Los Angeles herald., 1892-03-27
WHAT WRITER'S EARN
SOME MAKE FORTUNES AND 9TH
ERS MERELY A PITTANCs.

What the Late James Parton Earned
and How He Lived-Other Authors
Who Receive Big Pay for Comparative
ly Little Labor-The Average Man.
Not long before his death James Par
ton is reported to have said that person
who decided to support himself excu
sively by his pen must be content to live
ON about $4,000 a year. The best ac
cording to Mr.. Parton, that literary
man could hope to attain would be $6 900
or 81 COO year for perhaps ten or twelve
years, when the authors experience was
ripe and while he was still in his prime
This statement seemed rather strange
coming from so successful an author aS
Mr.. Parton, yet it was reported in such
way as leaves but little doubt that this
was his opinion. Yet he was himself al
example of the falsity of it, although he
may have thought that his case was the
exception that proves the rule.
Mr. Parton was constant writer and
pretty frequent author for more than
forty years. Some of his books had
phenomenal sale. His Life Of Horace
Greeley" brought him not only hand
some income, but small capital His
"History of Ben Butler" and especially
Of Buffers life in New Orleans after the
capture of that city, was very popular
during the war days, and Parton's life
of Aaron Burr added materially to his
possessions.
Parton earned so much money that he
was able to accumulate, and when he
left New York and went to Newbury-
port, Mass, to live, just as old age was
beginning to come upon him, he had
sufficient property to support him, even
if he did not write another line. OF
course he could not live in luxury, but
he lived in comfort, surrounded by all
those things which made life agreeable
to him.
MEN WHO RECEIVE BIG INCOMES
Parton was not great author. He
wrote as business, and it was his busi-
ness to give what his clientage wanted.
And that is the secret of the success Of
those who have adopted literature as
profession. Those who take up the pen
in order to win an exalted and perma-
ACAJ lctlll0 llltSL give Dul
little heed to the pecuniary considera-
ton, but those who expect to make a
living out of authorship must do as is
done in every other profession-serve
their clients and increase them if pos
sible.
There are good many other examples
which indicate that Mr.. Parton was mis-
taken. In his own vicinity there lived sew
eral men who had done exceedingly well
at the business of authorship. Mr.. Charles
Carleton Coffin abandoned journalism
after brilliant career as war corre-
spondent, and has made comfortable
fortune and a good income by writing in
a popular manner historical and anec-
dotal works designed mainly for young
Mr.. ]. T. Trowbridge lives comfort
ably on the income he gets from his
boys stories, and so does Oliver Optic.
Mr. Adams, who is Oliver Optic in real
life, although his hair is gray and he
has become an old man, has just entered
into contract to furnish series of ten
stories for young persons, written in the
style which earned him popularity forty
years ago. He will probably write those
ten stories within a year, for he is very
rapid workman, and while the precise
terms of payment are not known, it Is
believed that he will receive not less
than SIS, 1000 for them.
General Lew Wallace is said to have
received from $75, 900 to 100000 royalty
upon his single book, "Ben Hur," but
that is one of those spasmodic and phe-
nomenal successes which become tradi
tional. Miss Alcott, besides living hand
somely, left an estate valued at 100000
all of which has been made in about
twenty years. Mr.. George Parsons
Lathrop, his brother-in-law, Julian Haw.
thorne, Edgar Saltus and Edgar Faw.
cett have no other profession than liter
ature. Lathrop and Hawthorne do
some journalistic work, while Fawcett
has a private fortune. Each of these
men counts on making as much as $4,000
year, and Saltus' income one year was
nearly $4,000.
SOME YOUNG AUTHORS.
There have been number of success
full authors of late who have complained
that they cannot live by their pens.
A few years ago a novel appeared en-
titled "Guerndale." 1t was published
over nom de plume, u. s. of Dale, "
and it was regarded as one of the sue
cessful books of the year, Its author,
Mr.. Stimson, was a recent graduate of
Harvard college, and the success Of the
book inspired him with literary ambi-
ton. Yet he has practically abandoned