The Yazoo Democrat., 1854-05-17
Statistics Of Literary. Rewards.

ers and OF large majority of the reading
public to the application of certain English
and American authors for an international
copy right law, has furnished the world with
much interesting and useful information re-
specting the profits of successful literary in
enterprises in this country and England
The very reliable statistics upon this subject
recently published, afford gratifying evidence
of the comfort, ease and in many instances,
wealth, Of our popular and emineut writers.
The time appears to have gone by when the
man of genius, in dedicating his life to lite
rature. was regarded by his friends as having
become the voluntary victim of inevitable
poverty and destitution. The following facts
speak for themselves of different state of
things now;
GooDRIcH, the cross old bachelor, who un-
the Protean disguise of {" Peter Parley," has
delighted and instructed the children of this
country for twenty years, has sold about
f" taoo millions of his little volumes" of his.
tory, geography, astronomy, travels, nara
tiyes, &c, DC.
MORSE, the Colossus of juvenile geograph-
ers, sells every year seventy-fye thousand
copies of his books; whilst MITCHELL, anoth-
er man of "lallos, rivers, continents, and
chief towns" disposes of four hundred thou
sand copies of his various maps and geogra-
phies annually.
ABBOT, the popular wholesale manufactu
rer of simple histories for the rising genera
ton, (whose Life of Napoleon" in Harper's
Magazine, we fear will never be completely
has sold upwards of half million of copies
of his works.
AETHoN, the Yankee editor of the Clas-
sics, whose sugar coated" notes to Horace,
Virgil, Cesar, and Cicero have driven from
our preparatory schools the good old ortho-
dox 'Adelphi editions" of those much abus-
ed Roman authors, sells more than fifty thou
sand dollars worth Of his pinchbeck learning
and trash annually. About eight hundred
thousand dollars worth Of WEBsTER's Die
tionaries have also been sold much to the det-
riment Of the pure old English photography
of our fathers.
OF that concentration of BEEcHER STOWE
mendacity, Uncle Tom," about half
million of copies have been sold in this coun-
try, aud its unscrupulous authoress has been
made rich by successful lying.
Turning from these instances of successful
humbugs, we rejoice to find WASHINGTON
IRVING, that Chevalier Bayard of the litera-
ry world, has, at various times, disposed of
not less than half a million of his pure, de-
lightful, and noble books, and now leads
life of literary ease at his beautiful country
seat on the Hudson, in the midst Of scenes
rendered classic by his genius and eloquent
pen.
But alas for the taste and discrimination
of the American public, that most detestable
of all literary quacks, HEADLY, has managed
to get rich by the sale Of two hundred thou
sand copies of his wretched twaddle Napo-
leon and his Marshals,' The Sacred Noun
tains," DC, &C., at the rate Of a dollar and a
quarter voEunae. And, as an illustration
Of the Piety of our people, we find that
BARNES the industrious Biblical commen-
tator, has sold upwards of three hundred
thousand volumes illustrating the dark and
briery passages of the Bible, at seyenty-five
cents per volume That eminent divine's
"searchings of the Scriptures" have not been
without their terrestrial compensation, in the
shape Of certain metallic denominations called
dollars, without taking into account the pro-
bable celestial reward which awaits his use
full labors elsewhere.
Miss WARMERS literary bread-pills and ro-
mantle water-gruel, commonly known as
Queechy," and the +" Wide, Wide, World, "
have been swallowed by the weaker sex and
the man-milliners of this country, to the ex-
traordinary amount of one hundred and four
thousand copies and Mrs. LEE HENTz, in
three years, has sold ninety-three thousand
volumes of very similar literary po6uluDe.
JARED SPARKS, " Biographer and Histori-
an" has managed to get off one hundred
thousand volumes of illustrious unknowns
carefully and industriously collected, and pl-
ollsly stuffed specimens from all the villages
of New England, and embalmed in the rec
tifed and doubIe-distilled laudanum of that
worthy's pen and brain.
OF STEPHENS Travels there have been one
hundred and forty thousand copies proceeds
$loo,o0o) sold in this country and SEWARD
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