The San Francisco call., 1905-01-15
TASTE
OF Residing Public

- OCCASIONALLY the publishers
are willing to unpurden their
~ editorial consciences of some
of the secrets of the trade and
to pass comment upon the present
taste and possible future demands
of the reading public OF course
they do this with the business-like ass
surance that what they have publish
ed and what they intend to publish
will just suit the finical literary palate,
but then we must remember that the
public is the final judge and that the
promised good things of the publishers
may fly as wide of the mark as the
representations made on the future
literary demand. Here are some Of
the publishers prophecies. 1t will not
be uninstructive to read them and
store them away for future reference.
MCCLURE. PHILLIPS & CO.-Fic-
tion, as usual, comprises the main part
of the books published now and there
seems to be no radical change in either
subject or treatment. AS to public taste.
it is our opinion that people go on
very much as they have been doing
of late years in their choice Of reading
matter. There is one new note in the
scale of publications which will be
sounded in 1905 and one which is a
response to the tendency Of the time,
and that Is a book on the movement
to the country. This will appeal par
ticularly to people who live in the
country, and as country life Is becom-
ing more ana more popular with us
there is every reason to believe that
E. p. Powel's "The Country Home"
which will be followed by THE Or
chard and the Fruit Garden and "Tha
Vegetable Garden" will form an at
tractive and popular series of practical
books without being too technical for
the intellectual public.
The book of merit, tho book Of real
worth, stands just as good q chance to-
day as 1t ever did. The production Of
books, especially fiction. has been very
large-that is. speaking only of the
number Of titles; it has. In fact. been
far above the demand, so that the ten
dency now on the part of publishers is
to bring out fewer books. Last year
our production was 25 per cent less
than the preceding year. Publishers
select more carefully now. New books
that promise interest to the public are
new stories of Sherlock Holmes. book
of political short stories by Booth
Harrington, story Of modern business
life by Mrs. Keays. and book by Mrs.
Cutting. So far as we know, there is
no dark horse in our list
-
d. APPLETON & Coin the choice
of books the public is growing more
and more discriminating. The tremen-
dous selling book is thing of the past,
unless, of course, some really great
writer should spring up. The time is
ripe for the appearance of such an au-
thor, but, as we all know, greatness
doesn't make its appearance when you
are looking for 1t.
A book we feel confident the public
will read is with the Heroes of Dixie
being the diary Of Mary Boykin Ches-
nut, who was close TO the wife of JEFF
ferson Davis. The book deals with the
four years of the Civil War. There is
at present great interest manifested in
literature about the South. and stories
as well as historical books of the war
are a marked feature of current litera-
ture.
A unique book we are to bring out in
the spring is called "Tuskegee and It's
People" the achievements and ideals.
with autobiographies. of sixteen gradu-
yates Of the school.
HARPER & BROTHERS.-There is
a marked tendency toward the publica-
tion of more serious books. like his
tory, science and-please don't laugh
poetry. We shall be doing one his
tory of the United States in one vol