The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-04-16
CHRONICLE AND
COMMENT
By ARTHUR BARTLETT MAURICE.


parity in material return to Conan
Doyle from "A Study in Scarlet"
for which he was paid at the rate
of less than a farthing a word, and
from vastly inferior stories about
Shelock Holmes, for which he re-
ceived sums amounting approx
mately to So a word. Conan Doyle's
Is not an exceptional case. 1t has
been the experience of most
authors to be paid pitifully for
their best work and to draw large
monetary returns from work of far
poorer quality. Kipling, for ex-
ample, now commands something
like $4,000 for the magazine rights
of short story. Yet when he was
the Man from Nowhere, in the late
eighties of. the last century, he was
selling such magnificent tales as
s'The Man Who Would Be King"
"The Drums of the Fore and Aft"
without Benefit of Clergy" and
"Wee Willie Wrinkle" for less than
500 apiece, and having difficulty
in selling them at that.
1T is always an interesting sub
l. ject, that of the author and his
earnings from his pen. What Mil
ton received for Paradise Lost
what Goldsmith was paid for the
manuscript of 1.-THE Vicar of Wake
field" and Murger for Scenes de
la Vie de Boheme" are significant
points of literary history. To be
explicit, Milton was given f5 down
for Paradise Lost" with prom
Use of another f5 when the first
edition was exhausted, DIR. John
son, being a shrewd business man
in his day, who, were he living in
our time and land, would probably
be conspicuous in the councils of
the Authors League of America,
nagged a publisher until the latter
agreed to give Goldsmith EGO for
the Vicar" and Murger. for that
charming book which great
French critic has called "the first
chapter in the code of life," re-
ceived the sum of $40.
EoR the sake of swift contrast
i consider the other extreme of
the matter. Tennyson is said to have
received $4,000 from an American
periodical for the poem Crossing
the Bar" and is believed to have
ruined several publishers through
his exactions. The Jove-like Hugo,
as adept as Tennyson in driving a
hard bargain, obtained huge sums
for his verse. Longfellow made the
writing of verse very much worth
while, and Kipling has been doing
the same for a matter of twenty
five years. There is saying that
poetry doesn't pay" YetNthe most
highly rewarded bit of creative
writing in all history is a poem.
Some years ago it was estimated
that from all the editions James
Whitcomb Riley had received what
amounted to $500 a word for IAN
Old Sweetheart, of Mine"
DUT the successful novel is the
II greatest aggregate money
winner. In the city Of indianapolis
there stood for many years, and
probably is standing to-day, huge
apartment building called the
Blacherene. 1t is popularity better
known as the "Ben-Hur apart
ments'' for the reason that it was
erected from part of the profits
that Gen. Lew Wallace derived
from his famous romance. Foul
thousand miles away from Indian
apolis there is another building
that attests the earning capacity o.
the novel. That is the house which
Emile lola built for himself a
Medan. 1t is an erratic structure
composed of several towers. There
is for example a Mana Tower
and a "L'Assommoir Tower" eacl
representing an addition erectet
from part of the royalties derivet