The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-05-19
MONEY REWARDS OF AUTHORS
Fortunes Derived by Scott, Dumas,
Dickens and Others From Books.

Dickens and Others From Books.
The profits Of successful author
ship has not been confined to the
last ten or fifteen years. Scott re-
ceived his $4,000 for a single
volume at a time when money
went much further than at pres
ent. When disaster came from
outside speculation literary labor
saved him; he earned for his cred
itors nearly 100000 between JAN
uary, 1926, and January, 1928.
The elder Dumas, with S
great name, the system with
which he managed his small army
Of clever collaborators, his willing
ness to sign as many contracts for
romances as contained clauses for
advance payment, is said in his
heyday to have pocketed and
squandered annually 800, 900
francs, vet he was often without
twenty francs of ready morey at
his disposal.
BalZaC made enormous sums
from the novels Of the "Comedie
Humane" vet to the end he was
weighted with debts, due to his
visionary financial schemes. In
the POS Of the last century Eugene
Sue received 100, 900 francs from
the serial rights of The Wander
ing Jew"
OF the moderns, Alphonse
Daudet passed the last of his life
in comfort. Emile lola put the
story of his literary earnings into
his residence at MedaI, making
an addition named for and paid
for by each successful work.
Flaubert fortunately inherited
money, as he did not make much
from his writing. Du Maupassant
earned from 2S, 900 to 80, 900 francs
year, not great deal when one
considers that he was counted a
big seller" This was at a rate
of two or three cents a word for
the serial rights.
Dickens at his death left an es-
tate valued at LIoo, 900, though
he was a man of eXtravagant hab-
its in money matters. 1t is
reckoned that he earned three
times that sum during the thirty
odd years Of his successful literary
work.
Although Thackeray never
commanded ANYTHING like the
money his contemporary did
having no more than sixteen years
of decided suCcess-he was able to
live in luxury and left to his chill
dren an estate equivalent to that
which he himself had int erited
and squandered in his younger
days. He received only 100 gum
cas- apiece for the essays later col
lected as the Roundabout Papers
and LIooo for Henry Esmond. "
When Conan Doyle, a practicing
! physician, wrote "A Study in
Scarlet the first introduction OF
Sherlock Holmes, a story of 5000
words-after peddling it about
from publisher to publisher, he
succeeded in selling it for LI4, at
the rate of 81 a thousand words.
In his latest work he received as
much single word as was former
lv paid him for the thousand, get
ting sixty cents a word for the
American serial rights alone. Sew
enty thousand pounds probably
represents the sum the Sherlock
Holmes books, together with the
play, have brought the author.
The greater part of the work OF
Rudyard Kipling was produced i'll
the days OF his obsCurity, When
some of his finest stories went beg
ging for $50 apiece, and although
he now commands the highest
rates, of late years he has pro-
duced but little. For the serial
rights of Kim" in England and
this county he received k5ooo.
He has accumulated a comfortable
fortune and that is all
Thomas Hardy and George
Meredith do not head the list OF