The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-05-22
HE CAME FROM INDIANA.
s. $. Mcclure, of the Literary Syndi-
cate, Is a Hustler from the West.

New York Commercial Advertiser.
One of the most successful New York
publishers is S. 5. Mcclure, whose name Is
familiar wherever daily newspapers are
read, for he stands at the head of the lit
erary syndicate" business. He has within
the past ten years made the acquaintance
of more authors of standing in different
countries than any other man knows, or
ever knew. Whether or not he invented the
scheme. it was he who elaborated into a
great SystematiZed bureau the plan of buy
ing an authors short story, novel. essay or
popular descriptive article, and then selling
it for simultaneous publication to leading
newspapers all over the land. The idea
has an easy. fascinating look. It's practical
outworking is extremely difficult, many
imitators have found TO their sorrow. Mr..
McClure's energy and ardor triumphed over
difficulties. and he built up his business
without the aid of capital. and with very
scant stock of previous experience.
hustler but here in New York he is re-
garded merely as an enterprising business
man. He brought his inherited vim and
ingenuity with him from the north of Ire
land, where he was born some thirty-six or
thirty-seven years ago., and whence his
family migrated to the United States when
found an abiding place in Indiana, and
Samuel. after a busy boyhood of hard work
in numerous kinds of labor entered Knox
made his way by doing odd jobs
in term time. finding steady employment
in vacations. and staying out occasionally
sheepsl<in in 1882, but he went back to
Galesburg the next year to marry profess
sors daughter. Meanwhile he had gone to
Boston and found a position as editor of
The Wheelman, an illustrated monthly
periodical for bicyclers. and IL was good ex-
perience After a year or more n came
TO New York, where he was at first en-
ployed by Mr.. De Winnie in the great print
ing shop that manufactures the Century
Magazine, though after few months he
found himself assistant in the Century's
advertising department
1t was about this time in the career of
Mcclure that his imaginations seized upon
the notion of syndicate publishing, and
with the audacity of youth and inexperi-
ence he left his position to try the thing.
If he had been wiser and more deliberately
veTSed in the ways OF authors, and pub
fishers, and newspaper editors, he would,
of course, never have tried it He ought
to have failed, but somehow he succeeded.
1t was a time when the circumstances Of
newspaper publishing were making for en-
larged Sunday editions, and Mcclure be-
came the great purveyor to the Sunday lit
erary supplement- He secured the best
writer's in the world. He had the discern
ment in some cases and the good luck in
others to establish connections with rising
authors az the happy moment when they
were about to step across the Threshold
of fame. He helped them and they helped
him. II would be easy TO make a long tale
of the remarkable manner in which. by a
natural process of evolution this intimate
connection with authors and editors and
the reading public has led up to the estab-
lishment of McClure's Magazine.