The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-09
agle
LEW wALLAce,s NEW NOVEL
sTis Said He Has Been offered an I'm
precedented Price for 1t.

that General Lew w ailaCe mas received an
offer from one publisher of $4,000 bonus
and royalty Of so per cent. on every copy
of his new novel, the manuscript of which
is about completed.
If this report is correct, and some of the
publishers are inclined to believe it, it is
the largest sum ever offered for a work of
fiction to an American writer. The offer
of so per cent. royalty indicates that the
book will be a high priced one, for it
must sell for as much as S1.75 in order to
bring any profit to the publishers after
paying one-half of the retail price to Gen.
eraI Wallace Larger sums of money have
been offered distinguished writers, but
never for novel. In England, however,
as much as this sum has been offered to
novelists George Elliot received from her
publishers bonus of $4,000 for Middle
march" and something like $4,000 for
Daniel Deronda" Not even Dickens
commanded such sum as this, although
he received from Robert Bonner S., 900 for
a short Christmas story, and he estimated
that had he been paid for 'Copperfeld" or
''Dombey & Son" proportionate rate, he
would have earned something Ike 500, 600
for each of these novels.
offer to the extraordinary success of ''Ben
Hur." His profits from that novel alone
must have given him a comfortable for
tune, although publishers who are familiar
with the facts say that the amount which
IS popularity credited to him as his share of
the earnings of the book is too large. Had
General Wallace known when he sent his
manuscript to the Harpers that his book
was TO be one of the monumental successes
of fiction, and had they known it, too, he
coHId have made terms which probably
would have brought him more than $780,,
COG. AS it is, the best opinion among pub
fishers is that his receipts were between
$4,000 and $50, 600. Something like 500, 900
COPIES Of the book have been sold, showing
that it is pressing very closely upon the
high water mark of American novels
which was attained by 'Uncle Toms
Cabin" But of this vast number of cop
les nearly oue-haf was issued in a cheap
and popular form, so that the receipts for
royalties could not have been very large
figure.
OF course everybody is now familiar with
the interesting story of how ''Ben Hur"
became popular, how it attracted but little
attention when it was first published, how
General Wallace and the publishers re-
garded it as fat failure, at least so far as
popularity was concerned. How more
than year had passed before the HaTpers
began to notice an increased demand, and
how for time their presses ran night and
day TO supply the market with it when it
became popular
There is a vague idea that the praise of
- - - L
this popularity, and that is the truth.
After Garfield became president, one day,
after an unusual siege with Office seekers
and Office holders, he was found by friend
stretched out on sofa in his private room
IN the White House reading a novel. He
showed the book to the friend and said that
he had turned to it because its fascinating
story gave him genuine mental rest, be-
cause it furnished a stimulus and caused
him to forget the vicissitudes and perplex-
tiles and wear and tear of his office Then
Garfield spoke of General Wallace. of how
strange 1t was that a man who had been a
soldier and a diplomat should have turned
his attention, when the years were begin
ming to come upon him, to literature: and
Garfield told the story of how Wallace
with little army of 5000 or ( 900 soldiers
had saved the nations capital in the sum
mer of 1864. And he said he sometimes
wondered as be read this book which was
the greater achievement intellectually, the
fighting of the battle Of Monocacy or the
writing of Ben Hur.'
Garfield's friend told this auecdote to q
newspaper correspondent, who sent 1t to
his paper, emitting, however, as of trivial
Importance, what Garfield had said about
the battle. The anecdote was widely
copied, so that people wondered what this
book Ben Hur'' was to which the presi-
dent turned when he sought rest from his
anXieties OF. Office. Preachers read it and
commended it to their Sunday schools and
their congregations, and so, without any
newspaper notoriety excepting that chance
snecdote of Garfield and the book, it had
become a great popular success before the
critics were aware of it.
1t Will probably become traditional IL
iustration of the capacity of the great
masses to discover for themselves merit
without the aid of the critics.
The register of the United States treas
lIry during Mr.. Lincoln's administration.
Mr.. ChitteRden, has recently published a
volume of his recolleetions of Lincoln and
during the exciting days OF
the war. He devotes chapter to the bat
tie of the Mcnocacy, and he almost rivals
the graphic descriptions contained in ben
Hur" when hedescribes General Wallace's
on that field. With a little
army he faced and held at bay Jubal
Early, who with 10000 men was descend
ing upon the capital from the north
While Grant was pounding away at the
before Petersburg, Early
had stolen off with his army TO threaten
and to take the capital if possible Wal
lace met him at the Monocacy. He knew
hat his little army could not withstand
Early, but he also knew that if he stood
there and fought he would delay Early and
thus give Grant time to send an army corps
TO the defense of the capital He fought
for one entire day and part of another. and
his defense is not rs dramatic was at least
as heroic as that of the little band at Mar
athon. OF course his little army was
whipped, but when Early had reached the
in front Of Washington, he
found the Sixth corps had Just arrived and
was ready 10 give him battle
To the military men Wallace's achieve
ment at the Monocacy viii stand unchal-
Ienged as one of the most brilliant exploits
Of the war. bnt to the vast masses he is 90
az TO be better known as the author of
ben Hur. L. j. EDWARDS
Washington's Gridiron Club.
The Gridiron club is composed of FORTY
correspondents and the nuyn-