The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-10-27
Frederic Haskins Lettel
Making School Books.

paused to smile over the FAM, :.
school children now have NAV, \.
tory to assimilate than vhss ~
pored over dates and battlss
did you ever think Of the srs.
book producer who has to k..s
with the wandering bounds ~
Europe and reduce the Worls
to a few pages of text in lass,.u
suitable for children. ma
know, for instance, that ths u
progressive publishers are ~.
their Biographies practicallv
written since the war in ora.
bring, not only the maps, hrt 4
text up te date?
Revising the Mana
An editor of the firm refsr,.,.
in this story says that his coms.u
spent about 100000 before :
gle copy Of its newest eeos,,ss
could be printed. Now the ~
being run of the presses az rss;ss
as possible, and the firm cannc y
gin to fill the demand for II
Producing schoolboohs "a
many ways entirely differsnt A.
publishing fiction. A best ss,,s
novel that would require Al y
vestment Of three or four tho.....
dollars and sell for 81 Z COW ~
boom Of a few months ana A.
sizxles down to cheap edition. n.
soon fades out of sight ana -
cry. The returns are immeS;.,.
and brief, and the author /, NJ
expected to grind out a new NJ.
tefpiece.
The initial cost of history ,ush
as is used in highschools, on n.
other hand. is over five tine, !.
much, and a geography Is time, !.
much, as the novel, because Of num
erous maps and illustrations. Yu
the price of the textbook is simi.
lar to that of the novel or less IN
the case of an up.to-date rso-
graphy. which just now would h. !,
best seller, the large outlay mini
be quickly Offset by sales, but N
the ordinary run of things, it is !,
year or more before a textbook b..
gins to pay for itself. Then. n
brings in to its author and the pab.
Usher steady returns for five Year.
or possibly 25, according to lb
lasting qualities. That is, q nru
reader is apt to be popular oaly ,
few years because new methods d
teaching reading are constantly h.
ing worked out. A mathematiu
book 10 more likely to have q loal
and prosperous existence. TN
Wentworth algebras and othu
mathematical works by the san,
author have been on the market 70,
years. and perhaps 40 Of them u,
best sellers now.
The Wentworth books are one d
the notable successes of the telt
book history. When George
Wentworth was a young teacher d
Exeter Academy, So years ago, h
spent his nights working on te1t
book Of geometry. He succeeded Il
! publishing this. and Immediate,
started work on an algebra. Il
time, he was so busy writing book
that he gave up teaching entirely
Later, his son, who grew up to b
a mathematical scholar, assists
him, and this son still has his hand
full revising their long list
works and writing new ones !
meet the demands of changin
courses of study.
When Wentworth published hi
first book he was an unknox
| teacher who simply was vrappe
up in mathematics and possesse
the faculty Of putting his theorie
and mathematical processes
logical arrangement and clear lar
guage. Special interest in . ut
ject and mastery Of the mechasit
| Of textbook writing are the ma
qualifications of any succesdl
author of schoolbooks. &
An editor here tells US that y
| house is always looking for g.
material, irrespective of the y
thor's status. Most of the peop
who write schoolbooks are teaei
ers, he says. Some teach
backwoods country schoolhousa
others are university professor
They have felt the lack OF goo
textbook on some subject, or U!
have found a better way OF teacl
ing it, and out of their e1perlen'
come the manuscripts which ofll
en- many advances in enuCaUOn.