Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-05-15
BOOK MAKING IN AMERICA.

bOOh MAhlNT LIN AMIh1SA.
1t is somewhat alarming to knsW that the
number of houses now actually engaged in
the publishing of books, not including pc.
riodicals, amounts to more than three hun.
drcd. About three fourths Of these are en-
gagged in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore; the balance being divided
between Cincinnati, Buffalo, Auburn, Al.
bany, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, and a
few other places. There are more than three
thousand booksellers who dispense the pub.
lications of these three hundred, besides six
or seven thousand apothecaries, grocers and
hardware dealers, who connect literature with
drugs, molasses and nails.
The best printing in America is probably
now done in Cambridge; the best clothbind-
ing in Boston and the best calf and moroc-
co in New York and Philadelphia. In these
two latter styles we are, as yet, long dis
tance from Heyday, the pride of London
His finish is supreme. There is nothing be-
tween it and perfection.
Books have multiplied to such an extent
in our country, that it now takes 750 paper
mills, with 1000 engines in constant opera
ton, to supply the printers, who work day
and night endeavoring to keep their engage
ments with publishers. These tireless mills
produced 270, 100000 pounds of paper the
past year, which immense supply has sutd f9r
.rvG. ~. ,o~v,..vv. -put.,t anu quar-
ter of rags are required for pound of paper,
and 400,OOO,000 pounds were therefore con-
sumed in this way last year. The cost Of
manufacturing a twelvemonth's supply of
paper for the United States, aside from la
Dor and rags, is computed at 81, 100000.
Some idea of the stock required to launch
popular work may be gathered from Mes
srs. Longman's ledger. These gentlemen
report that when $4,000 copies of Mr.. Ma
caulay's two recent volumes went flying all
abroad from Peternoster Row, no less than
5000 rcams of paper, six tons of pasteboard,
and 1000 yards of calico, were swallowed
up.
Most of the large publishing houses now
stereotype everything they intend to print.
The electrotyping process is largely employ
ed and an experiment is now being made in
Boston, Of which We shall hear more at some
future time, which, if successful, will de.
crease the expense Of stereotyping about one.
third. We have lately heard that machine
is in use in New York for type setting, and
that the second volume of Mr.. Irving's Life
of Washington was prepared for by its aid.
Four hundred years ago, a single book of
gossipping fiction was sold before the palace
gate in the French capital for fifteen hun
red dollars. The same amount Of matter
contained in this expensive volume, Mr..
Harper, now supplies for twenty-five cents.
Costly books, however, are not yet out of
fashion, for we are all glad to know that
seventeen hundred subscribers have already
been obtained for Prof. Agassiz's splendid
new enterprise.
The Harper establishment, the largest Of
our publishing houses, covers half an acre of
ground. If old Mr.. Coxton, who printed
those stories of the Trojan war so long ago,
could follow the Ex-Mayor Of New York in
one of his morning rounds in Franklin
Square, he would be, to say the least, lit
tie surprised. He would see in one room
the floor loaded with weight of $50 tons
of presses. The electroyping process would
puzzle him somewhat; the drying and pres
sing process would startle him; the hustle
would make his head ache; and the stock
room would quite finish him. An edition
Of Harper's Monthly Magazine alone con-
sists of leO, 900 copies. Few persons have
any idea how large number this is as ap'
piled to the edition of a book. 1t is COM
puted that if these magazines were to rain
down, and one man should attempt to pick
them up like chips, it would take him a
fortnight to pick up the copies of one sim
gle number, supposing him to pick up one
every three seconds, and to work ten hours
a day.
The rapidity with which books are now
manufactured is almost incredible. A com
pete copy of one of Bulwer's novels, pub
lished across the water in three Volumes
and reproduced here in one, was swept
through the press in New York in SO hours,
and offered for sale smoking hot in the streets
The fabulous edifce proposed by Yankee
from Vermont no longer seems an impossi
bility. "Build the establishment according
to my plan," said he; "drive sheep in a
one end, and he shall Immediately come ou
: at the other, four quarters of lamb, felt hat
a leather apron, and quarto Bible"
, About one book in one hundred only is {
, success. When Campbell, at literary fes
. tival, toasted Bonaparte as the friend Of lit
erature because he had bookseller shot
he was triae too rough on the trade.
is impossible always for publisher to decid