The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-17
PRICES PAID TO AUTHORS.
TINE MIRKET 20 LTTERART
WIRES rs RISING sTEdD IIr.

Othcr Hfnrs-NN nlttlfF ~ "
Interviews conducted during the past week
with n number Of the most prominent ot those
who procure for tho lordly public the flower OF
artists In letters show, unfortunate MS 1t must
,oem to all who love art for arts sake, that prices
are steadily increasing. The days when the art
lists gave up their charms for very love aud rrid,
in them and then, because OF hunger. accepted
the dole meted out by g%rntihcd desire. bad ms they
were, are rapidly fading into worse. and the
time il Mt hand when not only may the posses
sors OF this beauty live on the price II viii
bring, but there Is heard Boosting OF the estcnt
OF tho nrlcC, Worse vet. there has even been
formed an authors trade union, an nrEthiHa-
ton rs rcpulsIvo to the feelings Of an artist ms IA
union Of wnntons. 80 II Is coming "a pass Tint
popularity is 20 be substituted for worth
as mn object OF ambition that art is to no
measured In dollars instead OF years NJ life or
prospects Of Immortality.
II ia absolutely necessary, first of all, In any
consideration Of tho market for literary prod
uc,s to distinguish. rs Mr.. BranGor Matthews
recently said. between literature ana .oufhhi-
ism. 1t l. also necessary to distinguish between
what may be called freak prices, also prices duo
TO corners In the product, 80 10 tpcnK' nv" 'ho
regular market rates.
rhus tho difference between literature and
tournnlIgn3 though easily found by one who
LOOKS. Ia not commonly made. 1t Is by no means
the contents OF II monthly magazine on the one
hard and II daily newspaper on the other, nor Is
it found ly com pairing n product that il bound in
boards ara cloth and sold for n dollar and n half
with n conglomcrntlon Of facts hawkcd on the
street at two cents II copy. The monthly mag
azinrs." said Mr.. Matthews. " are often u finer
form ,uf journalistic product finer, on the
whole. because the producers hive more time
for considering and completi & thciT work
One NAY find one always does fnl-litcrnturc
of more or less intrinsic worth In the maya
zines. Lut there Is rarely n respectable newspa-
per offered for sale OF which the same may not
be truthfullv said. And. for that matter. the
newspaper that contains nothing but the news
of the preceding day is. of course. n history of
n region during II stated period. Just rs Park
mans works are. tho essential difference being
that Purkman gathered the facts and wrote up
his self-made assignment, while the newspaper
Is n work OF collaboration.
Strictly speaking. literature, rs 1t Is under
stood In this market report. is the written ex-
preston of an original idea. II is n novel, n
poem, Or n message that was In an author. and
either birth or death had to follow its concep-
tion. Whether it be good or nd-civilized or
savage depends on the qualities and circum-
stances of the author. whether or not the man
be Z" sent on an errand he is too weak for By a
path he cannot yet find" Mr.. Howeils once de-
scribed journalism very well when he com
pluined that "lwo-tlirds of the magazines are
made up OF material which. however excellent,
is without literary quality = : popular
science. politics, economics, and the timely top
ics which | will call CONTEMPORARIES" The arti.
Gle IN which these words appeared was an cx-
cellcnt piece Of"
blu. it appeared in Scrfbnfr's Magazine. The
Century Company when It brought out the
"Lifc OF Lincoln was not only printing " con-
temporanics.' but it was getting a right good
" beat on its esteemed contemporaries.
And this statement leads naturally to the
matter Of prices for the various Kinds o, prod
uc,s of artists in letters. for the Century Com
pany paid u notable price for Its beat" and it
has since paid a notable Price for one biz OF lit
erature pure and simple. Moreover, this is a
good place to cxpiaiv the difference between IL
the C'atUrv Company paid s5o.o0o for the
Life nf Lincoln 1t Is no disparagsment TO
the anthors Of the Ccntng's life of Lincoln to
had in;uriuatiun for sale that no one else pos
srssrd., They had a corner on facts about Abra-
ham Lincoln. and the public demand for, these
facta was so great that II high price would have
been peid for them even Il told much less
gractfully than the authors told them.
Tho motive OF the Century Company In Civ
ing 500. 900 for this beat was precisely that Of
any enterprising newspaper in buying exclusive
news. 1t il not by any means an unheard-of
OCCURRENCE that the managing editor OF n news
paper shonld pay Sioo for ten words Of infor-
there is OF it." or course, there is nothing in
cash to Indicate the market value OF literature.
and yet q certain club OF literary men in this
tRs Grants 9sa rance reeei vea f for sh ap Ire enc Of f 'icn. G MH.Dn
as II the amount paid was in some way the full
On Tie other hand. u novel is now running in
The .:n'n,n MaGoE'nci undrr the tile Of % M
H aTmsir rys w"rS,. M !, IS nn Sas Tr1.'sS a Sy Iii srs:
~ product. an original conception OF an author.
The price paid for the serial right was $4,000.
This gives one n start in the search for The mar
ket rates OF literature, but no more. 1t certainly
does not prove. however. that the market is firm
sum may seem at first thought, it Is relatively
small; 1t is much smaller than other sums paid
Scott xot $40. 900 for Woodstock." while
Moore got 1000 1900 gainsas for "LH!le R 6oo
Els various WORKS. i Dryden F." I got e. 1U: 800 for
"Nirgll." Tom Moore got tl5, 900 for his Irish
melodies. George Eliot did not get less than
Go.o0O Tor any OF her novels, and one brought
900. II liz SAID.
Mr.. Howells once pointed out that these old
more to the recipient than the same sum would
hr nnw. hut this depends on the, point OF view.
IN those days Tor a gu!nea than he can get now.
but u deal less OF othor things equally desirable
purchasing power of a guinea is a matter OF sec
ondary consideration To the artist, for the rca-
TINT the artist considers best. 20 BY favor only.
However, It is not necessary to 30 back to the
time Of scott TO tina prices exceeding thar paid
Mrs. Ward. Robert Bonner OF the Ledger paid
Charles Dickens 5000 for Hunted Down" a
story OF 1000 words. II is currently reported
that Charles Scribner's sons paid = 5000 for
sentimental Tommy" which is now running
in. their. magazine. Arthur S%cribner, when
asked about this rumor and u further ruinor
that ~ bargain ut $50 900 had been made for The
next story ly the same author, declined either To
nmsn% # TTom%mSnyS'; p aoS slTy" or fsGmsss OF an ns eHmr.
gerated rumnr. but that higher prices have been
paid than what Mrs. Ward received need not be
doubted.
1t is tho common rule OF publishers and It is
. rule that Is particularly rssping to the writer
with any instinct ii an artist in hm-to pay by
the yard: at least by' the thousand words. Ii
was with mis- rule, in view that the fuct OF
Charles liCScnr receiving So, 900 for 1000
words was mentioned. Anthony Hope refused,
not long ago, an offer Ot 500 for a short story.
Here Is another gauge OF market rates, for N
short story means from 5000 to 1000 words.
1t is fair to Mr.. Hope TO say that he was priced
at 5000 "A thea sand words.
That gives us the first iGtimatlon that the
market II rising, for something less than three
years ago October, 1893 MIR. Howells wrote
that three American men were commonly paid
at the rate OF SlUO n thUuSsnd words for their
contributions To he rpRgh ines. while one woman
KeraiNa al Al Is \utinnuItfN Ea- t,EI,,,, D., "A ,