The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-28

in the case of an old and fully approved
author; in the case of man only few
years out of college, with his first novel,
II Is almost unprecedented. The paral-
lels of it, if recalled, would lead to the
naming Of very great names. indeed.
I was talking the other day with a rep
resentative of the firm of Houghton Milf
film & Co., regarding the present demand
for some of the American classics. l ask
ed him particularly about Hawthorne and
Emerson; how they compared with each
other in respect of present demand, and
how for either the present demand com
pared with the demand in the past His
reply, L thought, was extremely interest
ing.
las would naturally be expected" said
he, 1.-THE sales of Hawthorne are consid-
erably larger than those of Emerson, and
yet the difference is not nearly so great
as casual reader might suppose The
philosopher holds his ground very we'll
as against the romancer. For the last
eight or ten years the sale of 1.-The Mar
Bile Faun' has been distinctly greater than
that of any other of Hawthorne's books
and probably next in order comes The
Scarlet Letter Ranking very near to the
latter is The House of the Seven Cables
and very near that The Wonder Book
The sale of some of Hawthornes books
has been some years very decidedly in
creased by the adoption of the book as
part of the required readings for admis-
sion to college. This also is the case with
Emerson essays.
"Of Emerson's books the sale is gen
orally speaking quite uniform; that is,
most of the books sell about the same
number of copies Perhaps his most pop
ular books are THE Conduct of Life and
Society and Solitude Occasionally oc-
currences lend special interest to one or
another of mis- books, so that for a given
year the sale of that books will be higher
than of other books or than of the same
book in ordinary years"
In the important matter of sales, Mr.
James Whitcomb Riley is an author 70
be envied. l learned the other day, on
good authority that Mr.. Riley's works
now enjoy a secure. steady sale of 10000
volumes a year. What amount of annual
income that means to Mr. Riley himself
l cannot say; but by the least liberal of
the customs of the trade, it would mean
something rather handsome. And Mr..
Riley. by the way, is a man whom quite
a little suffices He doesn't stint himself
in the qualification of his desires, but his
desires are rather few and simple, and he
is unmarried and has no one dependent on
him. For the investment and care of mis-
earnings he depends much on a brother
in-law, Mr.. Eitel, who is man of bust
ness experience and Judgment. and warm
ly devoted to Mr.. Riley.
1t is now some years since Mr.. Riley
shook himself free of the "lecturing
habit" 1t had grown very grievous to
him before he finally saw his way TO
giving it up. A theatrical manager who
was an acquaintance and fellow townsman
of his was telling me once of hard eff
fort he himself once made to get Mr. Ri
ley to reconsider, and, as it were, play
just one more engagement" Riley's dec
hnation was both emphatic and pictur-
espue. He had no further need to lecture,
and so lecture further he would not Even
his publishers Joined in the appeal fore
seeing that his return to the platform
might extend still further the sale of his
books. But even to them Mr.. Riley gave
nothing but prolonged, obstinate mo"
E. C. Martin.