The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-29
In BOOKS AND MAGAZINES
ALL OTHERS YIELD PLACE TO
WAR TOPICS

Capt. liahnn-Demand From Edit
urs-GeOrge Remnants Trip to
the Seat of War--UnknOwn Mag
azines With Enormous Circuln-
lions - Famous Authors with
Few Readers.
Correspondenpce The st. Paul Globe.
NEW YORK May 27.-Conv ersations
with several men familiar with the
book trade have served during the past
week to emphasize the effects the war
has had on sales. Business is still be-
ing done and in certain directions very
good business; but it is quite another
kind CT business than the ordinary
Popular novelists are among the chief
sufferers from the change. Volumes of
essays books Of "reminiscences, new
editions of standard authors and books
of biography are other classes of pub
locations which feel the evil potency of
war times. But with books on the army
and navy, on warfare. in general and
books of travel in Spain and Cuba there
Is unceaSlng activity. Again and again
have lists been computed and ammo
Tated. The whole field of literature on
these subjects for the past twenty
years has been gone over, and the
really vital books have been selected
for customers.
Significant in high degree of this de-
mand is the range of topics chosen for
the periodicals. Every one of these
publications that has a reputation for
aiertnesS in management has turned
TO war topics. Several weeks ago the
Outlook that adnlira BILE late edition Of
what once was the Christian Union,
sent TO the seat of war George Ken
nan, writer whose magazine articles
on the Russian prison system gave
hlme wide reputation many years
ago. Richard Harding Davis, who is
already sending war news to a great
London newspaper, will write war ar
ucleS for Scribner'S Magazine, and an
nouncement of this fact has been duly
and strikingly made in the ADVERTISE
ments of that periodical Harper's for
the present month has an article by
Capt. Mahan; McClure's one by FitZ-
hugh Lee, and the Century, when it
makes It's appearance next week, will
De found to have another contribution
from Capt. Mahan. Besides the arti-
Gle by Capt. Mahan the Century will
PRINT IN the same number an account
or the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
And so it goes. Everywhere war topics
come TO the front in periodicals as we'll
as in books. Monthly magazines give
us war maps. Weekly papers fill their
pages with pictures of battleships. Of
camp life, of soldiers marching away
from home. Meanwhile the outnl1t of
new books on other topics possessed
or fresh and striking interest is small.
Ii It be true. as has been said, that
the werld knows nothing of its greatest
men, the remark would also be true
when applied to the most widely cir
cuIated magazines. Those MAGAZINES
which are most famous, whose names
are familiar to every one, are not the
magazines most widely circulated. Soma
recent statistics on the subject have
appalled, ME, and now that l am to
give a part of them, they will probably
appaH the reader. We have commonly
thought of a certain monthly publica-
ton in Philadelphia as the only ore
Whlch FAR outstripped the older month
hes, but this now appears to be onlv
one among many such. And the strang-
est fact about these statistics is that
the magazines in gus stion are unknown
10 thousands OF readers to whom the
older monthlieS have been household
works. In Washington, for example.
there is published a monthly periodical
devoted to household matters, which is
credited with circulation of $50 O60
$4,000; in Springfield, O., one with 26O.-
OOO, and in New York, one with $50. 900.
NOT ore CT these publicat ons is familiar
10 r1e~eXcept in name. They come not
TO thesuesks of literary editors They
are not talked about in newspapers.
The world of literature, properly so
called, moves on, unheeding them nm
moved by them, caring not for them
And yet they have enormous number
of readers.
The same fact has often been found
to be true in regard to books: the most
famous books are not the books most
Widely read. The most famous authors
are rot the authors whose writings
reach the largest number of readers
mere we seem to have a paradox But
q little reflection will explain it. Fame
Is not made by the regard Of the
masses. 1t comes from the recognition
which the best minds bestow upon
man. 1t comes from the top and the
top maintains it. 1t is a small group.
silent and, what Matthew Arnold
called, the saving remnant" which
secures to an author his title to en-
during remembrance. How few are the
men and women who have read Mil
ION or Homer, Dante or ShakesDeara
N one year, compared with those who
nave read Albert Ross z. P. Roe or
Old Sleuth. And yet to the latter
three writer's never las come what
properly can be called fame. Notoriptv
Iney nave but notor1ety is not fame.
emerson, many years ago, put this
truth in striking and concrete form
when he said of Plato that at no one
time had Plato ever had more than
handful of readers, but his writings
had come duly down to us all through
the centuries-down to US. the stranr
ers OF another age. "as though God
mad brought them in his hand
For years 1t has bsen a commonplace
OF the DOCK trade that the Christmas
Siit DOCK mas ceased to be a gift book
pure ard simple; that is, it has not
been book manufacture TO sell for
It's pictures and its binding. its form a
quarto, or folio, and its destination a
center table, the Christmas book must
row have more than attractions such
IS these: lis contents must have intrir
sic value; cover and rictures must 'av
subordinate parts The result has been
that the chief attra ctions of the coun-
tiers in the holiday stores are now
books that are not only good. as gifts
but good for all seasons and all wears
A similar change has come over the
subscription book business. Costly
f1lioS and quortoS no longer succeed
People do not want them. In large eli q
PEOPLE commonly live in flats hotels
and apartments, where it is physically
impossible to house them. And there
lore the publishers are adapting their
manufacturers to changed conditions.
They make books that will go into
small bookcases. They no longer count
on center tables as repositories. In the
auction rooms one often sees demon
strated the failure of the high hopes
with which many subscription books OF
q former period We're purchased-those
costly folios and quartos issued in limit