Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1856-04-26
(From the Boston Transcript April II
Book Making In America.


II Is something alarming to know that the num-
Der of houses actually engaged in the puh-
fishing 1T books, not including periodicals.
amounts to more than three hundred. About
three fourths Of these are engaged IN Boston,
New York Philadelphia and Baltimore. the bal
nnce being divided between Cincinnati. Buffalo
Auburn. Albany. Louisville. Chicago, St. Louis,
aud few other places. There are more than
three thousand booksellers who dispense the pub
Iication- If these three hundred. besides six or
seven thousand apoihecarles. grocers and hard
ware Dealers who connect literature with drugs
moasse- md nail-.
Books have multiplied 10 such extent in our
country that it now takes $50 piper mills with
1000 engines in constant operation. to supply the
printers. who work day and night endeavoring
to keep their engagements with publishers. These
tireless mills produced 270. 000OD0 pounds Of pa
rer the past year. A pound aud quarter of rags
are required for pound of paper, and 4o0,Ooo'
600 pounds were therefore consumed in this way
last year The cost Of manufacturing twelve
months supply Of paper for the United States,
aside from labor aud rags Is computed at s4'ooo'
900.
Most of the large Publishing houses now ster.
eotype everything they intend to Print. The cleo
troiypng process is largely employed, aud an
experiment is now being made in Boston, ct
which wa shall here more at some future time
which If successfully, will decrease the expense
of stereoiypirg about one third. w" have lately
beord that machine is in use in Nav York for
type setting, and that the second volume OF Mr..
Irvngs Life of Washington was prepared forthe
press by lis aid
Four hundred years ago, n single book of gos-
sipine fiction was sold before the palace gate in
the French capital for fifteen hundred dollars
The same amount Of matter contained in this ex
pensive volume, Mr.. Harper now supplies Tor
twenty five cents. Costly books. however are
not vet out of fashion. for we are all glad to
know TINT seventeen hundred subscribers have
already been obtained for Professor Agassazs
splendid new enterprise.
An edition of Horpsrs Monthly Magazine "a
lone consists Of l6D.tOD copies. Few persons
have any idea how large number this is APP
piled 10 the edition of book. 1t is computed
that If these magazines were 10 ruin down. and
one man shoud,attempt to pick them up like chips.
it would uke him fortnight to pick up the cop
les Of one single number. surprising him to pick up
one every three seconds, md to work ten hours "a
day.
The rnpidi.v with which book are now manu-
featured i. almost incredible. complete copy
of one of Bulwcr. novels, published across the
water in three volumes. and reproduced here in
one. was swept through the press in New York
in 50 hours, an. offered for sale smoking hot in
the streets. The fabulous edfee proposed by n
Yankee from Vermont II" longer seems mn i'm
possibility. Build the establishment according
to my plan" snd he: drive sheep in at one
end and he shall Immediately come out mt the
other four quarters of lamb Il felt hat, leather
apron. and qunrto Bible"
About one book in one hundred only is sue
cess. When Campbell, at literary festival,
ton .tea Ranapnrte as friend of literature be-
cause he once had book seller shot, he was II
triAe too rough on the trade. 1t is impossible
always for publisher TO decide rightly.
Some ofthc best books, which have afterwards
had the lnrgp-t sales, have been in manuscript,
the most widely rejected. The novel of Jane
Eyre" SO much praised by Mr. Curtis in his leo
ture this season, was turned away from the pub
fishing doors Of almost every respectable house
in London. and was pulled by accident, out Of n
publishers iron safe where it had begun to grow
mouldy, bv the daughter of the bookseller. who
had himself forgot IT. "Eothen" was carried
bv is author, Mr. Kinglake. to twenty different
houses, till at last, in fit Of despair, he gave the
copyright away TO an obscure bookseller. paying
the expenses Of publication out of his own poc6
ct
MI Tharkeruy's VANITY Fair" was rejected
by Nj. Colhurn. for whose magazine il was writ
ten, thai nstatc gentleman complaining that there
pe> 20 interest in it. A New York publisher
fought the writer of II now popular book from
spring To autumn, and Mt length gave in from
sheer inability to escape importantly longer. -
After it was stcrrotyped, and il was printed he
offered every inducrment to persuade Il brother
book seller to TAXI off his hands without
In de SPAR he at last published it himself, and the
sale went up to 10000 in one season.
The life of an extensive publisher is of nece g.
sity one of great labor, both of mind and body.
lie begins with the author aud ends only with
the purchaser, Between these two worthless
there lies world of detail known only to the
''Trade." Success to the useful craft!
FIsu WIru FOuR LEGS. Queer Freak Of