Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-07-07

ttems IN TcBhru 10 inc amount OF money
made by authors. II is very fascinating
George Eliot received ESQ, 900 for 'Ro,
mola;" that Scott got over f8. 500 for
"Wavcrley' and t40, 900 for Woodstock" f"
Wilkie Collins "Armadale" brought e25,!
900, and poor Goldsmith only got $500 for
his "Vicar Of Wakefield" "Rasselas"
brought Samuel johnson only $500 and
Dickens n lie about go, 600 year during
his latter days at his writings The fort
une received from Grants book, which
was q sort of a history, looks very largo
beside the $4,000 which Gibbon got for
his Decline and Fall Of the Roman En-.
pire. and Scott was paid $4,000 for O
life Of Napoleon" which no one now
ever hears of VIII Carleton Is said 10
get $125 for short poem. and Bret Hsrte
had, you know, contract for f10000a
year for whatever be might write, and
this was shortly before he went abroad rs
consul. Byron received &21 900 for
"Childe Harold" and he got $4,000 for
"Don Juan" Victor Hugo mado fort
une out of his writings, and w. D.
Howells must certainly get between S10,-
600 and $4,000 from Harper Brothers.
He receives, am told, $1,000 and up
wards for short story, and his books
ought to bring linn 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
$4,000 on "Uncle Toms Cabin" Still,
when she wrote 1t she would have been
satisfied with silk dress in payment for
It. The book still sells, but whether she
receives n 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.
lie 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 1t 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 fortune of q
million dollars. Josh Billings died rich,
and Bill Nye Is making lots of money out
of his lectures and his books, as we'll as
receiving n royal salary from The New
York World One of the greatest sue.
ccsscs of today In bound books has been
Lew Wallaces "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
perhaps Is Il. =. Roe. Roes novels sell
In half dozen different editions and they
go everywhere The editions are run out
by tho hundred thousand copies, and
many of his stories having run through
n 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
lshed 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 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
"iiN,i tobutt tbliihS V~pooV 10 u
pretty good price for serial, and she has.
! understand, written one which will
shortly be published
As TO Washington journalists n nun.
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 $. Heath has a
book of travels in press which is quite
interesting. William Il. Curtis will shortly
publish book on Russia, / know of a
man who has book on duels ready for
publication, and there are numbers Of the
department people who are engaged in
literary work. Spoflord, the librarian, al
ways has his hands full. George Bancroft
picks up his work occasionally, but he
does not write MS regularly as in the past,
and Professor Jouy, who was sent by the
government to Corea as q paturalist, Is
preparing book upon that country. Sun.
set Cox Is doing no writing at present.
FRANK q. CARPENTER.