Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-08-23
No. SO


packed away stories by nearly every lead
ing senator in Washington Mrs. Grant
has dictated to him her remembrances,
and he says the Grant papers which are
still unpublished are voluminous and
valuable
The immense amount of money already
received for Grants book is bound to
bring a number of valuable papers to tho
front. The money in literature is causing
leading men to look carefully over their
papers, to see whether they have not the
material for a book 1t was Grants sue
cess that started Logan and Sheridan to
work, and know of a score of statesmen
who are planning volumes | know of
many who work for magazines, and l
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 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 it, George Kennan has made good
reputation and 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, andI know of another magazinist
who is also a newspaper man who has
thirty three articles in the hands of maga-
zine editors, for which he got from $l00
to $500 apiece. The leading newspaper
syndicates will now pay from $40 to $25
a thousand words for good matter, and
the literary demand seems greater and
greater every day.
l 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 knew that
George Eliot received $4,000 for ''Ro-
mola;'' that Scott got over $500 foI
"Waverley" and $40, 900 for Woodstock.
Wilkie Collins "Armadale" brought $685.
600, and poor Goldsmith only got $500 for
his "Vicar of Wakefield" "Rasselas"
brought Samuel Johnson only $500. and
Dickens made about $50, 900 year during
his latter days at his writings. The fort
une received from Grants book, which
was a sort of history, looks very large
beside the $5O,000 which Gibbon got for
his Decline and Fall of the Roman EN-
pire," and Scott was paid 100000 for
Life of Napoleon" which no one now
ever hears of. Will Carleton is said ia
get $125 for short poem. and Bret Harte
had, you know, contract for $1O,OOos
year for whatever he might write, and
this was shortly before he went abroad as
consul. Byron received $4,000 TO,
"Childe Harold" and he got $4,000 for
don Juan" Victor Hugo made fort
une out of his writings, and w. D.
Howells must certainly get between $10,-
600 and $4,000 from Harper Brothers.
He receives, | am told, $4,000 and up
wards for a short story, and lis books
ought to bring him in great deal OF
money.
AS to the great American writer's of the
past, Washington Irving was the best
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
$4,000 on "Uncle Toms Cabin" Still,
when she wrote it she would have been
satisfied with silk dress in payment for
it. The book still sells, but whether she
receives 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
"Innocents 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. Nasby left a fortune of
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 a royal salary from The New
York World. One of the greatest sue
cesses of today in bound books has been
Lew Wallace's "Ben Hur," and it will be
astonishing to many of the higAly philo-
sophie readers of this letter to know that
the best paid novelist in the United States
perhaps is E. P. Roe. Roe's novels sell
in half dozen different editions and they
go everywhere. The editions are run out
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 $4,000, and this provides for
the newspaper use Of the story alone.
Mr.. Stevenson will make a greater
amount than this out of it's 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 So, 500 is
pretty good price for serial. and she has.
l understand, written one which will
shortly be published.
AS to Washington 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 novel. Perry S. Heath has
book Of travels in press which is quite
interesting. William E. Curtis will shortly
publish book on Russia, l know Of
man who has book on duels ready for
publication, and there are numbers of the
department people who are engaged in.
literary work. Spofford, the librarian, al
ways has his hands full. George Bancroft
picks up his work occasionally, but he
does not write as regularly as in the past,
and Professor Jouv who was sent hv tho