The times., 1897-08-01

SO far as the reader observes the pro
ductiveness of tie literary market, We are
lust now between season. The poster boy
and the poster giri have come down from
the shon window and are not seen ch the
bulletin tcard before Tie bookstores. they
ere given back chambers in the artists
minds L. come out in the autumn, reposed,
fecoiurod, and relabilitated. Dog days
are not book days, except Tor the pro-
wider on tise side street, who dispeHses his
Edna Lvles ard Laura jean libbeys and
Narv Cecll Hays in yellow covers and no
covers ar..T cents; were 10
The stout person who drives up behind
a nairorlrvcriedI Iackey : and bears awaythe
deluxes Is at tie seashole, the professor
who haunts the scientific shelf fer specific
treatises has hied himself 10 the summer
soii0ol, or he is dCinE the English catte-
essh towns. and thatIare but reoognizafae
specimen, in season -beforelasts' TIE
hisaiophhe. who locks fondiy over twenty
books and buys one, by way OF ar'dogy' ne
llnS gone on congo perhaps to his attic.
Only ono fact is less difficult TO establish;
They are all gone, these book buyers
Even books-those delicate einanatlons
from minds that think and pens that write
only for art value follow demand fluciua-
tious. There is nc demand at this tine.
Ergo: few new hooks Books need to be
doomed. There is no denying it. They
don't always take legs and walk into
publicity and pernianeney- They need
poster. review; q reading; discussion
and they get little OF all OF this in sumner
time So the publishers husband their man
uscripts for cooler days and more readable
evenings.
Mind. tie book world is inactive only
from the readers observation of the pro-
ductiyeness of the market. Al along the
rambling seashore, in cottages, huts and
notels. back in mountain retreats, or
high in city flats, pens are speeding
madly over virgin paper. recordingtboughts
and spinning tales and rliyniing verse TO
hopeful immortality. Scripts are being
made for the first days OF open house at
the publishers rooms IN the autumn.
Out from Boston and New York. where
the script is put in type, the type in pages
and The pages in volumes there they are
now busiest. They are making the novels
for fail, the text hooks for school, the pic
turcb1oksfor Christmaseven thisf ar ahead.
Fitting through theland is the commercial
traveller with his steel-bound trunks of his
publisher output He carries to the store
keepers over the land first peep at the
newest OF books and jots down the orders
which viii be realized into thousands OF
of boxes shipped across country next month.
Fer tie hYckIuak kers, summer is the most
restless and active period. Their energies
relax just before Christmas, but with the
first OF the year the spring books must
be made. a relaxation takes place again
at Easter time, and then all through the
hot weather the anticipative work prog
rosses vigorously.
II is said that the output Of books this
autumn viii be larger than ever before in
tie history OF book publishing in America.
Iweuty years ago the output doubled about
every five years Five years ago it
doubled every two yeaIs THIS year OF
1897 viii show al most a doubling over the
total output of last year.