The Washington herald., 1914-06-26
HISTORY BUILDERS.
What Wa. Paid for he cad sehurz
Memoirs.
lWntten eapsss1lT fnr M Hs1Idl
BY DIR. Z. ,. EDWARDS.

II
Shortly after the publication Of the
\ fact that the late Carl schnrz had prae-
fiealiy completed his memoirs before he
l was Frustrated by what proved to be his
last illness. I was told by q publisher
that probably the largest price ever paid
for book Of memoirs was the one
! which Samuel 8. Mcclure, at that time
editor Of McClure's Magazine. offered
and paid for the Schurz memoirs.
Furthermore. was told that the
| amount was the largest ever paid. at
| least in the United States. for the right
OF magazine publication OF any memoirs.
I happened to meet Mr.. Mcclure few
weeks after this statement was made to
me. and ventured to ask him IL he were
at liberty to tell me whether or not this
report we're correct
II will tell you the story Of the way In
which / secured the Schurz memoirs"
Mr.. Mcclure answered. but cannot
say. because do not know. whether the
payment made for these memoirs was
the largest ever made by an American
magazine publisher for work Of that
kind.
1T wasn't nearly as large as the
amount paid to John Morley for writing
the biography of Gladstone When I was
in England recently was told that Nor
ley received $1,000 for writing that book
mot excessive pay in view Of the fact
that the work occupied Mr.. Morley ex-
clusively for about two years and a half
That, however. was not published serial
ly in a magazine. There were two conn
petitors in the market for the Schur1
memoirs. / was one and Mr. Glider, the
editor OF the Century Magazine, was the
other. We began by bidding against
each other. and have no doubt that the
representatives Of Carl schurz were glad
that there was competition Of this kind.
When ! offered $4,000 Mr.. Glider went me
5000 better. ! made a bid considerably
higher than his, and SO we went on see
saving. each Of US naming a larger
amount than the other had done. until
the total represented an unprecedented
figure. at least in my experience
when Mr.. elders. bid got as high as
$4,000 I raised the amount to $4,000. and
that bid gave me the contract. for Mr.
Glider did not deem it prudent to go
higher.
1T was provided. however, in the con-
tract that the payment should be made
in this way: Fifteen thousand dollars
for so much Of the work as would con-
stitute one volume when published in
book form, and $4,000 for so much as
would constitute the second volume, and
$4,000 for so much as would constituts
the third and final volume. That made
upon to pay more than SO 600, because no
third volume was issued
1T would be impossible to say whether
our magazine got our money back on
this investment There were no appre-
ciable increases in circulation because of
this publication, but It may be the fact
that the publication served to maintain
the circulation OF the magazine. As
told you, cannot say whether this was
the largest aunOIpf raFd .
magazine publication OF the memoirs or
"reminiscences Of an American. but am
inclined to think that IT was. I am Ger
tain that the publication Of memoirs
serially is far more advantageous fnan-
cially than original publication in book
form"
tCOpyrEht, 1874. By z J. EdvErdA An riEhs -
serSed.l
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards viii tell Of
Commodore Vanderbilt as q Money
Lander