Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-02-08

country in the year 1901, he will be
made glad by a list Of publishers after
whose names are set down the num-
Der of their publications during the
twelve months recently ended. A
careful investigation of this list will
certainly reveal a number of sur
prise>. Those who follow regularly
| the annual output of books, those who
diligently read the advertisements of
publishers, the book reviews and the
book news in our daily, weekly and
monthly press, might readily have i'm
agine5 that the Macmillan Company
would head the list. but that they
would so vastly outdistance their near
est competitors was scarcely to be ex-
pected The total number of publica-
tions issued by the Macmillan Company
was 697: the second place is held by
Charles Scribner's Sons. with a total
Of 212 The list of publishers whose
publications numbered one hundred or
more runs as follows:
The Macmillan COMPANY, New York, 697
Charles Scribners Sons, New York, 2l2
Houghton Mifflin a. Co., Boston, 1876
j. r. Lippincott Company. Philadel- y
phia 1871
Iongmans. Green & Co. New York, 1872
The Abbey Press New York l6l
Little Brown & Co, Boston, 14S
Harper & Bros, New York, 122
r. Y. Crowen & Co. New York, lie
Dana Estes & Co, Boston. 10
g. p Putnam's Sons New York 104
ID. Appleton & Co, New York, 103
Dodd, Mead & Co, New York. log
f. p. Dutton & Co, New York, lOl
1t should, of course, be noted that
this list indicates merely the number
of titles issued and that the success of
any firm in the publication of widely
famous or generally popular books is
| not involved. Neither does the pre-
| dominance of any one firm over any
other mean a predominance either in
| business enterprise or stability. Many
| of the most prominent publishers in
| the country naturally find no place in
the list simply because they happened
not to exceed the one hundred mark.
| All c1mPoSitorS, however intelligent,
are not gifted with sense of humor,
and professional humorists sometimes
suffer severely at their hands. Mark
| Twain once had a trying experience
with a compositor-one of those con-
scientious compositors who not only
know, but know that they know. Mr..
|
fishers the proofs of a story which he
considered as funny as anything he
had ever written, but on reading the
proofs he dismally discovered that the
fun had been carefully eliminated. Mr.
Clemens returned the proofs, con-
graduating the compositor upon hav-
ing consumed "only one week in max
ing sense of a story which he himself
had required two weeks to make nom
sense Of"
The fourth edition of Jacob A. Riis's
"The Making of an American" is now
on the press. 1t is barely a month
since the book was published. One of
the interesting bits of news about 1t is
that an edition for the blind is now
being prepared by the state Of New
York. Very few books receive this
honor so soon after they are issued.
1t seems a somewhat surprising
statement to make that eggs, con-
densed milk. olive oil, and vinegar are
all used in the binding of books. Yet
such is the case. The white of egg is
used for Sizing" to cause the delicate
ornamental goldleaf to adhere to the
leather. To make the Sizing" perform
its adhesive work even more delicately,
little milk is added; and, to help
further in the important work of adj
hesion, coating of olive oil or diluted
vinegar is sometimes applied to the
leather. The expert who manages the
immense bindery of Harper & Broth
ers said to a visitor, who had gone
there to watch the rush of work on the
New Encyclopaedia of United States
History. that he has seen wise old
book binders use the light froth Of ale
as a coating over binding of silk. The
froth held the gold-leaf with perfect
success. and did not stain the silk.
Many of the old expert book-binders
have little secret methods of their own
by which to produce peculiarly fine re-
suits. and these secrets they guard as
jealousy as the housewife does her
favorite family recipes.
Arthur E. Bostwck has compiled
some library statistics which contain
awful warnings for our army of auth
ors. The figures prove that hundreds
of the patrons of libraries frequently
fail to read books through to the end.
OF fiction this is least, and of science
most true, as might be expected. Be-
tween these extremes history was
found to occupy a middle ground, but
more readers were able to finish all the
volumes of Justin McCarthys highly
entertaining History Of Our Own
Times" than to read to the end Glib
bon's stately Rome or Hume's ENG
land" The answer to Mr.. Bostwick's
query, "Do readers read?" would seem
to be, at depends upon the entertain
ing qualities of the book"
Harper & Brothers publish, this
month, a new novel by Harris Dickson
author of 1.-THE Black VOLTS Breed
1t is entitled 1.-The Siege of Lady Reso-
lutte" and is a delightful story of the
genuinely romantic type. The time is
the early eighteenth century, when
Louis XIV. was on the throne oil
France. Julie de Severac is the
heroine. a girl of beauty and spirit
whom the Marquis de Saint Maurice
has deeply offended, and to whose
heart he lays a determined siege. The
story is said to be full of charm and
adventure, not of the "swashbuckling'
kind. but Of the sort that carries the
l tot ,lx, IN Y,1f 90