Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-04
aaliseellansuus 8eaaing.
OLD BOOKS STILL SELL BEST.
Bible First on the List, Shakespeare
Second.

classics if you will, outsell any hundred
new books. The genuine best sellers
if any long period is considered, art
not new favorites but old.
After the daring young lady has writ
ten a book that her mother shouldnr
let her read and has drawn her royal
ties from a sale of $4,000, 100000, 15O''
900 copies in a year the public looks fol
a new sensation, but the books tina,
were classics before the daring young
Young lady was born go right on SELL
ing. 1t is the hare and the tortoise al
over again, only the sleep that over
takes the novel Of the year Is apt tc
be a sleep that knows no waking.
Shakespeare outsells his great mod
ern rival George Bernard Shaw, not
only every ten years but every year
and probably every month in the year
In fact Shakespeare, If all the Engnsr
speaking countries are considered, Is
about the best seller going except the
English Bible. Editions Of Shakespeare
are like hotels in New York, 1t seems
impossible to get too many Of them.
Long after Washington Irvins's copy
rights ran out his works were still the
most profitable books on the list of his
publishers. In fact Irvings earlier
works underwent death and resurrec-
ton while he himself yet lived.
When in 1S46 Irving returned from a
long residence in Europe his Philadel-
phia publishers told him that his books
were out of print and they did not care
to undertake new editions. The plates
were bought by New York house, 1r-
wing went on writing, and between his
new books and his old his royalties In
the next dozen years until his death
amounted to about s250,00O. The sale of
his books Of the fifty years since his
death at Irvington in November, 1853,
has never greatly tagged for long, and
the sale of the most popular among
them has been enormous. RIP Van
Wrinkle" was one Of the best sellers OF
the nineteenth century, and it promises
to be one Of the best Of the twentieth.
There are a few great novels OF the
last century that would enrich IN ten
years any publisher who could have a
monopoly Of their publication. IVAN
hoe" is one of these. "The Scarlet Let
ter" is another. Anybody can publish
Hawthorne now, but his original pub
fishers go right on selling his works
singly and in sets almost as II ne were
alive and still writing.
THE Pickwick Papers" sell better
than any recent humorous work and
David Copperfield" has been selling
steadily for sixty years. There are
those who prophesy that "Pickwick"
will be popular when most other prose
fiction of the last century has gathered
dust upon the library shelves. Hardly
any other book by a youth Of 25 has
had such a success for so long a per-
iod, now more than seventy years.
Publishers are making ready for a
squirt in the sale Of Dickens's works at
his centennial in 1912.
Thackeray, whose centennial comes
a year earlier, wrote nothing that has
had the steady sale Of "Pickwick."
though VANITY Fair" is still a best
seller. Cocpers Misunderstanding 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 today in cheap, gaudily
covered French paper bound editions,
Just as you may have some Of Haw-
thorne's New England stories in an
Italian popular edition bearing the tt
tie" Racconti del Farwest." The
French "Pickwick," 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 a few old favorites OF the
last and of earlier generations. Not to
go beyond the middle Of the last CEN
tury, Alice in Wonderland" few OF
Louisa Alcott's books and the best OF
Uncle Rcmus never yield long to the
popularity of a new juvenile. Hans
Brinkler' also outsells the new books
Treasure Island" won place on the
permanent juvenile list long before Ste
venson's death. Uncle Toms Cabin
used to be a prime favorite with young
folks north Of Mason and Dixon's line,
but within a very few years its popu-
larity has much fallen off so that 1t NO
longer ranks as a best seller.
The somewhat capricious college en-
trance requirements have kept alive foI
years an artificial demand for some
books that young people do not really
love. No girl or boy Of 16 ever volun-
tarily read either Dryden's "Absalom
and Achitophel' or Burkes Speech on
conciliation with America" yet thou
sands Of both have been sold yearly be-
cause boys and girls had to read them
in order to get into college. "Absalom
and Achitophel" has been dropped from
| the requirements by a recent revision
but Burke's speech still holds its place
The college entrance requirements
alone have created a demand for few
genuine favorites and for good many
excellent things that only girls ano
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 tc
read, so that the little group Of profes-
sors and schoolmasters that determine
this matter fix the reading of you'll
the whole country over and incidental
ly make best sellers of a good many
things that would naturally cut nj
great figure in competition with thu
lure of current fiction.
There are a few old American favor
ties not fiction that in any considera'
BILE span of years outsell the new nov
els. One uf these is Thoreau's "Wald
en-" In the last forty years 1t has out
SOLD most Of the new nature books, ant
its popularity is increasing year b!
year. Walden" indeed keeps alive th
1 VI. 1N-