The sun., 1909-05-23
|nTD BOOKS STILL SELL BEST
,,r FIRST ON THE LIST,
SB.KESPEARE SECOND.
s,..d, DENT and FOR Irving. Dickens, Haw-
,hsrne. while the Best Seller Of
yesr AGO Is sForgotten-Childr Stick
% the old Favorites-POpuiar Poets.


w" 10" long period is considered, are not
"a, favorites but old.
If,er the daring young lady has writ
-, book that her mother shouldn't
". ~ ,sr read and has drawn her royalties
va ma sale Of SC, 900. 100 900, 10000 copies
Nv year the public looks for new SEN
'.,n hut the books that were classics
lore ~ the daring young lady was born
'. reht on selling. 1t is the hare and the
.S,tose all over again, only the sleep that
'.srtakes the novel Of the year Is apt to
"a sleep that knows no waking.
shakespeare outsells his great modern
,ral George Bernard Shaw, not only
msy ten years but every year, and
.,ohabIy every month in the year. In
r., Shakespeare, IL all tho English speak
~. countries are considered, Is about
M best seller going except the English
nhle, Editions Of Shak kespeare are Like
ho.ls in New York. 1t seems impossible
N ret too many Of them.
long after Washington Irving's copy
1sbts ran out his works were still the
mat profitable books on the list Of his
,ublishers. In fact Irving's earlier works
underwent death and resurrection while
\. himself vet lived.
When in ls4e Irving returned from long
,ssidence in Europe his Philadelphia pub
bsbers told him that his books were out
n print and that they did not care to
undertake. new editions. The plates were
bought by New York house, Irving went
IN writing, and between his new books
and his old his royalties in the next dozen
! ,srs until his death amounted to about
10000. The sale Of hisbooks for the fifty
,ssrs since his death at Irvington In No
rsnber, 1859, has never greatly tagged
brlong, and the sale Of the most popular
,nong them has been enormous. rip
Van Winkle' was one Of the best sellers
Of the nineteenth century, and Il promises
10 Be one OF the best Of the twentieth
There are few great novels of the
lst century that would enrich 10 ten
Years any publisher who could have a
monopoly OF their publication. 'Ivanhoe'
ia one OF these. THE Scarlet Letter.
b another. Any body can publish Haw-
thdrne now. but his original publishers
20 right on selling his works singly and
in sets almost as IL he were alive and still
writing.
The Pick wick Papers sells better than
any recent humorous work and David
Copperfeld' has been selling steadily
for sixty years. There are those who
prophesy that -Pickwick- will be popular
wnen most other prose fiction OF the
last century has gathered dust upon the
library shelves, Hardly any other book
by a youth of rs has had such a success
for so long a period, now more than sew
er,y years. Publishers are making ready
for spurt in the sale OF Dickens's works
4, his centennial in 1912.
Thackeray. whose centennial comes q
year earlier. wrote nothing that has had
the steady sale OF -Pickwick.' though
y 'anity Fair is still a best seller.
Cooper's ,Lsatherstocking Tales have
never ceased to sell both at home and
abroad. and many thousands Of them
are. called for every year. You may
buy them to-day in cheap, gaudily COW
cred French paper bound editions. just
as you may have some OF Hawthorne's
New England stories in an Italian popu-
lar edition bearing the title. -Racconti
del Farwest.' The French Pick wick.
by the way. in two small paper bound
volumes, is a thing to make the admirers
OF Dickens rub their eyes.
No current new books for children long
outsell few old favorites Of the last and
Of earlier generations. Not to go beyond
the middle Of the last century. Alice in
Wonderland" few OF Louisa Alootts
books and the best Of Uncle Remus never
yield long to the popula pity OF a new
juvenile. Hans Brinker' also outsells
the new books. Treasure Island" won
place on the permanent juvenile list
long before Stevenson's death. Uncle |
Toms Cabin" used to be q prime favorits |
with young folks north Of Mason and
nion's line. but within q very few years
it's popularity has much fallen Of so that |
it 90 longer ranks as best seller.
The somewhat capricious college en-
trance requirements have kept alive for
years an artificial demand for some books
that young people do not really love. No
girl or boy of 10 ever voluntarily read |
either Dryden's A bsalom and Achitopbsl'
or Burke's Speech on Cancellation with |
America, yet thousands OF both have been
sold yearly because boys and girls had TO
read them in order to get into college.
Absalom and Achitophel" has been
dropped from the requirements by q re-
cent revision. but Burke's speech still
holds its place.
The college entrance requirements alone
have created demand for a few genu-
Inc favorites and for good many excel
lent things that only girls and boys OF
unusual taste voluntarily read. As the
preparatory course in English is now laid
out the indicated reading provides about
as much good literature as most boys and
girls find time to read, SO that the little
srosp of professors and schoolmasters
that determine this matter fix the read
ing OF youth the whole country over and
Incidentally make best sellers of good
many things that would naturally cut no
great figure in competition with the lure
oi current fiction
There are few old American favorites
no' fiction that in any considerable span
ol years outsell the new novels. One OF ,
Ihese Is Thoreau's Walden" In tho
asi forty years it has outsold most Of
lhe new nature books. and its popularity
4 increasing year by year. Walden
indeed keeps alive the interest in several
n ihoreau's less popular books.
One of the most astonishing things in
letters is the steady sale for
iearIy seventy years Of simple matter
d iact narrative, Dana's two Years I