New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-18
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY is, 1900.

The effect of the war in South Africa upon
the publishing of books in London has already
been drastic and promises to become even more
IptiCeabc. This effect is, of course. felt in this
country, though not always at the same mo-
ment nor to the same degree Many books
which might have seen the light in England
this winter but have been withheld. would not
In any case have been brought out here until
the spring. 1t is just possible that by that
time English publishers may be more sangune,
and so the number of new books in the coming
season may be as large on both sides of the
Atlantic as ever before. but the chances do not
seem to be in favor of this. In the meantime
the reader may we'll feel a certain cheerful
resignation. as the new books now kept in
manuscript or locked up in the warehouses can
not permanently remain unpublished and per-
haps too, the present circumstances may bring
about the contamination for which we have
often begged in this place. We refer to the
policy of spreading the new books over the
year. instead of bringing them out in huge
patches At stated seasons" This latter prac-
tice, are convinced, must he not only weari-
some to the reading public, but inimical often
TO the fortunes of a book. The opportunity has
come at last for the virtue of a different plan
TO be pat to the test. We would be glad TO see
the matter settled one way or the other
Mr.. Edwin HOugh. writing in The Century"
about The West. and Certain Literary Discov
cries discusses with quiet satire the speciOus
endeav0rS Of American novelists and writers Of
short stories TO put plenty of local color into
their work. He smiles over the inaccuracies of
Western novels written by Eastern authors,
over the artificiality Of so many of the New
England" stories that are current these days.
These books abound in ignorance, he declares,
and that the ignorance persists is due, are
told, to the demand" of the literary market"
which will have local color or know the rea-
why. This demand we may observe, is
one Of the oldest phenomena in the history of
modern publishing. Local color is no new thing.
The masters always used it in 50 far as it was
needed for their purposes But whence came
this strange notion that readers crave it? Is
there anything to prove that they would not
willingly go without it if novels were in all
other respects we'll written? We do not doubt
that Mr. Marion Crawford, for example, has
gained much by his exploitation of one new
country after another in his romances, but he
would be 4 very poor critic OF MFR Crawford's
admirable work who aScribed its success to its
local color. The truth is that the thing has
been erected into fetch until not only does
the market demand it, but many an author
wastes his time and energy in seeking it, under
the impression that it is Indispensable to good
art 1t is amusing commentary the stua-
rion that some of the most successful romances
of recent times have been those which. like
StcvPnSOn'S Prince otto" and Anthony Hopes
prisoner Of Zenda," discarded all the facts of
geography and used local color of Il purely
imaginary character.