being practically fireproof, their insurance will be<br />
at low rates.<br />
No payments have been or will be mad-i for ' ooodvill' or promotion<br />
money, or, in fact, initiatory charges of any kind other than the pre-<br />
liminary expenses incident to the fonnatioq and successful establishment<br />
of the Company.<br />
The Directors believe that the value of the shares will at least equal<br />
CasseU & Co., Limited ,<br />
Waterlow Bros. & Lay ton<br />
Limited ,<br />
Num. value<br />
uf Shares.<br />
I*3iu* up.<br />
9 ••<br />
Market<br />
Price.<br />
those of the Companies mentioned above, and that there is every<br />
probability of substantial dividends.<br />
In the selection of the printing plant the Directors have taken into<br />
consideration the fact that, whereas in all but one of the branches<br />
connected with the printing of books and newspapers enormous<br />
economies have in the past fifty years been effected, mainly through the<br />
increased productive power of various machines, in -the one central and<br />
essential branch, viz., the composing room, not only have the expenses<br />
increased, but the modus operandi is almost as primitive as in the days<br />
of Guthenberg and Caxton.<br />
The Directors believe that the machine known as the Linotype Com-<br />
posing Machine is capable of effecting the largest nett economies over<br />
the present cost of type-setting by hand, and that by adopting it they<br />
save a large capital outlay for type.<br />
They have accordingly contracted for a supply of Linotype Machines<br />
under special conditions, of which the following are among the most<br />
important:<br />
The rate of wages paid to ordinary compositors in London varies<br />
m piece work from 8d. to tod. per 1,000ens of typeset up, corrected,<br />
and distributed ; but the Linotype Company (Limited), agrees to<br />
hire to the Economic Printing and Publishing Company Linotype<br />
Composing Machines, and to charge a Royalty equal to only 2d. per<br />
1,000 ens of matter set up, corrected, and automatically distributed.<br />
When machines are unemployed, a small sum only is charged for<br />
each working hour.<br />
The Linotype Company also gives to this Company a monopoly<br />
as regards the use of their machines for London and ten miles round,<br />
subject only to certain exceptions.<br />
To make the Company's operations partake as largely as possible of a<br />
co-operative character, a percentage rebate off the ordinary printing<br />
tariff" will be allowed to all authors who are shareholders in the Company,<br />
and all employes will, as far as possible, be chosen first from amongst<br />
the shareholders.<br />
It is intended to apply to the Stock Exchange for a quotation.<br />
The following contract has been entered into:<br />
Contract dated the 3rd day of June, 1890, made between the Linotype<br />
Company (Limited) of the one part, and A. G. Symonds, as trustee for<br />
the Company, of the other part, being the contract referred to above.<br />
The above is the only contract to which the Company is a party, but<br />
arrangements have been made with other persons relating to the pre-<br />
liminary expenses of formation of the Company, and procuring .capital<br />
which may constitute contracts within the meaning of section 38 of the<br />
Companies Acts, 1867; but applicants for shares shall be deemed to<br />
waive their rights to specification of any particulars of such arrange-<br />
ments or contracts, and to accept the above statements as sufficient<br />
compliance with Section 38 of the Companies Acts, 1867.<br />
The Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Contract men-<br />
tioned above can be inspected by applicants for Shares at the Offices of<br />
the Company's Solicitors.<br />
Applications for Shares may he made by letter or on the prescribed<br />
form, and forwarded, with a remittance for the amount of the deposit<br />
payable on application, to the Bankers of the Company, or to the<br />
Secretary, at the Office of the Company. If the whole amount applied<br />
for by any applicant is not allotted, the surplus paid on deposits will be<br />
credited to the sum due on allotment, and where no allotment U made<br />
the deposit will be returned in full.<br />
PROSPECTUSES AND FORMS OF APPLICATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE OFFICES OF THE COMPANY, OR OF EITHER OF THE<br />
BANKERS, BROKER, OR SOLICITORS OF THE COMPANY.<br />
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City<br />
of Westminster. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/240/1890-06-16-The-Author-1-2.pdf | publications, The Author |