New-York tribune., 1901-02-16
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
CURRENT TALK OF THINGS PRESENT
AND TO COME.

AND TO COME.
Apropos Of the nillenniaI celebration of Alfred
the Great. which viii occur this year in Eng
land a life OF that English King will be pub
lished in the Sanity Lives series which E. P.
Dutton & Co. issues in this country. II Will be
the work Of the Bishop Of Ripon, W. Boyd Car
penter.
relief from the serious books which the
worlds recent warlike activity has brought out
in such large numbers will be furnished by
Wars Brighter Side" which the Appletons
have in preparation. It is by Rudyard Kipling
Julian Ralph A. Conan Doyle. Lord Stanley and
others and has an introduction by Lord Rob
erts. When the British army was AT Pretoria
Lord Roberts asked the brilliant group of cor
respondents gathered there TO make a news
paper for the army. Kipling. Ralph Gwyn and
Landon were the editors. and they asked Ny
Kipling TO act as editor of this book, which con-
tains the best Of the stories and poems con-
tributed TO The Friend" as the unique journal
was called Mr. Ralph has sketched the hu-
rnorous and exasperating features OF newspaper
editing and publishing in the field, and there
are PORTRAITS of the editors at work. a facsimile
of one Of Mr.. Kiplings proofs as it was returned
10 the Dutch compostor with vigorous uncom-
plimentary notes by the author and many fun
page pictures.
Mrs Edith wharton's volume of stories
Crucial Instances" that the Scribners have IN
press, is said TO he wider in range and variety
than THE Greater Inclination" Several OF the
stories have never before been published. They
include The Duchess at Prayer, The Angel at
the Crave The Recovery, The Moving FIN
ger" Copy" a play: The Rembrandt" and
The Confessional" The scene moves from the
New-England country town 10 italy; the time
10 he YNFPC
The play called Copy" has been acted at Lake
wood with Mrs. George Gould and Evert jan
sen Wendell in the chief parts. The title of the
book is said 10 indicate a certain essential char
acter that gives unity 10 the whole, each story
depicting crisis Of extraordinary intensity.
The Publishers Association is still at work
perfecting the arrangements under which II Is
hoped to establish a new and better basis Of CO.
operation. Il is distinctly disavowed that there
IS any intention of forming a combination that
shall raise the prices Of books TO the public or
that shall increase the publishers profits. 1t
may be indeed. that there will be the opposite
result but the effect desired IS that the pub
fishers shall cease to be a laughing stock, as
one man expressed il, for advertising a book
at 81 30. and then seeing II sold for any figure
from 81 10 down TO 70 cents. And they also
wish TO make il possible for the old time book
seller to live and make a profit by selling books.
He can do this only if he can be assured Of
reasonable margin on the popular current copy
right books. Of which he sell his hundreds
OF copies and thus be enabled 10 carry stock
Of less quickly selling books Of a more standard
character such as give bookshop standing. so
that people Of literary taste will find it a place
TO come to The old fashioned, purely literary
bookshop has almost entirely disappeared. as
v7r,Rf ieRa he Of ha- a
the great shops in New York. Chicago and Bos-
ton are those connected with publishing busi-
ness. the momentum Of which carries the retail
trade along with profit
The fate Of the retail bookseller was recently
shown by an instance from real life. The man
in question has had forty years honorable eX-
perience in the book trade. first as salesman
IL one Of the famous old New-York bookstores
now out Of business. and then in an establish
ment that he set up for himself, in which he
had his long experience and training, 4 good
following Of customers, sufficient capital and
a good business ability behind him. In a short
time however. he found himself obliged to ap-
ply 10 one of the publishing booksellers for
place as a salesman His business was taken
over by this house and after It liqudated.
with a considerable amount estimated for the
goodwill there was found 10 be nothing left
over the liabilities So this man. with his rec
ord Of forty years, finds nothing in the book
business for him but employment at a neces-
sarily small salary subordinate. The pub
fishers hope. by guaranteeing reasonable profit
on the books most in demand. TO change this
state Of affairs and keep the ancient place Of
the bookseller for him. In the opinion Of many
II might easily be done. for there IS nothing that
should be easier OF protection than the price OF
a popular copyright book. II the publishers OF
such books agree TO say that nobody who
cuts under q certain fixed retail price shall be
allowed TO buy them. they viii have the matter
in their own hands
But, pointed out the publishers must
sincerely cooperate to this end, and keep from
evading not only the letter but the spirit Of any
agreement. Some time ago there effort
made to stop excessive discounts TO libraries by
means Of agreement. While the agreement
literally kept there said to have been
some dealers who would say to a library agent:
we can't give you more than such and such a
discount, but will throw in a Of this other
book IL you viii trade with US. or Il more CON
scientious would refuse 10 have any cog
nizance Of the details, but would see that his
rl.or. 71aTa