Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-02-13
PROFITS OF AUTHORSHIP.
Returns Realized On Some OF the Mos,
Famous Books.


OF the many classes whose earnings have
risen in recent times. there is no class OF
which this Is 50 true as the writer's OF
novels, writes a London correspondent
in the New York Commercial When the
other day | heard the old story again OF
poor Walter Scott dying from his heroic
attempts To wipe off Glr,ub0 of debt and
when | thought of all the hundreds of
thousands of pounds that have since been
made out Of his wCrk-ind Thought also of
the prices that some authors of today get
i could not help feeling the tragic irony
of his fate. For if Scott had been paid
according t. present day rates, there is no
reason why ne should not have died worth
Il miliou--iu spite of Abbots ford n CON
stables failure, and all his other cXtrdNa-
ganccs and calamtics.
George Elliot was another author who
wrote Just before the golden time
W hen one thinks OF what an immortal class
is The Mill ON the Floss" it is almost
startling to mud that these were the prices
she got: A2,OOp for loo copies of the thirty
onc-and-siN edition; E1-0 for 10000 at
twelve shillngs: and $50 for 1909 at six
shllings ! would like to sec the face of
Miss Marie Corelli if she were offered such
prices as these for one of her stories
The greatest Improvement in the position
of the English author of to-day is IN tho
possession of the copyright in Amori 'a.
=
600 from Harpcrs for the rights of THE
Mill ON the Floss in America which was,
indeed, quite good enough cuusidr ring that
every other publisher i'm that country lad
Il right to publish the book without pay
ing her penny.
My old friend Justin Mccarthy. who Is
living in "A little house i'm the quiet little
town If McstaG,-after a life of incCs-
SAINT hard work and splendid solf-deVution
would be a very rich man If only Am
trCan copyright had existed in his younger
days. His celebrated book, The History
OF Our own Times, had an even bigger
American success than the enormous one
it mad in England. In England he got
some ten thousand pounds ont of the book ;
In America, / think, his tee was a couple
OF hundred pounds. If he had only been
paid by results. it would have been prob
ably twenty thousand pounds
similarly. what would Dickens have
commanded in prices If he had lived to
this day? Everybody Knows that up to
the tn he took to the lecture platform
Dickci could just make ends meet" and
If ii had not been for the lecture platform,
he would have died comparatively poor.
Now idaNs there are authors who would
Just scor al YOU if YOU offered them less
than 10000 for all the rights of one of
their books, and often they get much moro
out of America than out of their British
rights.
was surprised however, To find that
there is one country still where English
authors command neither much money nor
much circulation. There is an interest
ing letter H. last weeks Literature" from
Herr l.utz, the well-hnown publisher of
STUTTGART. He tells the tale that the best
authors in Germany attain to nothing like
the gigantic figures now reached in Eng
land and America, If an author manages
10 reach ten thousand copies in two years
he is wondrously popular. My Friend
Hall Game, would be horror-struVk, |
think. if any novel of his now did not reach
II sale of 100000 copies in the first year
after publication. | see that already the
first edition of 10000 of 'rhe Eternal
city" has been eXhausted--and it WAS pub
lished only ON Aug, II of last year.
POSTMASTER FOR POST MILLS.