The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-04-24
AMENITIES FLITERATURE, r.,
Chat With tho Senior Partner of an Old
Publishing House.

AMENITIES or FLITERATURE.
Chat With tho Senior Partner OF an Old
Publishing House.
From the New York Herald
"My rccOllections as u publishcr,'
said Mr.. William II. Appleton, the
senior member OF. the firm Of D. Ap.
plrton St Co., "cXtend over a period
OF fifty years. can remember when
nv father kept book store OIL En-
change place. 1t stood just back OF
tho Custom House, but the street was
rot the resort of brokers and bankers
that it is to-day. Ladies' promcnadcd
that narrow thoroughfi,rc and fashion,
Battery and Bowling Green. My f;i.h-
cr was Il retail dealer thea, and na;lc
quite little fame in the trade "a ,n
importer of foreign books. lie pc.
cd the store in Exchange place l., 49,:
and published his frs: book liz l>.n,
! This book was about tirrr inches. .I.iart
and haitian inch th;ct>, bu: lis; ;:ubi;c.:'ton
canScd The iirin Of ID. Anpintpn & 80.
|
clypctiia,' undertakes. soIic il,;ri,
Years later. The little boo, was cali
cd Crumbs From the Masters Table,
and consisted Of selections from Bible
texts. We sold about Thousand
| 'Crumbs' and were very we'll satisfied,
SO we'll indeed That we followed iG by II
similar book, which was equally sue
cessiul. The third book we published
was called "A Refuge i'll Time OF
Plague and Pcstilcncc,' and il had an
enormous sale, for it appeared in 1882,
the terrible cholera year, and Tic yub
lie mist0ok it for Il treatise on that dis
| case, whereas it was q religious VOL
une, pointing out Christ as the refuge.
Some twenty-five years ago Il para
graph appeared in the papers saying
That We would givea copy Of the larg-
est book we cpublishcd to any one who
would give us q copy OF 'CrumDs.'
This announcement was seen by an
Old lady in Maryland, who sent us the
little book, and we sent her one twcn-
ty times its size in return. | had the
old and worn covers taken OIL, and
paid $50 to have it handsomely bound,
and keep it In a velvet lined silver
box at my house. My father gave
more attention to importing than to
making books, and sent me over TO
England to establish all agency in Lon
don. l was twcnty-one years Of age
then, and | very we'll rcmember meet
ing Tom Moore alta dinner given by
the we'll known publisher, Longmans.
In those times Mr.. Longmans gave his
dinners in a room over the shop, and
it was great gathering place for the
literary lights ofthe day. No, didn't
hear Moore sing, but heard him talk.
He was very genial and amusing and
was very much impressed"
SOME POPULAR BOOKS.
"You have been abroad number
Of times sincew
"Yes, q great many times, and 1
have met q great many interesting pco-
pie. We deal directly with most Of
our foreign authors. AS rule VIC
publish from the English plates,
though we have published from Spcn-
GERS manuscript. He is very par
ticular writer, and almost entirely re-
writes his articles from the proof
sheets. Huxley reads his prnof in the
manuscript; that is, he writes very
carefully at first, so that there is very
little correction made in the proofs.
Bancroft is very particular writer,
and it takes him q long time to pre-
pare book for the press. He is at
work now on q new volume Of his his
tory, but it is impossible to say when
it will be ready"
"How was Mr.. Bryant rs maker
of manuscript"
"Mr. Bryant did all his laboring
over the first draft Of his poems, and
the manuscript as we received it was
like copper plate"
"How tlo his works self"
"rlley have sold better since his
death than before, for some reason OF
other"
"What Is the best selling book you
publish, if not too impertincnt q ques-
tion2"
"Thc best selling book we publish is
'Wcbster's Speller', and il has the
largest sale Of any book in the world,
except tho Bible. We sell q million
copies year."
"a million copies ycarl"
ayes, and have for forty years,
making 100000 Of 'Wcbster's Spell
lers' that have issued from our presses.
The year following the emancipation
Of tho slaves we sold /, 500, 900 bGcpusc
every negro in tho South thought it
only necessary to have II Wcbstcr's
Spellnr to read. After that year it
fell back to the original million and
lms never varied. We sell tl1cm in
cases of sevcnty.two dozen and they
are bought by all the large dry goods
houses and supply stores and furnish
cd by them to every crossroads store
| III the country"
'"Can you always tell whether
book will be succcssful2"
LETTER FROM LORD BEACONsF1EtD.