Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1849-01-18
Publishers and Authors.

An interesting article lately appeared
., in Frascr's Magazine, on literary affairs.
of which the following, suggestive of an
occasional "sober second thought. ID
pgbfrber and Of the nil desperandunA
to aathors, is quite quo.ablc for its anec.
dote
somao3tsou uost approved standard
works went begging from publisher to
publisher, and were only accepted by a
kind of accident at last. P,ideaux's Com
neciion 5etwcen the Old and No.5 g'fsf71
mont, for instance, passed from hand I'd
hand, between five or six booksellers, for
two years. By one publisher the author
was gravely told that the subject was
dry; it should be enlivened with little
hamo,-' at last EoAard recommended
it to Tonson. Robinson Crusoe, it is well
known, ran through the whole trade; Fl.
nally, bookseller, more knowing that
his brethren, and realized a thousand
pounds from it. Zrist,um SAdndy was
offered by Sterne to a bookseller for fifty
pounds, and was rejected; Dodsley
eventually published it. The public too
were oftcntin1cs as stupid us the publish
ers. For instance, the Ro5ciad was per-
foctly unsuccessful at first only ton cop.
les were sold in FIVE days: atlongth Gar
rick, finding his own praises in it, patron
izc1 it, and then Churchill reaped a har-
vest from its sale. Gray's ode on Elton
College, according to Warrior, excited
very little attention. What may surprise
some people still more is, that Biairs Ser
mons were rejected by Strahan the pub
Usher.
10 turn to another class of works.
Burns Justice was sold by it's author for
small sum, for he was weary, as he de-
clared, of importuning booksellers to buy
it; it now realizes large annual income.
Buehan's Domestic Ma:I:cj'.e was pur.
chased for five pounds.
In light literature the author Vas also
sacrificed to his own perjury aid eager.
ness, and to the blindness or cupidity of
the publisher. Miss Burney's EyeIina;
all the world can remember, sold for FIVE
pounds; The Wanderers by Savage, pro-
duced only ten; THE Vicar OF Wakefeld,
by Goldsmith, was purchased, it is trueI
for sixty guineas but it gained no sue
cess until 'Ihe Traveller had made its
authors name famous. The narrow cs.
cape which Fielding had of selling h;s
Tom Jones for an odd song,' must NOT
be omitted. He had disposed of the
copyright Of that work for twenty
pounds, when in great distress. Thorn.
son, however, happening to sec the man..
uscript, advised his. friend to get rid of
his bargain, promising to introducc~tho
novelist Of Andrew Millar, an eminent
publisher Accordingly, Fielding and
Mil'ar met at a tavern:
'Mr. Fielding said the publisher, L
always determine on affairs Of this sort
at once
He paused. The heart of the author
sank. Mr.. Millar resumed
I cannot offer more than two hundred
pounds for your work
1.-TWO hundred pounds cried the de-.
lighted Fielding: and rushing from his
chair he shook the publisher by the hand;
and then turning to the bell, he summon
ed the waiter, and ordered two nidre bot
ties Of wine. Alas, poor Fielding there
was no saving that i'll starred, ill-condi-
toned, but most interesting man, from
ruin. The independence of Fielding was
of short duration; eventually he borrow
ed upon his works five hundred pounds
from Mllar, a sum which that generous
man cancelled in his will. One sickens
over these Switch bring to the mind
the heartache of many a true genius. the
disappointment, the degradation, the de-
spair. We dare not dilate on modern
days, one trait of which will perhaps suf-
fee. The Pleasures Of Hope We're refus-
ed by every publisher of London and
Edinburgh, and were only published at
last on condition that the author should
be coatent with the sum of ten pounds
only, and that not until a second edition.
had appeared:
FYv~.-r Al r.~r: