The record-union., 1896-02-01
BOOK AGENTS In SOCIETY.
Women Who Boom Books and Promote
Literary FadS.
Interesting Up-to-Date Blue-stockings
Who Earn Pin Money in Draw
ing-Room and Boudoir.

The fin de steele book agent is the
very newest edition Of the new woman.
She does not canvass, neither does she
sell, but as a successful drummer-up of
trade she is very useful to the publisher
in an unsupported way. You viii sit
next to her from soup to nuts some day.
and you viii never guess that she is a
book agent of the new sort unless you
have read this article carefully. That
is her art.
She canvasses society. That cannot
be done by ordinary methods or by ordi-
nary persons. She has a method of her
own. She is a society parsonage. She
does not admit to herself that she is a
book agent. Far from it, She would
certainly not admit it to the outside
public. But she uses her commissions
for pin money and at the holiday sea-
son she fares well.
ANY lady with a few wealthy friends
can make 500 this week"
'Wanted-A young lady moving in
good society to push the sale of a book
of poems"
An intelligent lady with an acquaint-
ance with well-to-do people in New
York for a position paying $50 weekly"
Wanted-Lady moving in good cir
cles to interest her friends in business
Venture; no canvassing."
Observation-Disclosures, gentlemen, NOV
ing in best society can earn thousands
an legitimate way
The society book agents methods are
entirely legitimate. Having communi-
Gated with the publishers, she receives
personal and printed Instructions how
TO go to work If she has not tact
enough to begin by forgetting all the
instructions and going about the work
in her own way she is a failure.
But the real society book agent is a
success. In the first place. she has to
read the book. There is no escaping
that sad and painful duty. She reads it,
and she gets up a positive enthusiasm
for it. Then she proceeds to enthuse
her friends 1t is usually an edition de
luxe published on subscription. Tt may
be anything from a book of poems to a
series of Shakespearean studies, a
translation of a French work on degen-
Grafton to an illustrated history Of
Greek literature in six volumes. It is
usually a work costly enough to war
rant elaborate advertising.
The society book agents methods of
enthusing her friends are as varied as
with the man who takes her down to
dinner-for of course she goes to all
the dinners she possibly can and neg
lects no opportunity to talk. The man
who takes her down to dinner is thank
ful for the society of such a bright and
witty and weil-read specimen Of the
new woman. She impresses him with
his own intelligence.
only 41U0 thin RI talk
Rbout-bool1s and the opera. The opera
is a passe theme. Naturally they talk
of the latest novel, and "Oh! have you
read so and so?'' says the bright woman,
bringing her piece de resistance to the
fcre A literary friend Of hers" she
says "a man Of fine discrimination,
advised her to read it, because the EN-
tire world Of letters was talking Of the
author" and really it is a book that,
etc. She talks very well, Of course, and
all the better if she has some reputa-
tion as a woman of literary tastes.
BY the time the coffee is reached she
tells him that she viii see he has
copy, though the sale is most exclusive,
as it is merely an authors. edition.
When the scholarly looking parsonage
who makes deliveries for the firm calls
around the next day with the work un-
der his arm and the society woman's
card in his hand, the man who took her
down to dinner feels flattered that she
should have remembered her promise
and pays the price. The book is usu-
ally a good one, for the society book
agent does not boom anything that is
not of the best He of course never
dreams that she has made a commits
sion on the order.
The novel is by far the best seller
with her boudoir contingent. It is man
ifestly impossible to talk up Greek lit
erature or an encyclopedia of scientific
research at a rosebud luncheon or even
at the afternoon reception of young
matron who pours tea in a gown of
heliotrope crepe and old lace, so the
second string to her bow is novel or a
book of poems.
There are various ladies moving in
the best society" who add to slender
incomes OF. supplement their pin money
by posing as literary personages and
patrons of literature and art. They are
thoroughly as clever and considerably
more original in their methods than the
young society men who promote" the
sale of wines and cigars among their
richer brethren.