The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-05

Reen Put Of-Wnr Books That
VIII Follow the Ending of the
Con9ict--NOveIs That Sell Now
Only in st. Paul Does n War Book
Surpnss Them.
Correspondence The st. Paul Globe.
NEW YORK, June 3.-The book
trade shows signs of recovering from
the shock of war; that is, a more con-
fident tone is apparent. Publishers re
aliZe that war or no war. many things
Will necessarily go on as before. 1t
was all very well for Talleyrand, when
a delegation of sworkngmen called upon
him, urging relief. and remarking. as
he turned the cold shoulder to them,
but. your eXcellency, we must live
1t was all very we'll for Talleyrand to
yawn and say: 4 do not see the neces-
sity for that" Times have changed
and men not only must live, but they
are entitled to living once they can
and will work Business must go on
because everybody wants it to go on
Out of this desire comes confidence and
new activity. When the war began
there was natural trepidation' The flu
ture was uncertain. 1t seemed that for
many months men and women would
read nothing but newspapers and books
on wars and methods of fighting. The
demand for war books became unprece-
denied. Many a remainder" has thus
been worked off-books for which there
had long ceased to be a demand and Of
which many copies remained in the
stock room unsold.
Not the least significant sign of this
return of confidence is found in the
Willingness of publishers to bring out
now in June books which, when the
scare burst upon them six weeks ago,
they at once put off until the autumn.
This Is important news, for June is
certainly late time of year to publish
any book. Usually spring books are
all in the market before summer be-
gins. People now are either going away
or getting ready to go very soon. 1t is
q bad time for a new book to get a
successful start. Old ones still may
have chance. A book that came out
IN April may now be doing it's best.
But here we have as a cause the mo-
mentum, so to speak, which several
weeks of publicity have given it,
But 1t is unlikely that there will be
any decline in the interest which war
literature has acquired. We may rath-
er look Tor an increase in that demand.
New war books certainly will be writ
ten. and there will be no lack of desire
for them.
One may easily imagine to himself
what a sensation would be made were
publishing house to announce tomor-
row that, in fortnight's time, it would
nave ready full and authentic history
OF DeWeys campaign against Manila.
written by some well known person
who had been aboard one of the ships.
1t would sell as no other book has sold
In this country in twenty years. "Ouo
Eadis" itself would pale its Intellectual
fires"
Great as has been the demand for
war literature, il is obvious that no one
work-not even Mahan's Influence Of
Sea Power in History"-has been able
to crowd popular fiction from it's emf
nence as the kind of literature that
sens best. The Bookman's lists print
ca IN the June number of that period
zeal. show that in the grand round
up for all the book centers of tbe
Onlted states and Canada, the six best
SeiilnS books We're works of fiction.
here they are: Simon Dale" Caleb
west. shrewsbury" Quo Vadis,"
hugn Nynne' and '.Naris." Of these
SIX DOCKS, it will be observed that two
only are American. We might have
wished that more of them had been
American ., 49,.
Locking at the BCokman's lists for IN
dlRldual centers, we find some inter
eSting facts. In many centers "Ouo
Nadls makes no showing at ALL If is
no. one OF the six. The cities where
II Goes make an appearance are mainly
DISTANT or smaller cities. They include
IGrCnto. Toledo, San Francisco. Port
Iand, Or. and Kansas City. ST Parls
returns for the month makes no mon
ton OF QUO Vadis," and curiouslv
enough It. Paul is the only city in the
list which returns a military book as
.he hfst among its six best selling
DOCKS. ThlS honOred volume is 'Tnfsn-
try Tactics" a 50-cent book pubIished
by the Appletons. Next on the St. Paul
Est comes Caleb West" and then fol
low Simon Dale" Shrewsbury .s'Tha
eugene Field 1 Knew and The Cad
ny. For this city the reports show
mat the public still cHngs to "Ouo
NSuiS, put 1t is third on the list, with
CaleD Vest and Simon Dale" ahead
or It. The other books popular in New
York are Shrewsbury" Paris" and
Hugh Wynue'
James Bryce, the English statesman
who paid so noble a tribute to this
country in writing his book. ."Tba
american Commonwealth" recentIv
made some striking comments in Jor.
uon on the state Of literature at the
present time. One remark was this.
ne country where the bcokshops CON
tam the greatest abundance and var;et,
CT literature is the United States" Mr.
Bryce IS careful man of statement
cut tnefe could be found ample support
aoi ms assertion were it needed. Just
ms eoucation IS nowhere so well diffus-
gu as IN this country, so also there is
no country where so MANY books ara
read or where so many peopIe ara
readers The two facts go tora+bo,
Mr Bryce's statement is simplv nos.
Hpie because edUca ton has been co
general in this country.
announcer consequence of that educa
non mas been the rise into publicity of
b vast army of men and women W.
ran write we'll and are amhitious -
PRINT Wndt they write. This, combined
with the cheapness of the cost off hooi1
manufacture, accounts for the alarm
ing and oppressed increase in nrintad
matter in this country. With books II
is good enough, but with periodicals #
IS Tar greater. ~. Bryce dwelt upon
this fact also and counted with - -
statement concerning the Improved
nature of most matter now printed Ha
thought that a thousand Years hanoe
not more of our literature would sur-
we imam had survived to our day of
the literature of ancient Greece ana
Rome anu
the new Byron letters In the edition
Oh byrons works, now, getting pub
hshed under the sanction. and with
the assistance, of Byron's grandson.
the Earl OF Lovelace, prove to be more
important than they had been thought