The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-13

a few new people to the never too large
/ company of those who occasionally
write an available thing and are in the
habit of submitting what they write to
/ one editor rather than to another. This,
I In a word, is the whole Of the prize story
1 contest mystery; these are the real
! features and the full dimensions of the
negro in that particular woodpile.
The publication Of the Biographical
edition of Thackeray's works, now in
progress, provOkes much discussion
and cardwriting TO the newspapers on
| various points in Thackeray'S literary
| history. One correspondent has brought
out the fact that the largest lump"
sum ever received by Thackeray for
! his work was 81 900 (S5,000) for the
first rights of Henry Esmond." OF
course, to one who has never published
a novel and has had secret designs of
doing SO some time, this seems rather
| a handsome sum; but for Thackeray
and for 'ESmond' it is, in truth, sur
prisingly small; for the day of large
rewards to popular authors had a.
ready dawned. Scott had enjoyed i'm
mense returns from his literary work;
! Byron had found even poetry paying
well, and Macauley had found history
as profitable as a bank. When the
| Century company, year or two ago,
paid Mrs. Humphrey Ward $4,000 for
the serial rights of sir George Tres
sadly" the fact was much commented
on as almost beyond precedent; but 30
years ago the Cornhill Magazine paid
George Eliot $4,000 for the serial
rights of ''Romola.' George Eliot had
good prices for all of his work. For
her first piece of fiction, the short story
of amos Barton" she received about
$3.50 from Blackwood's Magazine" and
when this and two other short stories
were collected into the book called
Clerical Sketches" she received about
$500 for the first edition and about
$1,000 for the second, with retention of
the copyright. For her first novel,
Adam Bede," BlackwOOd paid her
$4,000 for the copyright for four years,
but the book did so well that he after
ward voluntarily added another 81 600.
For Mill on the Floss she got $4,000
for the first 400 copies, and a proper
Tomato sum on subsequent copies, be-
side 1900 from the Harpers for an
American edition. For Felix Holt"
Blackwood paid her 1000, and the
Harpers paid her for the American
edition of ''AIiddlemarch' ST. coo. What
the English edition of .'Middlemarch''
yielded her L do not know, nor do 7
know anything of her receipts from
Daniel DerOnda,' but it must be that
in these she had her largest profit, for
they sold beyond any other of her
works. If she had followed ''Deronda''
with another novel, which she did not
do, her profits would probably have
suffered a decline, for "DerOnda," de-
spite its greatness. was not a little
discouraging to her admirers, and pub
fishers, in their ready caution. would
have been apt to approach her next
work a little gingerly.
1t has been rumored that Mr. John
Morley was to be charged with the
writing of the authorized biography of
Mr.. Gladstone; and whoever repeats the
rumor, makes haste to add that he
hcpas it may be true, for Mr.. Morley is
just the man for the task. I confess
am rot 90 sure of this, however. Mr..
Morley could analyZe and interpret Mr.
GladStOne'S life as perhaps no one else
could He could give an orderly. in
telligent and interesting narrative of
Mr.. Gladstone's career. But is he suffic-
iently self-suppressive and clerical in
temperament to prepare a modern doc
umentary' biography where inteTpre-
tation is employed the least possible,
and the story is left in the main to tell
itself in letters and speeches and auto
Geographic memoranda? The authorita-
tive biography Of Gladstone ought to
be, and will have to be. of this sort;
but it is not biography of this sort that
Mr.. Morley has hitherto written. His
books on Burke and VOltaire are, strict
ly speaking, not biographies at all, but
critical studies. His books on Diderot
and Rousseau are biOgra phieS, and
much the best we have on their respec-
tive subjects in English. But they are
not in the least documentary; in
them Mr.. Morley is free to tell his
story in his own words and in his own
way. The same is true, in the main, of
his life of Richard Golden. And the
oil e y n fccy
while it is clear and orderly and of real
intelligence, would never be called live
ly; no one would read far in any OF
them merely as q pastime. Still, some
sort of book on Mr.. GladstOne's career
by Mr.. Morley would have great value.
Mrs Ruth McEnery Stuart, the foun-
der and director of that rare rural set
tlement, "Simpkinsville," is going soon
to Denver, where she will spend most,
if not ALL of the summer. Mrs. Stuart
has more comfort IL life now than she
once had. Confronted unexpectedly with
the necessity of earning her own living.
and on the strength of having had three
stories accepted by the Harpers, she
came to New York about eight years
ago from New Orleans, and Undertook
to support herself and her son by writ
ing In ordinary hack words, she had no
facility; she could write only slowly
and with the utmost care Consequent
-ly. her first years here were full of dir
ficulty. BY heroically adherinS TO her
course. however, she has finally made
her way, and now. for an author, is
enviabIy prosperous. Her stories are
accepted for magazine publication al
most before they are written; her books
sell we'll she is in constant demand,
at a good price, as rArior and semi
Dublic reader. She reads from her own
writings: and their humOr and charm is
greatly heightened by her rendering OF
them. She is as good an entertainer. IN
the Interpretation of her own people, as
James Whitcomb Riley or Mark Twain,
in the Interpretation of theirs, although
she has none of their stage skill. and
pl cceeds most informally, not to say IN
geruously. Il. C. MARLIN
Lieutenant Carranza's Case.
nraa.raa1 Lime NE ST Pierre. coun.