New-York tribune., 1871-06-13
THE TRADE or LITERA TURE.

Somebody ought to write handbook or
literature. We are apt to fancy that author
ship in the golden age used to be matter
of divine aflatus, more or less. If man
wrote book then it was, we think, wrencbed
out of him by the immortal lOngings which he
felt or fancied he felt Penny-a-liners, if the
creatures existed in that time, are swept into
nothngness with the gad-hes that futtered
out their poisonous Summer day hundred
years ago. Now everybody is penny-a-llner,
from the great divine who sells his last sun
DAVIS sermon to his sectarian magazine at SlO
per page, to Madame B. clearing the expenses
of her fortnight at Cape May by her descrlp-
ton of her own and her friends dresses for
The FTunkevs Journal at 35 per column. In
old t;mcs when q woman wrote book, how
ever meager. men, with great acclaim, crowned
her Soppbo on the spot, and all other women
"a nromptly turned their backs on her as a
social Pariah.
Now literature is the money-making trade
70 which all young girls just out of school,
and needy widows, first turn. The popular
idea is that it is a genteel business which can
he carried Oh at home and which requires no
preparatory culture, as would sewing or teach
ing. Every magazine and newspaper editor is
overwhelmed with applications for places on
his corps of contributors ; the peculiarly OF
which is that there is rarely any apparent
conviction on the part of the applicants tha'
they have any word to speak or song 10 sing
which must be uttered, or which VIII DchehC
the world when it comes They neeu money
There, to themselves, is the force OF their
appeal. made often with all the pathos OF
despair. Then, too, their ideas of the rewards
of authorship are such veritabe dreams OF
Alnaschar A young girl of eighteen
proposcs herself as managing editor
of a political newspaper a Southern
lady offers to sell her three-vOlume novel ior
ga sum sufficient to repurchase her iost
" plantations and restore her family to ease
L" and aflluence.r In behalf of these hopetui
hungry aspirants and hopeless struggling pub
fishers who suffer their attacks, why should
not some handbook or plain erp0Se OF the
business and scale of prices be set forth
Why should the editor wrap himself and his
business in haze of mystery sit In nebu-
lOus glory at the gate of the desired city !!
Would it not ease his soul and his letter-box
to state plainly that the city within has neither
golden streets nor gates OF pearlY that It's
laws are those dictated by the most down.
right common sense and expediencyP and that
| greenbacks and not glory are their prevailing
motive power? There is no profession OF
which the public is so ignorant of the buSi-
ness details as that of authorship, and
| perhaps this would be proper if every pub
Usher was MGcenas, and every author an
artist or a genius The glittering vail suits
Isis in her temple. But the fact is, that in
England and this country two-thirds of the
| Il TnarG
and books which possess neither exceptional
wit, fancy, nor knowledge. The stories, the
the poems, the essays Gas well as the sermons),
which best suit this greedy half-taught public
can be furnished to order by any decently-
educated, active, adaptive man or woman; (;
| and such literary matter is well paid for. we
| see no reason, therefore, why tins host OF
needy wOuld-be authors should not earn a
livelihood in satisfying this incessant demand
| for evanescent matter as long as their pro-
ductions are not immoral and are reasonably
| clean.
| In the higher class Of magazines and journals
| there will be found certain individuality be-
longing to each which, if the contributor would
| study his chance of success, would be greater
| The article which would not suit the atmO-
sphere of O speculative, quiet Boston audience
would be welcomed in NewYOrk for its sub
! iective dramatic mode of setting forth truth,
and rice versa. But the tyro, with his first
MSS. in hand, goes trembling to an editors
door. supposing it is the one portal of the
world of Fame, inside of which the lmmOrtals
wait, watchful and jealous, to admit or reject
him from their company. If the fateful yellow
envelope comes back to him, Fate, he thinks, has
pronounced against him. His wisest plan would
be to take it to another dealer precisely as if it
were package of sugar or tobacco. If one
does not want it another may. There is no
conspiracy among successful authors against
his early genius; the editor is quite as anxious
to obtain good matter as he is to furnish it,.
The half-dozen leading magazines represent
very fairly the phases of the best thought in
the country and if there be anything worth
buying in his addition to it, he will not fail in
sale. If he does, let him still hopefully begin
to take lower place. The inferior popular
journals are probably his field Our advice is
intended for the trader rather than the true
artist, perhaps, and smells of the shop more
than Parnassus But we think 1t suits the
want and temper of the time.
|