The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-13
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
THE GRIsT OF BOOKsAND THE DIFF
FICULTY OF PROPER SELEC-
TION.

Who Wrote "The Great God Sue
cess" New York Newspaper
Story.-Romance of the French
Dauphin, Louis XVII, m N Book
Promises TO BE One of the Success
es of the SeasOn-New Edition OF
BaIzac-COndemned to Death for
Writing "A Good Book.
New York, Oct 12.-Out of the sew
eral thousand books which are ground
out of the mills of the publishers every
year it is the privilege of a busy man
or woman to read less than a hundred;
the man or woman of leisure may get
through twice as many; and the book
lover may care to look over the leaves
of as many more, though he keep to
add to his own treasures not more
than enough to fill a shelf. This is
what happens the same year the books
are published, for when the imprint on
a book is more than a twelve-month
old the percentage of possibility of
public favor is very low. For that
very reason there are some few read
ers of books-any may their numbers
increasei-who make a practice of
reading only such books as have pass
ed through the troublesome first pub
lie reception and are at least a year old.
These readers scan fewer books, but
they have fewer regrets at the end.
Now one of the most hopeful signs of
the times is this growing conservatism
in book reading, and, where such a
movement gains strength, it will work
one of the most necessary reforms in
book publishing. The enthusiastic
maker of books will say that such ex-
pressionS as there are only pessimiStic
views of a disgruntled aspirant for lit
erary honors. and, incidentally, for the
large rewards of authorship of a popu
| lar book. Not so. The writer never
wrote a book and never tried to get
| one published. There are no little
| foxes in his garden. Does it ever oc-
| cur to the blatant advertiser of II
mos that the humble public is inter
ested in something else than the num-
| Der of miles of paper used in their
| latest book, The Swashbuckler," by
that distinguished author, Mr.. Flub-
| dub? Is it not coming to the time
| when an edition of less than 200. 900
may be worth while reading? A lead
| ing English critic recently sounded
this note of alarm. He felt that pub
| fishers had so degraded the high art
| which was theirs that no longer could
any reliance be put in their statements
| as to the quality of their books. What
is the reading public to dO?" he asks,
and he answers by saying that the only
course left is that of Indifference to all
statements of publishers, with the con-
sequent result of decline of sales,
| smaller editions and a more careful
selection of the matter to be put be-
| tween covers in future. Such a reform
| is sadly needed, and there are many
believe it is coming, and that soon.
| There are, on the other hand, not a
few (among them the enthusiastic pub
| fishers themselves) who think that
| the present era of large editions is but
| a foretaste of the future. These main
tain that the spread of reading facil-
tiles and educational advantages has
| so increased the demand for books that
! there must be in the course of things
very large sales and very large edi-
tons of books which strike the popu-
! lar taste. The joke of 1910 A D. is al
| ready in circulation:
TOO bad about Scribler, isn't it.?
His last book reached only 100000 cop
les sale" All of which does not make
| it any easier for the reader in his Sc
| lection of books.
The publishers of THE Great God
| SuCCeSS, DOCK winch TlrSt saw the
light of publicity only few days ago
insist that they know nothing about
| the author, but number of New
| York newspaper men who have read
the story have grave suspicious. 1t is
a Park Row story, with the New York
! Sun office so accurately drawn that
| slight acqualntances with its inside
workings have no difficulty in recog-
nizing many of the scenes and char
| acters. The New York Would office
and some of its men come in for a
share of the material from which the.
alone seem to point to Mr. David Ora
ham Phillips assistant editor or the
| World, as the author, and the fact that
the nom der plume used is John Ora
! ham," and also that Mr.. Phillips made
| his first hit in Park Row in exactly
the same way as Howard, the hero
| of the tale, by his wonderful
| account of the loss and finding of a
| child in the Adirondacks adds weight
to this suspicion. Mr. Phillips, how
ever, denies having anything to do
with THE Great God Success but he
agrees with other newspaper men who
| have read the book that the author
| must have been a Sun man under the
| elder Dana. For this reason Mr.. Phil
| lips advances the theory that Julian
| Ralph is the author, and that the book
| has been published anonymously on a
| wager that he could write a book that
would make a success without his
name as a voucher for its worth. 1t is
| difficult to believe that Mr.. Ralph
wrote this book, indeed l cannot believe
- u.r-