Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-11
A PUBLISHERS TALK.
WHAT HE SAID ABOUT BOOKS AND
THEIR BUYERS.
What KILLED the Cook Book Old stand
ard Works That Are in Good Demand
Sermons and Books on Art and
Music Cheap Trash.

ard Works That Are In Good Deman,
Sermons and Books on Art an,
Music Cheap Trash.
a have not a particle Of what is calle
the literary -eu,r. ~ course | know a
about my n our books | say my O
our books In the To-srs,lNe sense, Just Iik
iom Hoo - rutcler who, pointing 10 tn
sides Ut be hanging from his stall al
mlrei 'hI> baiv"~ auI quarters. and his ia
und his surL It, strange how the act o
printing book, with your name as put
Usher makes you think highly Of the wora
4 Ali other cO,'.e books have different mer
its, but our NooNs are always good. / sup
pose editors think the same way OF every
article they PRINT 1t 5 "a bIg, far reaching
fraternity hooas to me represent so many
oundr ot laper, setting up of type, press
work, BIN ing and Advertising | hav,
titles at m, iingrs ends What is ther.
strange about that | have no use for d
CATALOGUES | knOw the names OF all on
books, and other people books, and tAe
4ates Ci edition \ shepherd knows tbs
ia es OF all MS shreV as a goose her,leI
knows his geese
i Will dig at once into the lower strait m
and there you nud the cook book Al.
Kinds Ut people make coos books We ha e
them offered to u, III manuscript every day
on,r very pretty little woman came with
portable stove a basketful Of eggs, but
ter, sugar, AMI spIce and wanted TO prove
pra' teal, In the o.Iice the excellence of
her receipts / Ia r, was time when the
cook book made money. There was a
handsome church built on the sales of a re
hElOus cook book But | fancy if you
would put IN the scales the cook hooks nov
printed III the United States they woul 4
outweigh, pound Tor pound, all the beef u
bread The tuaCk medicine people killed
tue COX book Instead of filling up their
aInanaCs with met geological improbable
ties, Us in the good old times, they put in
cooking receipts and that dIshed the COOK
t,Ok. There Is a book that always sells
and that Is one on manners, the etiquette
thing Their are Thousands OF people who
Want to be told that they ought never 10
drin. out OF u finger bowl nor pi, K their
teeth with FORK. Just remember that
ours Is a state Of transition, and there ex-
Ists happy belief that good manners can
be acquired for - cents
ALL rHE OLD STANDARD WORKS
An the oil stan lard books, as OF syno
nyms, sell Just as well TO day as fifty years
ago there arr more RobInson rusoes
'hunyans, swiss Family Robinsons.' 'Thad-
eLseo of War,aws, and Scottish Chiefs
S,lI than ever They are stock, like nail,
and LackS Histories OF the Old fashion
hume AMI GlLbUn, never are out OF de-
mand- Macaulay sells well, but shows no
Increase as 1t should am convinced that
people buy histories Lecause they are cheap,
and nil up space, in their booh cases They
m,S seem We want good history OF the
nlted states, FROM tn beginning right up
10 to day Tine last word should be- the
death OF MIR. Hendricks II must not be adj
dressed to any particular class, but must be
"a book GuivrsLandaU.e from BrHzOs to ban
gOT. some new man might make much
credit ami profit out OF it
Religious books, no matter what you
may hear about the raids Of agnosticIsm
and inddchty, are Just as good to sell a.
ever. The 4emani for sermons never cea,es
he oh worthies-Hooker, Taylor-ar,
dropping oil, though studious clergy men
buy them stlll. and there Is no knowing
what II studlous clergyman will not read
Biblical histor .es have been the most won
derfu OF successes Books of this kind
thirty years Old work OFT as well to day a.
something fully abreast of the travel and
erudItion OF Oday. Art books, to fly of
to another quarter, are OF poor sale. Il
make them good } uu must spend an endles-
amount OF money in Illustrations Max,
an art book with tad art i'll it, and you
have an absurdity. The sale of such books
Is limited, becauSe the highly cultured class
o. the artistic profession Is small Not on,
in NtF y
1t is the same way with books on musi,
Even the biographies of gryat musician
lind scant readers The musical novel ma
its one great success, and has never been re
peated 4 herb who blows the trombone
or plays the double bass does not fasclnate
the ordinary woman who reads
The Old French novel of the Sue kind Is
dead The Wandering Jew is sheIved, and
TO creature cares 10 probe ths Mysteries OF
raris lola Is not a success We would
not, II we were quite certain OF selling a
million copies of lola touch him We may
sell goods that are garish or not tasteful in
pattern, but nothing that We know Is oil
color.
CHEAP BOOKS, GOOD AND TRASHY.
English stories of the very poorest kind
with blood and murder in them, women
republished here, work oil first rate Their
cheapness creates the demand Why should
| annoy my self in trying TO produce tine
mirrors where the whole human form is re
tiecei If / can only sell hundred OF them
If the public wants to look at a distorted
image Of itself in a little bit OF cracked
and tarnished glass with pinchbeck frame
around it and will take a million of them,
han, I ma ~ "a n that C1a pf goods
The public is right, always right Granted
that HJO tons Of paper running from my
presses are printed all over with what you
call fribLle, pray rem, mber that there are
fifty tons of this cheap reading which re
produces the thoughts Of the greatest think
ers the world has known. When you think
of it, the few really good cheap books act
as tonlcs, ami tend toward the cure Of that
brought about by overindulgence
IN what Is trashy or unwholesome.
y ou, who plume yourself on literary
advise some writer to
make me a story like 'Sno, dies Bubby.
Have that infant say 'chuck-a chuck and
goo goo Invent a word-take down that
baby's bubblings pnonetically, and, above
all, have it slobber all over its pretty bib
Keep on goo gooinS' to the end Of the
chapter and it will be d capital hit You
see 1t touches human natura Almost
every body has baby. Suppose they lost
their baby and some other fellow found
Goo goo, and fed it carefully with pap
Don't you see that millions on millions Of
fathers and mo- hers would melt at once
The mistake people who write fall into is to
think that BABY is Il common, well known
thing 1t is not Ii is always move.
Ever since the babes in the
W ood' was written human Sy mpathy Graves
for that kind OF thing. New York IimeA
DR. Won Guddrn a Noted Authority.
DIR. Won Gud,I,u. who lost his life in
he attempt t" prevent the suicide Of the
late king of BAVARIA, WAS noted uu-
,hurity III the sCirucr ii mental and ncr-
L.nLL. Ni.D.I.L. -ti.r.Iti.,n. k.L,.. ln..r,