New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-07-26
COMMERCIAL LITERATURE.
MR. MARION CRAWFORD, MISS BRADDoN
.,,s,. THE CIRCULATING LIBRARY, AND
>e MR.. GLADSTONE.

Mr. Marion Crawford says an important criuc
In the daily press belongs 10 all countries out MS
own, 1--WE, know him." adds this writer " as
English, Italian, German, and Russian, ana no"
in Khaled" it has pleased him to be an Eastern
story-teller. Well il may please Mr.. Marion Craw-
ford some day to go home and study America
little Just enough to write story of American
life H. does not seem 10 matter what his sub
iect or his country is he has public when VIII
read anything he writes, just as Mr. Rlder mug
gard has public which will read anything ne
writes. Probably his readers would read some
thing about America, and Mr. Marion Crawloru
might thus acknowledge the debt which every
man owes to the soil which gave him olrth'
Whether his popularity in America be as great
as his popularity in England know not. nope
il is. One likes 10 hear that an American prophe.
is not without honor in his own country HeN, ~
is very great Fccundity is o PROOF Oh popui"iis'
or is proof when the products OF this leculi0i"
find nublishers and buyers. Mr. Marion Crow-
fora r IN No lack of either. Messrs. Macmillan
continue to publish for him, and the Engi@h
public or. at least, the English circulating llora-
ries continue TO buy him His commercial sue
cess mnst be very considerable; so considerable
that be might well afford TO write fewer DOCKS
aud write them better 1t is possible Tor al
author 10 he too prolific and, though some re-
marlxable precedents oppose this notion TO weary
his public.
Does Mr. Marion Crawford wish to emulate TOT
example Miss Braddon? There is no doupU aoouO
her commercial success, but is commercial sue
cess the highest aim of writer; even OF a "IiVSi
~ novels A new novel by Miss Braddon Is
advertised by her new publishers as shorty ioiU"
coming. Gerard or, the World, the flesn "ii"
the Devil in three volumes There are Peope
,,ho GOV the 4bree-yolume novel is dead or dying,
nIh1
Simpkin. seize this occasion to advertise 'heir
new connection with Miss Braddon, and her Ola
novels They shave the pleasure to announce
that they have become sole authorized puoIlsherS
for Miss Braddon's novels, both for those lssueu
an the mast and for those to be published III uhe
future They supply the Trade, whether Whole
sale or export, on the same terms as here'oIoie'
II it were a new crop of this seasons yea iron'
China could the announcement be mace Ill terms
more strictly those of commerce. MISS brauuons
novels are always in print add her purVeyols'
precisely as an oxford Street tradesman prociaif1s
good line of these eleven-and-sixpenny oest cali
shoes always in stock.
Do not let us hold the novelist Responsible TOT
the vagaries of her publisher; only Tor her OWL
The list of her productions issued i'll the past IS
given below the production to be puollsneo LII
the near future. How many of them do you
sunnose there are? The number is exactly h1ty-
one Gerard" will make exactly fifty-two-aS
many novels by this still-living author as tnere
are weeks in the year. l think they were all
originally published i'll three volumes each-loo
volumes The volumes must average nearly oV"
paQes each, and the grand total OF prlnted page
from Miss Braddons perennial pen cannot De muc"
less than $4,000. In the endeavor to make 1nl'
arithmetcal estimate of Miss Braddons literary
productiveness complete, turned to the inaccurate
Allibone for the date Of her first novel VIII
YOU believe that this lady's name docs not appear
in it? That it does not is no reproach 10 uiic
inaccurate AlIbone, but proof OF the omluVeo
novel-wrights fertility. Allibone's hrst volume
was published in 1859, and Lady AudleyS DE-
cret" did not appear till 1862
II the Young student Of contemporary literary
annals cares to know where / found the date, L
win add that looked for it next in book more
inaccurate than Allibone's, Mr.. G. Washington
Moons Men and Women of the Time" vi
course il is not there. Then l turned to the Cat
aloguc of the London Library, a very useful
compilation; almost as accurate as Alllbone and
Moon are inaccurate. The date was there, 1867,
but it was matter of inference that this was the
first edition; a probable inference because the
hook is in three volumes; and then a second copy
in one volume sixteen years later, which Is a
curious proof of the popularity of such a writer
serious constituency of the London Library. Mr..
Swan Sonnenschein gives the date afiimatively in
his 3" Best Books" a volume which, like all lists
of words or things collections of titles, has its
uses Mr.. Swan Sonnenschein, it would appear,
has his moments of impatience He names ten or
twelve of her novels, then suddenly breaks OIL,
adding. in those italic letters which you eschew,
land about forty others!" The exclamation point
is his, not Wine.
Miss Braddon's ffty-two novels and Sc vol
u,nes and 10000 pages have therefore all been
produced during less than thirty years. Hell
average is almost two novels year; almost six
volumes year almost 1000 pages year; and
therefore almost six pages day for each day
during all these thirty years. Is it likely that
work of the highest class, or of high class, car
be produced at this rate with this uninterrupted
continuousness? Is it likely TO be literature
Do, in fact, Miss Braddon's ifty-two volumes form
mart of the literature of the period? And will
Mr. Marion Crawford take warning by such an
example? Will he study these figures little
Probably not He, too, can produce two or three
stories a year, and find market for them, anC
there is praise as well as pudding, to reward hi
industry.
Miss Braddon, says a society journal, whom hel
new publisher quotes admiringly in large type, il
the Queen of circulating Libraries" What {
enlocy! What a position! What sovereignty
The circulating Libraries of this country, will
Nude at the head Of them, are among the wors
enemies of literature. 1t is Nude more than any
other single influence who has spread abroa6
among that considerable portion of the English
people who can read, and among the less numerous
norton who do read, the purely commercial ide'
of the book The idea is that book is a book
or that comprehensive category which Charlie
Lamb drew up Of books which are not books
Nude never heard How should hep He is not
man, he is a company, limited. There w0s ono
Nude in the flesh, but he is dead and, though
believe he has left descendants. have no wis.,
to be disagreeable to any Of them, and ] prefe
TO speak only Of the corporation, or limited com
pany, as the English law now calls it, into whicl
this business has been turned. The corporation
sbsorbs the individual minus his soul, and minus
hone all these susceptibilities which the plal