Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-11-03
THE LOVE OF FICTION
PEOPLE MORE FOND OF READING
 STORIES THAN EVER BEFORE.
Increase of Reading In the West and South Changes In the Publishing Trade. New xofk tirs Great Literary Center of the Country.
Especial Correspondence.l


 New xoti ths Great Literary Center of the Country.
 Special Correspondence.l
 NEW YORK, Oct. S0.-Probably no per son has greater familiarity with tho busi- ness of bookmaking or with the traditions relating to the successful books and au- thors of America for the past 30 years than Mir. Joseph Harper, who has recently gfS- en up many of the business cares which hs carried for nearly 50 years in the house which bears his name. Mir. Harper, chat ting tho other day with some of his friends, was asked whether he had noticed any change in the disposition of the American people toward literature, whether tho fondness for fiction was passing away and O taste for moro serious literature taking its place. He replied: ''No; people are to- day as fond of reading a story as they seem to have been in all tines. Far back in the Bible times 1t was the story that charmed those historic people. and so 1t has continued to be, think, from that day to this. Love stories havo always de- lighted the world, because the Story of love is always n new one, always bcauti- full one. Then, too, tales of adventure, of historical romance and of exciting travel have never failed to appeal to any people, and do not sec why they arc not as pop ular, as warmly accepted today, as ever. In fact, I should say that the story has even now a greater hold or at least n wider one than has ever been the case"
 MT. Harper, however, spoke of some very interesting and suggestive changes that have taken place in the United States with respect to the making of books and the local demand for them. In his earlier days he said New England, parts of New York state and Pennsylvania furnished the great market for books. Beyond the Alleghanies comparatively few books were sold, and in some parts of the south no market at all existed for them. All this is now changed. Today the west, and the far west, Is the great market for popular books, especially for tales. Ono of the Chicago publishers not infrcqucntly sends orders for n popular story to the New York house which publishes it for as many as 5, 900 copies at q time and often grumhlcs because he cannot get moro upon one or der. Forty years ago |, GOO would have been looked upon as phenomenal sale for the entire west of any single book. The west Is now the grcatcst purchaser in pro- portion to its population of books, although perhaps 1t may not be the greatest reader. In New England and New York and other eastern states the springing up of the will lage library has dccrcascd the sale oi 
 also true that certain newly arrived foreign element which Is not yet fond of rcading has greatly increased the popula- tion in many of the New England towns and those of the Atlantic seAboard.
 Judging, too, by the character of the books sold so largely in the west and many parts of the south, Mir. Harper thinks that the literary tastes of the people thcrc show quite us high culturc on the average as Is to be found anywhere in this country.
 The changes in the book publishing trade in tho past 90 years have been re- markable. Up to 1850 Boston was beyond all question the chief publishing center of the United States. It is true that at that time authors began to show n tendency either to go to New York or to enter into business relations with New York houses. Yet 1t seemed as though that development of tho Boston school which had so great an influence upon American Hterature chief among the members of which were Lowell, LonRfcllow, Prescott, Motley, Emerson, Whittier and Holmes, may have been in part due to the fact that in BOs- ton were the influential publishing houses of the country.
 The New York publishing houses of those days were quito likely to market their books through the publishers of other cities. For instance, MT. Harper says that his own house did not sell largely direct, ly to the south, but that purchases of the Harper books for that market were made through one of tho great Philadelphia publishing houses, and that possibly 4C years ago Philadelphia was proportiOnatc- ly to its population greater publishing center than it Is today.
 But 1t Is in the south that the most marked changes have taken place. In New Orleans for many years before the war there were four great publishing houses which had almost exclusive con trol of the vast market in that vicinity, Savannah had two that had high rCputt all over the country. Charleston had two and Richmond one.
 In those days the book publishers of the south were really at the head of the de lightful society of those southern Citic. and had outside of the field of politics commanding social influence. When dis tinguiShcd men visited those southern cities, it was expected that they would bC entertained by the heads of the book pub fishing houses just as 10 years or more agC distinguished men who visited Boston werc entertained by James T. Fields, by Mir. Tincknor and by other Boston pub fishers. Dickens and Thackeray and some of the distinguished English statesmen who visited this country were the guest: of these publishers. About tho time of tn, war the tendency of New York to become 0 literary center and the beginning of 1t: vast increase in the publishing business were noticed. In later years Chicago be came tho center of a great literary activ ity, greater than the east even now real izcs fully, and also n center of cnormou: publication interests. The book publish ing houses in tho smaller cities seem nC longer to flourish as they used to ln, mol Is there that distinction for those cngaget in that business which used to rank publisher with those engaged in ls 0fcs sional pursuits. F. J. EDWARDS.