The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-04-11
SOME PROFITABLE HISTORIES.


SOME PROFITABLE HISTORIES.
The Record Made by Macaulay Still
Unbroken in England America.
There were published in this country
last year 1S5 historical works, eight of
them being new editions of works before
published and 129 being by American
authors. Publishers are shy of new his
torian, and his manuscript is not accepted
without strong commentator from ex-
perts especially employed to pass upon it.
Doubtless many OF last years historical
works were published with the financial
aid of the authors. Nevertheless pub
Usher is glad to have on his list success
full historical work covering peculiar
field. Such work is not likely to have
an immediate sale approaching that of
popular novel, but the sale of the latter
may cease at the end of three months.
willie the sale OF the other may continue
for quarter of century or more. The
prospective profit to a publisher is greater
in the case of standard history than in
that of popular novel, unless the latter
be of an unusually high order.
Macaulay's History was perhaps the
first historical work in the English tongue
to have an enormous popular success. It's
safe III tuc HISG yCul VI mas not
since been surpassed by that of anv his
tor.cal work, and the check for ego, 600,
paid to Macaulay by his publishers. was
the largest single check paid to an author
for literary work until the payment made
for General Grants Memoirs. The sale of
Macaulay's work III this country was yery
great, as il soon appeared in several edi-
tons. The work is still selling well in
both Great Britain and the United States.
Two or three of Macaulay's British sue
cessors have had great success both in this
country and at home. Green's "Short
History of the English People" has al.
most rivaled Macaulay's history in popu-
larity, and, indeed. may yet outsell it. 1t
has been made school textbook in Great
Britain and the United States, and this
has enormously increased its sale. Some
of the dry summaries that pass for school
histories have sold by hundreds of thou
sands, but they are hardly to be considered
III any discussion o. the popularity of his
tory of literature.
Green's longer work also has sold widely
on both sides of the Atlantic, and now the
deliberately illustrated four-volume edition
of the ''Short History" is having re-
markable sale for so expensive a book.
Green's success is the more strikinp in
that his work goes over ground that had
already been covered in works of moderate
size by others, and is signal instance of
history. Froude's History of England
although it extends to many volumes,
speedily had large sale on both sides of
the Atlantic, and is still selling, although
the method of the author has been as
sailed bitterly.
Freeman, who would not have cared to
be called rival of Froude, has not had
his popular success either at home or in
America, although the Norman Con-
quest, standing alone as it does, has sold
well in both countries. Lecky has had a
good sale on this side as we'll as at home,
but Sir Henry Maine and other specialists
in history have never become really popu-
lar. McCarthy's History of Our Own
Times, strictly popular WORK, has had
great sale in one authorized and many
private editions on this side. Had inter-
national copyright been an accom- plished
fact before the publication of McCarthy's
work the author would have been some
thousands of dollars better off, Bryce's
American Commonwealth" which is, of
course, descriptive and philosophical
rather than historical, has had large
sale here and abroad, and is a very valu-
able property to both author and pub
Usher
Prescott has had a greater popular sue
cess than any other American historian, not
even excepting Motley. His works are
still selling in large numbers. Bancroft,
o'ebOuSu VI IcputC. NdS UGNeT really
popular, and tie aggregate sale of his his
tory In the last fortyhve years has been
probably much smaller than his readers
suppose. Motley had a quick success with
his Dutch histories. and they are still in
ready demand, as they have been from the
time OF their publication.
Parkman's popularity has greatly in
creased within the past twenty years. His
first work, ''The Oregon Trail" published
nearly fifty years ago, was so successful
that he published nothing else for fifteen
years. Though it STANDS apart from his
other works, 1T has come to share their
popularity. The book was written as the
result of hunting trip to the far North
west, and was not part of any historic
plan. His works in twelve volumes are
now selling freely throughout this coun-
try and in Canada.
McMaster's first volume attracted much
attention and had good sale. The long
delay between the appearance of the first
and the second volume injured the sale of
the work as whole. The fact is that MIR.
McMaster lost the manuscript Of his Sec
ond volume on railway train, and the
publication of the volume was DELAYED
while he rewrote it. OF more recent his.
tories that of J. F. Rhodes and Campbell's
THE Puritan in Holland, England and
America" have had unusual success for
historical works of their length All of
large sale, and the Critical Period of
American History" is one of the greatest
popular successes in American literature.
His works as a whole are an extremely
handsome property to the publisher, and
he is one of the few historians who NAV
count upon a large sale for any work that
he may write. The constitutional history
of Won Hoist, now at length seemingly
finished, has sold largely for SO long and
serious a work.
All things considered, the best known
modern historians, both British and
American, have found their work profita-
BILE. though probably none on either side
of the Atlantic has received nearly so
much for single work as Macaulay. Per-
haps the pecuniary value of historical
writing cannot be better illustrated than
by the fact that the works. largely his
torical, Of deceased American author,
although the copyrights have all expired,
are still esteemed by his publishers the
most profitable books on their list.
KING PREMPEH'S JEWELS.
Their Arrival in London-valuo Placed
at About $4,000.
Some days ago Sir Francis Scott depos-
tied at the offices OF the crown agents for