The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1912-01-06
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How a Famous Publisher Res
oued a Great Classic.
James n. FIeds' story Of ths Way
n Which He Came to Get "The
Scarlet Letter" From Ma
thaniel Hawthorne.
HN II .. EDWARDS.

one ot the great American publish
eFa Of yesterday was James T. Fields
(l8l7Sij OF Boston. AS one accoRnt
Of his life has It. Hts charming per
aonal qualities. hts sympathy, his iib-
erality to all with whom be dealt and
his unquesuoned literary judgment
drew to him most Of the best known
American authors Of the time, and AZ
became the publisher OF I.ongfellow,
Hawthorne, Emerson. Holmes, Whit.
tier and Lowell. beslaes introducing
Tennyson and Browning to American
readers even before their true worth
was recognized In England" Mr.
Fields edited the Atlantic Monthly for
eight years. beginning in 1862, and
the last ten years OF his life he spent
in authorship and lecturing.
In the course Of conversation
had with this distinguished publisher
on the day Of his return from Europe
In 1879 hts last trip across the At
lahticl asked him IT II were true,
az | had heard that he had rescued
the manuscript OF llawthorne's Scar
let Letter from what seemed to be
permanent burial place
Yes" he said, and have alluded
TO that incident in one Of my lee
lures had been to see Hawthorne
at salem; ne was then an officer in
the custom house there, and although
he had done nothing In q literary way
to make him famous. was In hopes
that he might have by him a manu-
script or that | might persuade him
to write something which would be
syailabe for publication He told me
that he had nothing, but just as j
was about to leave he opened a draw
ct and took from It some manuscript
saying to me that he was doubtful
whether It wac worth publishing or
not He also said that he had baen
occupied with it in his leisure mo-
ments while serving as surveyor Of
the port Of Salem
4 tucked the manuscript in my
pocket and took It away with me It
was the manuscript Of the Scarlet
Letter. All the world knows the rest
Of the story. have always felt proud
chat should have been the discoverer
Of that immortal classic.
But said l. u have heard. Mr.
Fields, that you we're SO doubtful
about getting your money back from
the publication OF the romance that
you actually ordered the work to be
stopped aud the types distributed
There was just enough color OF
truth III that report 10 account Tor its
circulation. and yet 1t was very wide
Of the mark" said Mr. Fields. In
those days (1S5O) we often printed
directly from type, not taking the
trouble to stereotype a book After a
few thousand copies OF The Scarlet
Letter had been printed we were so
doubtful about the work becomtng pop
ular. although we were sure that it
would have a good sale among cult
waited people. that we did order the
printer to distribute the types But
the instant the book appeared we
knew that It was to be popular sue.
cess. any publisher can tell by the
feel OF the market whether a book is
d dead failure or not. So we ordered
the printers to reset the copy as rap
idly as possible and the printing Of
additional copies WAS begun IN the
course ol Jew days You can Judge
how accurate our forecast was when
tell YOU that the book sold nearly SIX
thousand corles IN q little over three
I weeks And the fortune and the fame
Of Nathaniel hawthorne were by that
publication secured
Copyright. 1911 by p J Edgards. All
Rights Rescrved)