The New York herald., 1922-06-11
"Best Sellers" of Old.

II h@s SshAhAhS SdoC III pUlUl Is Tile
~ work of Cowper's friend, Hay
ley, which was almost as successful
as that of Cowper himself. He was
making his bid for fame at the
time of the publication of 'aTintern
Abbey" and THE Ancient Mariner"
OF these poems less than five hun
dred copies were sold; but Hayley's
"Triumphs of Temper" of which no
reader of this article probably re-
members single line, ran through
twelve editions and brought its au-
thor "a cordial declaration from a
good and sensible mother of large
family that she was truly indebted
to the work in question for an alb
solute and delightful reformation
in the conduct and character of her
eldest daughter" Nor is this in
stance an isolated one; nor do the
critics and those who should have
known better appear to have done
much to correct the instructive ver-
dict of the general reader" A
world which neglected Sbelley's
"Odes" delighted in the sugar of
Letitia Landon; while the most
successful poets of the year in
which Lyrical Ballads" appeared
were Charlotte Smith and William
Bowles. The latter may be remem-
bered because Byron satirized him;
but the former is forgotten and
the works of reference have little
to say about her sonnets except
that they were 'lachrymose." Yet
they ran through nine editions, and
Coleridge had good word to say
for them, and list of the subscrib-
ers to the illustrated edition in
cludes the names of the Archbishop
Of Canterbury, Cowper. Charles
James Fox, Horace Walpole, Mrs.
Siddons and both the Wartons.-
From the London Times.
The Secret of the BEST Seller"
TT is an interesting pastime for
L critics who have no more popu-
larity than would go into a card
case to read popular novels with
the bright idea Of extracting the
wonderful secret of being a best
seller. Net that anything could be
done with the clew if it were found;
though it never is found. One
might as well pray for a revelation
of the secret of Mr.. Selfridge, in
the hope that a large shop might
be opened with it; if we had a
dozen such secrets of success We
could do nothing with them. except
take them with us to the bank
ruptcy court as proof OF our pious
intent. AS to the clew to the popu-
larity of the novel / have been
reading, one important judge, a
lady, declares that it is to be found
in the fact that its hero shows the
finest qualities of a man. Well,
certainly he was good natured
fellow, but he was also fool be-
yond the point when ignorance is
merely amusing: he went as far as
being an anxiety to his friends.
He was strong in moral courage,
but his critical intelligence had not
developed out of the boyish stage of
enthusiastic curiosity over the
facts about him, so that he was
happy in merely contemplating
them, and made no attempt to re
late and resolve them. Naturally
therefore, like a nice boy, he was
always getting into a mess, for he
did not know what things were,
and appeared unable to learn. His
wife, one is not surprised to hear.
used to laugh at him.-FroHl the
London AthendeEm.
The Energy of Marie Bashkirtsef.
TT is said that the new portions
l. of the journal are more in
innate and revealing than the old.
They will. at all events, give an in
dependent outlook on art and life
from one who, when she was a girl
of Is. was bold enough to speak of