The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-07-05
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
Advertising Books q, Recently Devel-
oped Art.

OR04 &Axts
Advertising of books has come to be
recent joke comes very near being the
truth.
who is the best fiction writer on the
list of Pushem and Sellum. the pub
Hshers?" asks one.
THE man who writes the advertise
ments for their books" replies another.
1t is not generally known that one of
the leading firms among the book pub
fishers in this country does all of its
publicity through a firm of advertising
agents. The entire time of several men
in this advertising concern is taken up
In writing copy, furnishing the illus
trations and supplying ideals for the
typographical display, and SO large has
the publicity department of this par
ticular book house grown that the head
OF the employed advertising company
Is said to have acquired a considerable
amount of the book stock in part re-
turn for his services and expenditures.
The outcome Of this arrangement and
of similar developments in advertising
OF books will be watched with much in
terest.
are beginning to realize that the most
important part of the publishing BUSH
ness is publicity. AS one publisher re-
marked the other day, a book is not
really published until the reading pub
lie knows of its existence, and the mat
ter of making the reading public cog
infant of one title or a few titles out of
several thousand is, as has been point
ed out-an art in itself; Truly must the
writer's of the publishers announce
ments be gifted with the vivid imagin-
alton of novelists These men-public-
ity men, they call them-are a most in
teresting people. 1t is the business of
each one to write such matter that the
papers are glad to print as news, He
must keep a chronicle of the doings of
the well known authors whose books
his firm is publishing. He is continual
ly in search of new ideas in the straight
advertising of his wares. More and
more does the advertising of books ap-
proach that of a cOmmodity-books are
goods to the average dealer which are
to be sold for profit One day recently
1 heard the chance remark: There is
bookseller who actually reads the books
which he recommends or tries to SELL"
but such a man is rare. The publicity
man, of course, reads all of the books
he advertises, but, unfortunately, he
reads these through rose colored glasses
and not with the same critical goggles
as he uses for the imprints of his riv-
ais. 1t is the very fact of the excel
lence OF the art of book publicity, how
ever, which has made book buyers scep-
teal in regard to statements OF the
publishers.
The present week witnessed the grind
ing out of the last few books from
the mills of the publishers far as
spring, 1902, is concerned There has
been perhaps greater abundance of
serious books than in any previous
spring season. A few popular novel
books have been launched since the
present season began. but no one book
has made a great place. Emerson
Hough's The Mississippi Bubble" and
Conan Doyle's 1.-THE Hound Of the
Baskervilles'' have taken the lead. and
there have been many of the last years
books which have kept up good sale.
Through the deaths of Frank Stock
ton Paul l.. Ford and Bret Harte:
American letters has suffered m lateral
loss. Bret Harte, as the pioneer short
story writer, had welded an influence
difficult to estimate. Kipling, who is
still ranked greatest of the clan, ac-
knowledges that he owes much to Bret
Harte. Consciously or otherwise the
same influence worked upon the long
line of short story writer's who have
made fame and fOrtune-not only for
themselves, but for magazine and book
publishers as well-since Harte began.
An authorized life of Bret Harte is
now being prepared by T. E Pember-
ton, dramatic critic of the Birmingham
(Eng.) Post and biographer of numer-
GUS actOrs-Sothern, John Hare, Rob-
ertson, the Kendalls. etc. 1t seems that
Mr.. Pemberton was closely associated
with Mr.. Harte as cola borator in sew
eral dramatic pieces, SO that his selec-
ton as biographer OF Harte may have
been the authors personal choice. 1t
Will be a matter of regret that an An err
life of the west as Harte knew it was
not chosen for the biographical work.
Notwithstanding the fact that Harte
I'D become thoroughly identified with
English manners and customs, 1t was
the early California life which gave
him material for the stories which made
the greatest success for him. Some one
has suggested that Mark Twain would
have been just the man for the place.
He certainly knew the life OF early
California mining camps-he knew
Harte in those days, he continued for
years an intimate acquaintanceship.an
for a considerable time he was a fellow
American transplanted to English soil.
1t has been long time since Kipling
has published anything which may be
called a volume. Kim" might be a
could die and feel sure Of future fame.
but the vast majority of readers who
ever were interested in Kipling hope
that Kim may not be the last Of
course it will not be. A volume of
'Just-So Stories" will be ready shortly,
and as a distinguishing feature many
of the Illustrations will have been done
by the author. Besides this, there is
now published in England paper
which Kipling has written and called a
guide" to the naval review. Kfpling's
long experience on the warships of the
English navy makes him competent to
write of the steel fighters which will
make their peaceful parade on review
during the summer. In one of the July
magazines there appears a story 5y
Kipling. entitled Wireless" in which
Marconi's progress in wireless telegra-
ply is one of the themes.
This new work of Kipling-his book
and short stories-reminds me that not
long ago q verse maker whose name
and faIac will not weight him down
with riches nor yet cause him to be re-
membered long, wrote an attack on
Kipling which purported to be an ac-
count of his passing" There are two
things equally disagreeable-the belit-
Ting of a great man and the hysteria
over him. Kipling has suffered from
both, and yet his greatness has not
been affected nor the quality of his
work injured by either.
Frank T Bullen is going to snend a