Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-25
Continued From Third Page }

Continued From Third Page
Arthur" I am told, too by some Of
the dealers that more copies each year
are sold of the Had and odyssey for
boys and girls than of all the adult
the children are keeping alive.
Perhaps 1t is only natural. because
the child's imagination is not so at
fected by changing styles and customs.
You might think, for example, that the
tales by Jules Verne would be out
NODDED. Around the WorldVh Eighty
Days" indeed Why now we do it in
eight Cor is it five?). But not at all.
One of the recent successes among
Juveniles has been an omnibus edi-
ton Of Verne. containing The Mystic
rious Island" Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea" and Around
the World in Eighty Days" His sepa-
rate titles, too, in many editions are
always in print, and always in stock
piles OF them-in the juvenile depart
ments.
Still Respond to Lure.
The real children toGay respond to
Jules Verne just as they always did.
They respond, too, to Treasure Island
and, to a less extent, to kidnapped"
Nobody can say how many copies OF
the former have been Sold--in America
at any rate-because it has been free
picking for many publishers. But 1t Is
certainly UP in six figures, more prob
ably in seven. Kipling. of course, like
Stevenson, still sells in sets, but among
all his works The jungle Book" is
beginning, I am told, definitely to
emerge as the best seller of the lot, be-
cause of it's appeal to children. And
the time may not be far off when he,
too. will be a classic kept alive by the
very young.
when We Were Very Young
there's another. 1t sold more the sec
ond Christmas after it was out than 1t
did in the entire first year. 1t is still
selling, as are the Milne books which
followed it, Most noveliStS-even the
authors of best sellers-would be glad
to swap the royalties from any one
of their books for Mines from When
We Were Very Young" And who
wouldn't like to get royalties on all the
thousands and thousands Of copies OF
Johanna Spyri's Heidi sold in Amer
lea alone? There are at least five diff
ferent editions OF 1t.
If Lewis Carroll" and his heirs
could have collected royalties on all
the copies of all the editions Of Alice
in wonderland" sold since that work
came out, their income tax would bal
ance the British budget. And think
of the possible income of j. r. WySS
and his heirs under a perpetual inter-
national copyright! Who was j. r..
Wyss? Fancy your not knowing You
| know his book we'll enough, but you
read 1t at a time when an author S
name meant little to you (the way the
ajority of adults still read books.
Captures Childish Imagination.
He wrote a work entitled The Swiss
Family Robinson" 1t was full of utter
impossibilities, but it was also full of
that something which captures entirely
are at least three illustrated editions
of it in print from American publish
ing houses alone. How many there
are in England and Europe I know
not. But when you reflect that a much
less famous book, James Otis Toby
Tyler" has sold 100000 copies and is
still selling, without an international
market, you can gain glirlmering idea
of the staggering number of Swiss
Family RobinSons" which have been
printed and sold.
"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" has
probably sold as many copies as Toby
Tyler" and is still in demand. But a
more remarkable sale is that of John
Fox'S stories of the Kentucky noun
tains, which have sold, they say over
million copies. You would not suppose
them to be juveniles, but that depart
ment is where you now find them at
Brentano's, for instance. Their Senti-
ment and color, it appears, appeal to
adolescents. Young folks in their teens
are keeping them in print
Boys like to keep up-to-date. not in
their imaginations, but in their &C
quaintance with practical things.
Books on popular mechanics and on
things to do and things to make with
the hands come out successfully at
perio1ic intervals. brought up to date.
The airplane, for example, has made
great sale for books of instruction in
making model flying machines. But
even in this practical field, the boy or
girl is concerned largely with timeless
things, such as scoutcraft and dolls
the hunter and the home-maker.
Dan Boards Handy Books for boys