The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-07
Dr.. j. E. BENNETT.
143 n. Main St, Wichita, KS.
THE WORLDS NEW BOOKS.
Sixty Thousand Poured Out Last Year, Ger
many Leading, as Usual.

Sixty Thousand Poured Out Last Year, Ger
many Leading. as Usual.
! The average American reader has
/ equally little knowledge how large the
food of new books is yearly in the
civilized world and how very small the
share OF this country is in adding to it.
/ Most Americans, if they were asked,
would feel certain that about as many
new books were written in this country
as in any in the world. As matter of
/ fact, there is no civilized country in
Europe of any size. not even excepting
Russia, which does not match or over
match the literary product of the
United States.
This county, TO take statistics Of the
Publishers Weekly, in 1892 published
4,o74 new books and 7sS new editions OF
old books, or 1862 in all. This is close
. TO SO new books, not volumes. a week,
and near s8 issues weekly of both kinds.
This will strike most people as a very
fair literary activity. In Great Britain,
however. which has only little over
half Of our population, there were last
year published 4.e15 new books and l.
339 new editions OF works previously
issued, in all e,254, just about 40 new
works, or 90 every working day, so that
if a man read 20 hours a day every
weekday he would have about half n
hour to give to each book, often con-
sisting of several volumes.
This omniverous reader would have
70 double his industry if he lived in
France. The new books and new edi-
tons there in 1892 were IS, 1872. He
would have to treble his reading powers
or give each book six minutes apiece in
Germany. Ten years ago, in 1888, Ger
man publishers were issuing Il, sos
works yearly. In 1884 the issues in
this country were ASS, less than a
third. In 1890, when the issues were
4,559, those in Germany were 1s,sT5, or
more than four times those here, SO
much more rapidly is the production of
books growing there than here In
1892 the production was close to 20, 900
IN Germany by a population two-thirds
as large and with not third of the
wealth OF the United States, which
brought out less than quarter as many
books as Germany.
The United States not only publishes
fewer books than other countries, but
among those a larger proportion he
mere ephemeral novels. Last year. out
of our 1862 books published. 1.l02, or
over a fifth, were novels. In Germany,
out of 49, 19 books in 1890, only 1,731, or
less than tenth. were devoted to
either poetry or fiction. Ten years ago
only 1850 such books out Of Alta were
published in Germany. Here last year.
OF novels and poems together, 1851
works were published. or over one
fourth of the whole. IT Is only in En-
gland that our appetite for fiction Is
matched There. last year, : $50 novels
were issued. or a full quarter OF all the
books published, and 81 poems, in all
1,754 works. Where his country then
gives fifth of its literary activity to
novels and England q quarter, Germany
only turns tenth of its writing energy
IN this direction.
This simply means that the serious
work of investigation in science, in his
tory and in all practical fields Is being
done better and more completely in Ger
many than anywhere else. In uevspa-
pers and novels we beat Germany out OF
hand, but IN serious books we are simply
nowhere By the side Of Germany Even
Russia, which 1883. demolished 7ia7
new books to our 6,6S1. and IN 1890 IS
sued 4.7l5 TO 1859. shows a greater
literary activity than this country.
though readers are probably twenty
fold more numerous here.
These comparisons are not particu-
larIy soothing to our national pride,
bat i IS well that our national DISPOSE
ton to imagine that this country leads
in all departments should be sharply
corrected by the facts. Taking
the known facts as 10 Germany France,
England, Russia and the United States
and estimating for the rest OF Europe
and the yearly grist Of new books in
the civllized world must be put al bout
81, 900 We have considerably over a
fifth of the population which supplies
writer's and readers for TINS annEz
literary food; but we supply less than
a twelfth OF new books. and OF Cur
round 5,0ao new books from so 10
GEO are imported from England and
here We outmatch the world
in railroads AID telegra ohS. IN cotton
and corn. N newspapers and live stock
but not IN new BOOKS 'ailodephia
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