New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-07
NOVELTIES IN PUBLISHING.
NOW EDITIONS DE LUXE ARE PRODUCED

NJ.
The fashion of what are caheo I"''' "
- Tbockeray was the first author nom
oaS ,ho. ia the word which the eager critic
,,nns.d To typographical ostontatlon employs "
sxnress his emotion-by such ali edition. oiioo 'n0"
we have had or are in process OF haVhg' DioA'h''
-rhosa yplearities of manner more conspicuous
than ever in a court suit, George Elots hoIhoia'
and Shakespeare Whether these editions are lux
urious or not is matter of opinion. lhey are
certainly ponderous. We seem to be gong PACK 10
the DAYS of folios, for if these books are not
fohos they are as big some folios. great point
is made of the illustrations Excepting the Ro-
rnolan none of these new editions is furnished
with new Illustrations or even new blocks. The
old illustrations are worked of from the OLD
blocks, "on real china paper" II that helps'
and q few new ones are thrown IN to set on inc
oldness of the old ones In " ROmola the llluSua-
lions were all new. brand-new. The chaste pohcl
of the President of the Royal Academy sup
plied them, and his colleagues have supplied
criticisms on them. The criticisms were perhaps
more effective than the drawings.
Now we are to have Fielding, which Messrs. Smith,
Elder & Co., who produced the Thackeray, are to
nublisb. A specimen sheet lies the table. In
one point the edition will be distinctly superior to
those above mentioned. II is not SO big. The size
is ROYAL Svo instead of imperial or extra imperial
syo This specimen is well printed, except that the
register is imperfect, good paper. The type is
size too small for the page, but clear The ono Illus
tration on real china paper" shows clearly the
difficulty which a modern artist encounters III
reproducing types of the last century,
There are 10 be eight to each volume and
as the whole number of volumes is ten, the reader
NAV regale himself eighty times in succession on
these works of art of which Mr. William Small, who
has had varied experience In illustrating DOCKS
is the author. The edition Will he Dmted' say
the publishers to 1000 copies for sale IN Europe
and $50 for sale in the United States Europe
means England, so that the less than the thlrty
millions of Englishmcn are expected to absorb tour
times as many copies your fifty millions OF Alerl-
cans Manchester, Birmingham and the newer
ouarters in the west of London, where dwell the
unknown immensely rich will perhaps do most OF
the English buying. These are very filling books.
The Fielding is to be published on the system
adopted in the case of the Thackeray and others OF
this new mammoth period. II is a system against
which sooner or later, the public will kick. No
price is advertised. Subscriptions, you are told
will be received through the booksellers This
leaves the bookseller free to charge what profit he
likes or thinks he can get; one bookseller asking
one price, one another, and the same bookseller ask
ing two prices of two different customers. No man
knows whether he is subscribing at a fair
price. unless he has confidence in his book
seller or takes the trouble to ask at
several shops There are booksellers of
whom one may buy with ones eyes shut, but how
many such are there? | know of one. To those
who are less Trustworthy this way of publishing Of
fers easy facilities for overcharging The bookseller
gets the book from the publisher, i'll the beginning,
at fixed price, but "thc publishers reserve to
themselves the option OF at any time increasing the
subscription price" This turns the boOkselling,
and to somo extent the bookbuyng, business into
gambling transaction. bookseller VIII take not
so many copies as he thinks ho can sell,
but perhaps twice many, hoping to cover himself
by rise in the price. Then the market is
rugged" The surplus copies put away, or
"salted down." as heard worthy say An ar
ti6cial scarcity is created An artificial demand on
the publisher Is also created He pnts up the price
TO the booksellers the bookseller puts up the price
10 his client. The credulous client. agonized at the
thought that the book getting out OF the market,
OF beyond his reach in price, PUSHES III to buy.
considerable part of the edition is worked of at
purely fancy prices the publisher and bookseller
dividing the plumber between them i'll more or less
equal proportions.
This is not a conjectural account of what might
happen bat a historical narrative of what has hap
pened and is happening. lie prices of the Thack-
cray the Shakespeare the Dickens, have each been
increased while the book yet incomplete and
long before the publishers stock was sold out In
DO case, think, has the whole edition of any one
been disposed of by the publisher but when third
or half had been sold he increased his charge The
publisher can we'll afford such an operation The
sale of the first third halt pays the whole cost OF
manufacturing; the whole proceeds of every copy
sold after that is unmiXed, clear profit. But the
supply remains greater than the demand.
By and by, copies find their way
into auction rooms, they will find the
level of their true value and purchasers at ficti
tous rates will discover that they have paid for
their whistle much more than it is worth, or will
fetch A similar thing done by Mcssrs.
Macmillan with their last edition of Hamcrtons
Etching and Etchers." Before publication they
raised the price of the book from five guineas to
SEVEN The book sellers of course raised theirs and
doubled their profits out of the public. There was
"a m omentary run on the book, then the price fell
little; the stocks on hand became unmanageable,
and the fall is likely to be greater STILL mention
only some of the moro tlagTant objections TO this
novel plan of booljobbng. There are many others
The new Fielding will bear, at any rate, one great
merit II is to be edited with biographical essay
by Mr. Leslie Stephen. man OF singular cqmpe
tence for the task. And the task is one that much
needed doing. Fielding, / suppose. has never lost
mis- popularity. but though there have been many
editions of him. there is no which be called
satisfactory. In 1862 the works OF Fielding were
collected and issued in four quarto volumes, with
essay his Life and Genius by Arthur Muir
ply. This has served as the basis of many
other editions and Murphy's essay, mediocre
performance, has been printed and reprinted as if
il contained the last word that could be said on
Fielding Alexander Chalmers, a booksellers hack
superntended, after his fashion trade edition In
1906 in ten volumes. reprinted in 1921. This lat
ter has remained down TO this time the best col
lected edition. In 1871 another, in ten volumes
was published in London by Messrs. Bickcrs, with
the namo of one James p Browne NJ. d., on the
title page as editor. don't think DR.. j. p Browne
is known 10 famn otherwise than by this effort His