Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-07
4ancaster frlteIIigetlrer.
Literary Wages.

ASaSCAoAJ Vo6OOs
Before 1850 the historian Prescott re
ceived hundred thousand dollars for his
"Life of Napoleon" and twenty five
thousand each TO Sir James Mackintosh
and Lingard for their histories ol
England. 1t is stated that Theirs received
four hundred thousand dollars for his
histories, and for one edition of his great
work Macaulay received check Of twenty
thousand pounds-a transaction, he re:
marks, "quite unparalleled in the history OF
the book trade" and which suggested
thoughts of going to the chancellor Of
the exchequer, and bidding for the next
loan" From fiction as we'll as from
history large amounts have been de.
rived. 1t is estimated that SCOTS novels
produced for the copyright at least one
and a quarter millions dollars; and fol
each Of his stories Bulwer received from
five thousand to six thousand. Though
Dumas, the elder, died worth hardly sou,
he had for each of several years enjoyed an
romances. For the advance sheets OF
"Daniel Deronda" Harper & Bros paid
George Eliot ten thousand, five hundred
dollars. Poets have failed to win that large
degree of venerati0n which few histo-
rians and novelists have enjoyed; yet
ByrOn-commercially among the most sue
cessful of modern peets-received hun
drcd thousand dollars for his works, and
But his Life Of Byron" put twenty
thousand into his purse. In 1856, when
Harriet Martineau was writing her eau
photography" she calculated she had
earned by her works somewhere about
ten thousand pounds.''
Yes, on the other side not few authors
of permanent fame have earned only the
mercst pittancc by their writings. It is
notorious that Milton sold the paradise
Lost for five pounds, and that the copy
right of the editions disposed of for the
first fifty years succeeding it's publication
was small. For less than fifteen hundred
dollars Dryden sold Tonson ten thousand
verses. Spencer lived in poverty. Ger
vantcs wanted bread. Only forty-five
copies of Hume's history was bought in the
first year of its issue. johnson wrote
'Rasselas in the evenings Of a single
week, to "defray the expenses of his
mothers funeral and pay some little debts
which she had left," and received for it
one hundred and twenty-five pounds, a
large price compared to the labor of its
composition, yet, in respect to its literary
worth and popularity, very small sum.
But for the "Vicar of Wakefield" which
johnson sold for Goldsmith, the publisher,
paid only sixty pounds. For "Eveline I"
Fanny Burney Madam d 'Arblay) received
twenty pounds. But in our own country
are numerous examples of ill-paid authors.
For many years WordswOrth's poems did
not bring him moro than a hundred
pounds. Neither Goethe nor Coleridge
gained 4 livelihood from books Twelve
years were needed to dispose of five hun
dred copies of Mr.. Emerson's Nature -
and only recently have any Of his books
approached a remunerative sale. Irving
was nerrly seventy before the revenue from
his books met the expenses of
his simple life at Sunnyside. Bay
ard Taylor said that Bryant could
not buy modest house with all he
had received from his poems and of his
own translation of "Faust,' Mr.. Taylor
wrote, that though he gave to it tho best
time of five or six years, it had yielded him
Onlyas much as fortnight's lecturing
tour. Ii Mr.. Ruskin had net possessed a
private fortune, some of his most striking
works could not have been published.
In respect to tho compensation derived
from books of literary merit the contrasts
are rs deep as with those of great worth.
Many sensational novels prove a rich mine
to thcir authors. Mrs. Mary Agnes Flem-
ing received five thousand dollars for each
of her late stories published AS Serials be-
sides holding the right of their publication
in volume. But the books of some writ
ers of the class of which Mrs. Fleming is
the type pay hardly more than the expenses
of publication.