The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-10
THE BOOKSELLERS MEET
sY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

truth Is indeed stranger than fiction. and
are making 1t their favorite reading An
other circumstance conducive to this
cndnge Is tie new class of scientific writ
ers which has come into existence in late
years. Instead of discussing their sub
lects IN that cold. uninterestinC and un-
attractive way that characterized the
writer's on scientific subjects a generation
ago, they have grasped the human inter
est phase Of scientific matters and are
able TO present il in a way that is pal
atable TO the mind OF the reader, be he
one VINO reads Tor recre alton or for inf0r-
/ nation But particularly IS young Amer
lea Observation-Disclosures from the yellow
| PACK novel and cheap detective story TO
science.
Publishers pay good authors some rather
large sized fortunes for their books. but
II Is said that the largest single check
ever drawn by publisher in settlement
or an account Of an author was drawn
/ by Charles .. Webster. payable 70 Mrs
l. ) Grant on account of the royalties
received from the sale OF the memoirs
OF her distinguished husband Having lost
practically everything he had i'm some I'M
fortunate financial alliances General
Grant found himself almost iu a dying
Cohallion with nothing TO leave to his
FAMILY. With the strong urgings of ne
cessity upon him. he had to work amid
great bodily suffering at times to COM
plete the work he had undertaken. But
ne was as game in literary endeavor as
/ ne had been brave and determined upon
the battlefield and succeeded in laying
the foundation for the comfortable for
tune that his family now enjoys In the
one check given TO Mrs Grant the amount
called for was S200. Az
Every wide user Of books is impressed
with the fact that England is far ahead
OF the United states in the art Of book
making. To begin with. the average Eng
| lish book weighs but little more than one
| half rs much as the American book of
the same size. This is due to the superb
ority Of the paper entering into them. IN
2 s. M #Hnrn
variety. more than half its weight being
made up Of C1ays and other glazing ma
teTials. In the second place. the English
| bindings are better than American bind
lngs of the same class. II is also as
serted that the ink used is of q higher
grade. IT has never been estimated what
proportion OF the printed books Of to-
day will he readable a hundred years
from now, but in the case Of handwriting.
ink experts declare that Il is doubtful IL
more than one-fftieth Of ] per cent Of
| the ink used in writing today viii be Wis
ibte at the end of a hundred years.
There are fashions and fads in the book
trade as well IS in every other branch
of industry. The newest idea is the
Who's Who publication. There are now
dozens OF these, and the organization or
profession that has not a Who's Who to
represent IL is humble indeed. There are
Who's Who's for the lawyers. the doc
tors. the preachers. for nearly every
body. and the bookseller finds no inconsid-
era BILE demand for them.
a recent suit gave the world an insight
into some of the profits Of ex-President
Roosevelt from his writings. 4 certain
publisher was to supply a well known
woman booklover with an edition de luxe
of Mr.. ROOsevelt's works. tt was TO be
bound i'm genuine elephant skin. printed
from type and not from plates. and to con-
tain original etchngs. What she got did
not come up to these specifications in any
particular. She sued the publisher, and
in the hearing of the case e was brought
out that he had sold four limited edi-
tons Of ROOseVelt's works. /. 226 sets in all.
and had realized S175,250 for them. Of which
Mr. ROOsevelts share was Si5505
One Of the greatest enemies of books
is the boOkw0rm. There are q number