The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-08
Five Novels a Day.

Glasgow Evening News.
The Clydes output of ships last year. big
though it was, seems to have been no more
remarkable than the output Of novels by
British novelists in the same period. Over
seventeen hundred novels were poured out
upon the public OF this country in 1902-that
is to say five new novels were published
every day in the year. This is not a record,
for 1t is appreciably lower than in 1898 and
1899. but it is enough to give us pause. Five
new novels every day! Who wrote them?
Who read them? Where are they to be
seen? Let US not forget, further, that this
takes no account Of new editions Of old nov
els. of the vast output of six-penny re-
prints. for instance. The answers to the
questions here propounded may be put
very briefly. Nine-tenths of the writer's Of
these fctions are absolutely unknown out
side the immediate circle of their personal
friends. They are amateurs, dilettanti pure
and simple. who have written sort or
novel just as our daughters. though no art
lists In the professional or any other sense
of the term, are moved to utilize pretty
talent they learned from their drawing
masters, and paint fnoffensive oil plaques
and watercolors for the decoration of their
own boudoirs or the drawing rooms of their
unfortunate friends. Quite respectable men
and women of leisure try their hand at a
novel because 1t looks so easy TO do, and
paper and ink are cheap. There are plenty
of publishers who-for consideration-wiil
print IL for them, and even try to sell it;
but there the matter ends. The novelists
who make living by the production OF
fiction, whose names are more or less Ia
miliar from end of the country to the
other, and whose books are issued with the
imprints Of reputable publishing houses, did
not put out. possibly. more than fifty nov
| els last year.
Who read the FIVE novels per day? The
answer to our first question partly dispOseS
of the second. The bulk of them were not
read by anybody at all in the proper sense
or the term, except by the author and his
uncles and aunts We hear much about the
900 of Hall Game, but never a word
| about the 200 copies that were all that were
ny 15s
Romance of To-Day" Madelaine, poor
dear! has her own copy bound In richly
fooled calf. and a receipt from her publish
| er for Gl2O and a reputation among very
| limited circle of people in Dowanhill of
having written novel or pamphlet or
something of that sort" These are her to-
| tai assets. One blessing Is that If she is
wise she will never do it again. But if she
| is not wiSe-if she has more money than
sense land that Is the case with good
| many ambitious Madelaines)-she will go on
her glorious way adding to the gayety and
| bank accounts of INSCRIPTIONS publishers,
and lining for trunks will remain at low
price heretofore.
| dic tic uNt uONciS. .1ou may ~
| into any booksellers In Glasgow and fail to
| get one of them; he may have heard of
| them (f0r publishers canyassers have won
derful cheek. and will try to push even
| GLORIOUS Girlhood''), but he knows better
| than to stock them. Six copies went to
Madelaine; thirty copies or so went for re-
view to the newspapers-all of which said:
| 1.-THE book Is characterized by good con-
| structive ability and a careful style, and
we look forward to Miss M'Sweeny's future
work with some interest" the statutory
| number of copies went to the national Ii
| braries (whose custodians have our SYM
pathy); Madelaine's uncle forced fifty cop
| les on his business friends who will never
| forgive him so long as they live; the re-
mainder of the edition reposes in the pub
| fishers cellars-catacombs more pathetic
| than any you may find in Rome. All this
does not mean that there is decadence in
| underwriting, Mr. benjamin Swift
has just been asserting The art of the
| novel was never more conscientiously
| practiced or with more constructive skill
or, perhaps-though that is bold saying
with greater success than it is to-day; with
| what conscientiousness, with what skill
with what beauty and success only future
| generations will be in a position to judge.