The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-11-16
A BRAIN : DEALER.
Mcclure, the Syndicate
Man, Talks.
MARKETS MEMS THOUGHTS.
FOR Years He Has Supplied the Public
With Mental Food From the
Brightest Sources.

Eight years ago tomorrow / made ny
start In the syndicate business. / had NJ
money and few friends, and I knew DC
newspaper men and but few authors.
What has the business come 10 be now
mat is hardly for me to say" laughed the
speaker, but paid out $500 to author:
last year. That is large sum Of money. is
il n0t?"
lie man who had spoken was S. S. Nc
cure of New York, head of Mcclure;
literary syndicate. the greatest of the mod
ern exchanges of mems brains.
lie stood upon the forward upper deck OF
the Terry steamer Oakland looking ahead.
Yes, Mr.. Mcclure went on, that is a
great zeal OF money. 1t has only been paid
10 authors of the highest class.
rive years ago the hi CHER class men in the
world OF letters aid not write tor the news
papers. Several causes Lave contributed
70 cIianse that condition. In the hTst place
nave induced them to write By the argn-
hehts that they can reach wider field ana
reaeh IL with greater rapIdity.
lhen, the newspaper readers have de-
manded Of their journals work Of the highest
class, for Sunday reading particularly, and
II is this demand that the Associated Liter
airy Press has sought 10 meet and that has
oeen met by presenting the work, for in
stance, OF such novelists as Bret Harte,
William Dean Howells. Rudyatd kipIing,
FRANK X. Stockton, Conan Dovle, Emile
lola. Frances HOdgson Burnett and score
of others.
In the field of adventure we have Robert
Louis Stevenson, Clarke RUSSELL Captain
King. Archibald Forbes. Captain c. w. Ken
nedy, u. X. o Reilly and others.
Upon craftsmanship and upon the great
economic questions there Will be papers
during the next year by James q. Blaine,
Lord Salisbury, Carl Schurz, William Z.
Gladstone, Chauncey Depew. Pierre Lott,
Lord Wolseley, and in fact all the leaders
oil the thought of the weird.
Then, my agency has been in touch with
such eminent world leaders as Sir M0rell
Mackenzie, Louis Pasteur, Bartholdi,
Tomasso Salvini, Emilio Castelar,. w. T.
Stead, Lord Randolph Churchill-and l
might 60 on enumerating them for half al
hour or more.
THE highest rrice given to an American
author for the American right of publica-
ton was $4,000. That sum was paid to
Mark Twain for one of his latest works.
TO show you how often publishers fail
In touching the public pulse, 1t is only
necessary to mention the three most sue
cessful books OF recent times. These three
were Robert Elsmere, Looking Back
ward and your own Gunther'S Barnes of
New York Two of these three books the
ublishers absolutely refused TO touch at
any price.
ITO keep myself posted upon the public
demand l see personally the leading au-
tnOTs and critics and the principal editors
Of the world at frequent intervals. and, to
do this, visit Europe at least twice year
and am almost constantly travelling in this
country. When | return home this tlme-I
am now on my way, you know, 10 Calves
ton and New Orleans-I shall have seen
on this trip the editor of every leading
newspaper In America.
LAS TO the work of beginners, you ask;
why. my dear boy. | am always anxious to
welcome new blood. had work by Steven
son and by kipling and by Saltus and 9TH
ers long before they made places for them
selves in the world Of letters.
MY work is constantly gr0wiDg-yeS,
though even now ] supply to the newspa-
pers OF the country and TO magazines like
The Century and 'Scribner's' matter to
the amount of not less than 10000 words
week.
''rhe work is growing so fast that in
March next j shall begin the publication in
New York of 'McClure's Magazine a
publication that VIII carry stories of fight
ing and love and adventure, aud depart
ment for the young"
The boat grated against the Oakland mole
just here, and Mr.. Mcclure left TO accom-
panY Mrs. Mcclure to the train that was 10
take them across the deserts Cf Arizona