Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-11


amid great bodily suffering at times to
complete the work he had undertaken.
But he was as game in literary endeay-
or as he had been brave and deter
mined upon the battlefield, and sue
ceeded in laying the foundation for the
comfortable fortune that his family
now enjoys. In the one check given to
Mrs. Grant the amount called for was
S200,444
Every wide user of books is impressed
with the fact that England is Tar
ahead of the United States in the art
of making books. To begin with, the
average English book weighs but lit
tie more than one-ha1f as much as the
American book of the same size. This
is due to the superiority of the paper
entering into them. In America the
paper is mainly Of the glazed variety,
more than half its weight being made
up Of clays and other glazing ma
terials. In the second place, the Eng
lish bindings are better than Ameri-
can bindings of the same class II Is
also asserted that the ink used is OF
higher grade 1t has never been esti-
mated what proportion Of the printed
books of today will be readable hun
dred years from now, but in the case
of handwriting, ink experts declare
that it is doubtful if more than one
hftieth of 1'per cent of the ink used
in writing today will be visible at the
end of hundred years. -
There are fashions and fads in the
book trade as we'll as in every other
branch of industry. The newest idea
is the who's Who" publication. There
are now dozens of these, and the or
ganization or profession that has not
a who's Who" to represent it is hum
BILE indeed There are who's Who"
for the lawyers, the doctors, the preach
ers, for nearly everybody and the book
seller finds no inconsiderable demand
for them.
A recent suit gave the world an in
sight into some of the profits of former
President Roosevelt from his writings
certain publisher was to supply a
well known woman booklover with an
edition de luxe of Mr.. Roosevelt's
works. It was to be bound in genuine
elephant skin, printed from type and
not from plates and to contain original
etchings. What she. got did not come
up to these specifications in any par
ticular. She sued the publisher, and.
in the hearing of the case it was
brought out that he had sold four linn
tied editions of Rooseveit's works, 1926
sets in all, and had realized $775,250 for
them, of which Mr.. Roosevelt's share
was S155,050.
One of the greatest enemies of books
is the bookworm. There are a num-
Der of varieties, in which the human
kind is not now included. They attack
the books in different ways. Some of
them go through the inside of a book
as a mole goes through a vegetable
garden. Others eat the paste in the
binding. Sometimes libraries freeze
them by putting the books in cold stor-
age for awhile Others heat the books
to $50 degree Fahrenheit, at which tenn
perature no worm that has taste for
things literary can survive. Germany
has now come along with a filler for a
long-felt want with machine which
1t is claimed will shake the pests to
death without the slightest injury to
the books.
There is no fad that has f1rmer
hold on its votary than book collecting
has on the bibliophile. One of them
stated recently that he would rather
spend an evening at a book auction
than with the president of the United
States or the king of England. At
recent auction in New York a copy of
the first edition of Isaac Walton's
"Compleat Angler" published in Lon
don in 1868, brought $780, At this sale
there were not fewer than 1877 different
editions of the "Compleat Angler" rep
resented. The rare volume, made so
because there are so few in existence,
or because 1t was once owned by some
famous parsonage, is always in demand,
and booklovers will cross the ocean for
a chance to bid on some of them at
public auction.
The whole publishing world is on the
lookout for the new author. Too often
in past generations has the great liter
airy light had to go from pillar to post
in quest of a publisher Remembering
these things, the average publisher is
given to hospitality toward authors, in
the hope that he may entertain an
angel unawares. He'is always watch
ing out for the opportunity to dis
cover" a new literary star of the first
magnitude. Motley's experience with
his Dutch Republic" shows what may
happen to a publisher. In all London
he was not able to find a publisher to
bring out his book. Then he published
it at his own expense-a thing few
authors can do-and it became very
popular Afterward he enjoyed that
delectable experience of having the first
publisher who had turned him down
come and beg him for all he would
write.
Publishers everywhere take hope
full view of the future, and that means
prosperity for the bookseller. OF the
making of books there is indeed no
end, and the world is buying more of
them with each passing year. The de-
cline of illiteracy, the awakening in
tellectually of the people of the rural
districts, the pioneering influence of
the daily newspaper, which is going to
tens of thousands of homes today into
which it had never gone year before
in short, a hundred influences are at
work broadening and lettering the
minds of the people, and 1t spells new
prosperity, new success and greater
fields for the publisher and the book
seller.
! Copyright. 1906, by Frederic J. Haskin.)
would support a movement toward leg
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