The Saint Paul globe., 1898-04-17

Par1i Ford and His "peter sterling
-DauGcrs PosthumOus book
Drake and His ..Gde to the Amer
lean ErIag''-Anecdotes of DiNrn-
sli-W Whitcvyashing Judge JeG-
rcys-fnjury thc War Prophets
Have Done the Book Trade
Can't. Nnban, Stevenson, KiplinS
and curns.
Correspondence The st. Paul Globe.
NEW YORK, April 15.-The pre-
eminence Of New. York as the book CEN
ter the country is forced upon us with
new emphasis by the lists of spring
announcements which have already
appeared in many literary papers. Bos-
tons supremacy long since had pasScd
away. Even the eminerca which Phila-
delphia had in the. early part OF the
century is now thing of the distant
Iast. New York surmounts all. There
are probably five times as many books
issued in one year with a New York
imprint, as there are Boston books.
Indeed, | am not sure but there are
not seven times. as many. But the
exact figures are not needed. The fact
of the overwhelming rank of New York
is uldsputable. With the decline OF
Boston and Philadelphia, has come the
growth Cf Chicago. That city already
surpasses Philadelphia, and l am not
certain that Boston viii for many more
years keep her second place, 1t must
eventually go to Chicago.
Fer the causes of this change we
should need to reflect on many facts.
But chief among them has been the
supreme place held by New York as
a cer.er of magazines AS the New
YoIk newspapers in the times OF the
giants of the OfessiOn-Greeley, Ray
mend. Bennett and Bryant-acquired
first rank among American papers, so
have the magazines published in this
city made their way to the front, IN
advance of all that Boston and Phila-
deiphia could do. First was, of course,
Harper's magazine, and then came the
Century, with ScribneFS, the CoSmo-
politan, McClures, Munsey's, the Re-
view Of Reviews, and others, following
with the lapsing time, until now their
names stand for nearly all the great
sUcc5 Sses that monthly illustrated
masizine literature has to its account.
simultaneously with this growth we
have seen the growth in New York of
book publishing. Periodicals have
made material for books. 1t was essen
tial that they should increase in New
York the output of books. The emil
nence row completely won for New
York. ] cannot doubt will remain.
The only chance for growth in any
other celter lies in Chicago. SO many
other lines of business have been firm
ly established in that great center of the
middle West, that books also must
eventually give to Chicago one of her
large industries. It is certain that the
country does not have a region in which
more growth in the consumption of
books is seen by publishers than in the
middle West and the Northwest. Pub
fishers have long seen this fact. In
those parts of the country lives a popu
latiCn now become prosperous and gen
orally in good circumstances. 1t is also
az intelligent population, and in cul-
ture and thirst for knowledge. 1t is
making marked advance Of which I'M
n1istakable evidences is seen in the
growing demand for books.
Paul Leicester Ford, recently made
a. curious statement : concerning the
early fate of his, "The Hon. Peter Ster-
ling" now one of the most widely read
books of fiction that we have. He
made the statement TO a writer in THE
Times Saturday Review" and as it
has particular interest for the West, L
give this part of his remarks to the
writer in full:
DO you know where the demand for
that book first came from?" Mr.. Ford
queried. You could never ina gine. 1t
was very curious. Peter Stirling was
published late in the fall of 1894. II lay
on the shelves practically unsold for
four nlCnths and looked like a failure
Ore day [ went into my publishers,
and, much to my surprise, he said:
We're just getting ready to print
new edition of Peter Stirling" and
shall make 2. new set of plates Tn
Very glad to hear that, I said. He
went On; Look over these proofs and
make any changes you want
1t was such surprise to me that
the next time I saw him I asked him
how it had happened that the book
had jumped so suddenly in sales And
then it all came out. San Francisco
was the place where Peter Stirling
really started to sell. Without any
warning an order came in from that
city che day for 800 copies. The man
thai ordered them was A NJ. Robert
son, a bookseller of San Francisco, and
they thought in the office that he must
he crazy. q remarked to the publisher
when he told me this that that wasn't
high compliment for the book) How
ever Robertson not only sold those 800
copies, but a little later ordered 300
mere. 1t was afterward learned that
he lad happened to read the book and
was so taken with it that he made I'D
his mind to sell those 300 copies be
fore he did anything else in a business
way.
Then orders commenced to come in
from Michigan and Wisconsin. Why
from those states no one knows to this
day but these are the facts. Mean
while the book was not selling at all
in Chicago or in New York. The de-
msnd in these and other cities did not
start until *Peter Stirling had pretty
widely spread throughout the towns of
IT, r-;dSle Vest
The SUCCESS. of Mr.. Ford's book il
illustrates once more the fact that sue
cess for a work Of real merit will final
" be won. whatever its early fate may
be. Certain it is that the critics can
not prevent it, although l am not sure
but they can do considera bic in bring
ing it forward. But the real test must
always come from the public; they are
the true final judges of books the
critics Of time and the real fame max
ers. Mr. Ford's early readers often
came from the smaller cities and the
large towns of the West. Here we see
clearly how fast there is growing up
in our country a vast array of book
of life and trade. People in large cities
unquestionably read proportionately
far less than do people in smaller com
munities. Our popular magazines find
their largest support in such small
communities. and so do our -urely
literary periodicals. Their subscribers
are scattered through such towns from
Maine to Texas, from Florida to the
state of Washington. These classes in
publishers, and on them their hopes for
the future are built.
A posthumous book by Daudet is lust