The sun., 1919-09-07

dieme Of Mr.. TARKNeroNs ConQusst Of Csnoss,
e. many times greater than that Of Mr.. DRE1sER's

Sister Carrie. A moment's reflection win show
that this is inevitable since these instructive desires
Of are many resistless forces exerted stimuli
taneousy ON MS and combining, in period of years,
to make single resultant force impelling MS to
lead normal sane, healthy and wholesome lives.
On such lives, lived by the vast majority of men
and women everywhere the security Of every form
of human society depends indeed, the continued
existence of man ON the face Of the earth is de-
pendent upon them.
You may say that Rousseau, CEIIdNI MARIE
BAsHKRTsEFF, even FRANKLIN and HENRY ADAMS,
led existences far from normal. The answer is that
we accept the stories of their lives in fact where
Tor most Of us) would never accept them in fiction.
We know that these lives were lived; and the very
circumstance that they were abnormal lives makes
us more eager to know about and understand them.
What most of MS care for most is such recital as
HAGN GARrAND's a Son of the Middle Border.
The secret Of the influence Of the life Of ABRAHAM
LINCOLN upon the American mind and the secret
Of the appeal made by THEODORE RoosBvELT, the
man, to his countrymen in general during his life
time, are actually one and the same-the triumph
q normsi Gives, lived normally, lived up to the hilt
and cvershadowing almost everything else contem-
porary with them. Such men vindicate common
lives, however humbly lived. We see, as in an
apocalyptic vision, what one of us may become; and
all Of rs share in his greatness
On the Hour.
But perhaps the greatest element-in predetermin.
ing the possible audience for non-fction book
is its timeliness. Important, often enough, in the
case of particular novels, the matter of tmeliness
is much more so with all other books soever It
cannot be overlooked in autobiography; The Edu-
cation of Henry Adams attracted great host Of
H. =.
sible to them in 1913 and not in 1913 or 1929. In
1918 and 1919 the minds of men were peculiarly
troubled. Especially about education. H. G.
WELLS was articulating the disastrous doubts that
beset numbers of us, first in ocn0nd Peter with its
subtitle The Story OF an Education, drawing up an
Indictment which, whatever its bias distortion and
unfairness, yet contained lot of terrible truth;
and then, in The Undying FIRE, dedicated "to all
schoolmasters and schoolmistresses and every
teacher in the world returning to the subject but
this time constructively. Yes, large number of
persons were thinking about education in 1888,
and the ironcal attitude of HENRY ADAMS toward
his'n was of keenest interest to them
We have discussed the internal factor which
makes for big sale in books rather sketchily be-
cause, as whole, book publishers can tell it when
they see it (all that is necessary even though it
may puzzle authors who haven t mastered it. So
factor can, in many instances, be mastered The
enterprise is not different from developing a re-
tentive memory, skill over an audience in public
speaking but, with both these achievements, no
short cut is really possible and advice and sugges-
ton (you can honestly call it Instruction. can go
but a little way. No end of nonsense has been
uttered ON the subject of what it is in books that
makes them sell well, and nonsense will not cease
to be uttered about it while men write What is
of vastly more consequence than any effort to ex-
plot the internal factor in best sellers is the failure
to make every book published sell its best. If, IN
general, books sell not more than one-quarter the
number of copies they should sell, an estimate to
which we adhere, then the immediate and largest
gain to publishers authors and public will be in
securing 100 per cent. sales.
THE BEST OF THEIR KIND.