Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-26

.--.--.. 81 ssss.----e -
replenishtng 1t, she was wont TO
admonish hun that instead OF running
around with the literary fellows OF ms
day aud wasting his time, IN ro.ous
living $50 to speak,. he hau better
"make another book" ana get some
money for II. ] don't pretend in CIV
ing this version of the business tnat l
give her language precisely, out ! 90
undertake to say that give htr luea'
which, alter all, IL the main thing 10
be considered. And just here | may
DO permitted to indulge in natural
reflection. What n compatible" ca
pacity IL was that Sir Walter proposed,
that OF putting i'm few weeks OF
close, careful work, and at the end ex
changing IL for all the way from s35,-
900 to $50, 600, am not an aspiranl
for such honors rs he won in the field
of novel. writing, but | am not sure
l would refuse to 20 into hook-lnaking
myself, II some one would guarantee
me even little less than S550,OOO for
my next eleven years work A con-
tract, by the way, that would be most
likely ~ be quite as one-sided an. af'
fair as that above mentioned, where
the Bostonians "got a way Nth" my
friend. Ouly, on the principle that
"turn about is fair play" my said
friend would he in mild way re-
venged. in that his friend would get
away with" publisher, even as u
publisher in former days got the better
of him. For Woodstock" Sir Walter
got $4,000, and for his Life of
Napoleon" he realized abnut
$4,000, these two works, the
smaller half of the first series OF
"Chronicles of Canongate." estimated
by Lock hart at &c. 900 more, being the
result Of the aforementioned nine
teen months work q. book making,
II must not be supposed, however, by
the average aspirant for literary FAM
and the consequent fortune. that every
successful author reaps such u money
harvest as did Sir Walter Sc"tt. The
fact IL he stands all alone in the matter
of money making. Among the writers
of whose cash receipts the world
Knows anything, his aggregate gains
Ear exceed lhuse of any such author
who however lived.
In striking contrast to these big fig
urts, | must mention that. according
20 Truth, 10 whom am in tho main
Indebted for the data being worked up
in thus letter, Miss Maria Edgeworth' q
highest r.ceipt for y single book was
about 81 $50. Goldsmith received only
$500 for the Vicar Of Wakefield, and
"Raeselash brought only 500 TO John.
son 3 money mill. Miss Burney en-
toys the distinction OF ranking with
my friend (whum the Bustunians
iieeced) in that she, too, had to sell one
of, ifnot the first OF her books ttEve-
linn') for 800, though she afterwards
got even W tn the world and the pub
fishers 10y getting $1,000 for Cecilia"
ana $40 900 for camilla" Du-
mas, though, was about the
worst treated of all the "lilerary fell
lows of whom contemporary history
has anything to say, when he first AS
pired to literary success. He not only
got nothing for his first novel, but
actually contributed 500 toward the
expense Of printing il. No wonder,
after such an experience, that he felt
1t incumbent on him later to "get
even by publishing az his own he
works OF dozens of able. but uninilu-
entail writer's, who needed the share
OF the profits lie allowed them (the
ion'ss share l fancy, since Dumas
cared little for money more than the
fame which naturally goes with good
literary work.
md AT this point in my letter
writing that ! have not quite used up
nity per cent (ste how like an eX-
change broker cxpress myself after
got tn writing about the big profits
OF Fronope and Scott) of my notes on
this subject. but tho rest will keen
40 ! hold up for the present, with the
statement that next week, or later. |
VIII have something to say abuu, the
cash receipts OF Lord Lytton, whose
NE and labore arejust out, Of Charles
DICKENS, Thackeray, George Elliott,
my Lord Tenuyson aud Others, who
have won fame and a fair share of for
tune In the business of book-mukipr.