Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-07-13
THE BURLINGTON, PRESS, FRIDAY july II, 1883


who are planning volumes | know of
many who work for magazines, and |
know of an instance of one senator who
was asked what amount he would charge
for a short article on the tariff. In reply
he said he could not do it for less than
$500, or about ten cents a word. | know
of one senator who got 5000 for a short
article for The Forum, and the newspaper
men of Washington have gone into the
magazine field and are making money out
of 1t. George KEENAN, has made good
reputation and a nice pot of money out of
the Russian articles which are being pub
lished in The Century. ! have already
told you about the goose that lays the
golden eggs for John Hay and John G..
Nicolay, and know of another magazinist
who is also newspaper man who has
thirty three articles in the hands of maya
zine editors, for which he got from 500
to $500 apiece The leading newspaper
syndicates will now pay from so to $50
thousand words for good matter, and
the literary demand seems greater and
greater every day.
| have been collecting for some time
items in regard to the amount of money
made by authors. 1t is very fascinating
work, and it is interesting TO know that
George Eliot received $50 900 for "Ro-
mola;" that Scott got over $4,000 for
"Waverley" and $40 900 for Woodstock.
Will,e Collins "Armadale" brought $685.
I 900, and poor Goldsmith only got $500 for
! his Vicar of Wakefield" "Rasselas"
brought Samuel johnson only $500, and
Dickens made about 500, 600 year during
| his latter days Mt his writings The fort
uno received from Grants book, which
was "A sort of history, looks very large
beside the $50, 900 which Gibbon got for
his Decline and Fall of the Roman En-
! pire," and Scott was paid 800, 600 for a
Life of Napoleon" which no one now
! ever hears of Will Carleton is said to
! get 1928 for a short poem, and Bret llarte
! had, you know, a contract for SlOOOO a
year for whatever he might write and
] this was shortly before he went abroad as
+ consul Byron received $2l eco for
"Childe Harold, and he got $4,000 for
"Don Juan" Victor Hugo made a fort
une out of his writings, and w. ID.
/ Howells must certainly get between S1O,-
! 600 and $500 from Harper Brothers.
| He receives, am told, $4,000 and up
! wards for a short story, and his books
ought to bring him in a great deal of
! money.
As to the great American writer's of the
past, Washington Irving was the best
& paid author of his day, though he made
+ nothing like the amount of money that
similar talent would bring in today.
| Fanny Fern received high prices for her
works and Harriet Beecher Stowe cleared
! $40, 900 on Uncle Toms Cabin" Still,
! when she wrote it she would have been
| satisfied with a silk dress in payment for
! it. The book still sells, but whether she
receives a royalty or not do not know.
! Bayard Taylor made pot of money out
: of his books of travel, but he did not leave
much when he died. Mark Twain makes
| perhaps as much as any writer of today.
! He has business faculty allied to remark
| able literary ability of the kind the mar
! ket demands, and everything he touches
seems to turn into gold. He has written
some beautiful things, as well as some
/ remarkably funny ones and it is hard to
realize that the same pen which wrote
| '1nnocents Abroad" penned 1.-The Prince
and the Pauper" OF all American
writer's should Judge that Mark Twain
was the most read abroad You will find
! his books in every country where the
+ English language is spoken, and many of
; them have been translated.
Mark Twain's humor gave him his
start, and humor is one of the best pay
ing commodities in the literary market.
Petroleum v Nasty left fortune of a
million dollars. Josh Billings died rich,
! and Bill Nye is making lots of money out
of his lectures and his books, as well as
receiving royal salary from The New
York World One of the greatest sue
ccsses of today in bound books has been
Lew Wallace's Ben Hur," and it will be
astonishing to many of the highly philo-
sophie readers of this letter TO know that
| the best paid novelist in the United States
L II
/ in half dozen different editions and they
go everywhere. The editions are run out
by the hundred thousand copies, and
many of his stories having run through
big edition in cloth have had equal sue
cesses in paper covers.
AS everybody knows by this time Robert
Louis Stevenson's story, now being pub
lished in the newspapers, was sold to
them for 10000, and this provides for
the newspaper use of the story alone.
Mr.. Stevenson will make greater
amount than this out of its sale in book
form after it has been completed. Anna
Catharine Green, who by the way, writes
about the best detective stories of any
American writer today, thinks $4,000 is a
pretty good price for Il serial, aud she has,
! understand, written one which will
shortly be published.
AS TO w aShlnStOn journalists num-
Der of them also have books in hand or
in press and the standard of Washington
literary work among newspaper men is, it
seems to me, advancing. Mr.. John s.
Shriver the editor of The Home journal
at Baltimore, and much noted for his in
, teresting stories about the White House
} while he was in Washington as the cor
respondent of The Baltimore American
is writing a novel Perry S. Heath has &
book of travels in press which is quite
interesting. William E. Curtis will shortly
publish book on Russia, ! know of {
5 man who has book on duels ready fol
publication, and there are numbers of thC
4 department people who are engaged il
5 literary work. Spofford the librarian, al
; ways has his hands full. George Bancroft
C picks up his work occasionally, but h,
a does not write as regularly as in the past
f and Professor Jouy, who was sent by The
\ government to Corea as Il naturalist, il
Y preparing book upon that country. Sun
r set Cox is doing no writing at present.
= FRANK & CARPENTER