Show II THE BOOKSELLERS MEET I IBY I i I IBY BY FREDERIC J HASKIN I The American Association of Booksellers meets in New York tomorrow In annual convention There are many matters per pertaining pertaining taming to the book trade to which the members will give their careful consideration ties tion One Oae of these theBe Is the department store question Since the department stores s went nt late into the book business they have made serious inroads In into the trade of the tho booksellers book ellera and although many of the tile stores More are coming around to an under understanding understanding understanding standing with the booksellers ellens there thero Is still much to be desired by the latter They are very anxious to reach some under understanding understanding standing with the publishers whereby they will be protected from the withering com competition competition petition of the department stores store Another thing which will wUl come up for ration will be the booming of the book business Th magazine bought at atthe atthe atthe the corner news new stand or subscribed for directly is t materially curtailing the book business thousands thousand who used uw to be good book buyers now contenting themselves with literature served up In the periodical form orm How to infuse new life into the book trade will be fully full v discussed dl and the man who will win bring brin them a R guaran t wo d scheme for doing 90 so will win be hailed as the bene benefactor benefactor benefactor factor of 0 the bookseller A conference was waa held not BOt long ago between the pub publishers publishers lishers and aDd the Use booksellers with reference to these t questions but the results have been withheld from the public No one JIll has ever ner yet et succeeded 8 ed In la esti estimating estimating mating with even approximate accuracy the number DUMber of books made in the course of a year ar It ia is said that the worlds addi additions additions to literature aggregate I te books and aad pamphlets a year Counting 1000 copies of each it would mean books boob and pamphlets but even this may maybe maybe be less 1 than of the actual out output output put There is I another way in which some Nine idea of the output of ot books in the United States may be arrived at aL The census een ua estimates that the wholesale value of the books produced In the United States In the course of a III year Is Assuming the average wholesale cost to tobe tobe tobe be In the neighborhood of or 30 10 cents centa the re result result sult wit would be close to books But since this thle includes pamphlets and the cheap books book the average price Is II probably far below 30 cents rents From the invention of the printing press up to the beginning of the sixteenth cen century century century tury not more than books were ere printed sled yet et recently many tiny single books book have hae enjoyed sales sake exceeding the tho half million mOnon mark In one year ear Up to 1901 there then had appeared In the world separate works this including ln tim and new editions In the general output of books book Germany leads all the there re rest t of or the tJ e world followed by b France Italy England the United States and the Netherlands in the order named In crea creative creative creative tive writing England leads the world while Germany leads In III books for children chil children children dren and ami works work on theology theolog The ink used In book and periodical printing coats more than Shan a year ear Perhaps the total output of printers Ink InkIn InkIn inkin In the United States amounts to In value It is said that the American people ue use 1 0 gallons of or writing ink every ever twelve months mouths or more than gallons a day dill The most remarkable thing about the tha th book trade of or the present pre nt say cay Is the gain that popular science has been n enjoying as compared with fiction and other light reading The number of new books of oC such a nature nearly nearl doubled In a single year comparing 1 JUT 1907 7 with 1903 and the record Is almost a all as remarkable in the comparison n of oC IMS 1 with 1900 J In the li It libraries henries of or general g nel circulation It Is the popular science works that are being most used usH It Is said that this is largely due h to the effect of or the library on public taste People are coming to feel that truth is indeed stranger than fiction and andare andare andare are making It their favorite reading An Another Another Another other circumstance conducive to this change is the this new class ela s of 0 scientific writ Til writers writers ers which has come into existence in late years ears Instead of discussing their sub subjects subject subjects In that cold Old uninteresting and un unattractive unattractive attractive way that characterized the writers on scientific subjects a generation ago they have haTt grasped the human Inter Interest Interest est eat phase of scientific matters and arc are able to present e ent It in a way that is pal palatable palatable to the mind t of bf f th the reader be he one who reads for recreation or for Information In Information Cot mation But particularly Is III young Amer America AmerIca America ica changing changing from rom the yellow back baek novel DOI and cheap detective story to W science Publishers hen pay good authors some rather large sized lied U fortunes for or their books but it is said saW that the largest lar single insIe check ever drain dra n by b a publisher her In settlement of an account account of sn en author was drawn by b Charles Q Webster payable pable to Mrs In U L S 3 Grant on account of the royalties received from rom the of or the of other her distinguished husband Having lost practically everything he had in some un fortunate financial alliances General Grant found round himself almost In a 1 dying condition with nothing to leave lean to Ids his family famil With the strong troug tron urgings of ne IW necessity upon him he ht had to work amid great bodily suffering at tithes times u to com emu complete complete the work he had undertaken But he was as ae game In literary endeavor as he had been brave and determined upon the batU l i and anti succeeded in laying the foundation for the comfortable for fOJ fortune fortune tune that his family now enjoys In the theone theone one oue cheek check given ghen to Mrs Irs Grant the amount called for was Every wide wid MS user I T I of books is Impressed with the fact that England Is to far ahead bead of th the United States In the t art of book bookmaking bookmaking bookmaking making To begin with the average Bag B hiah book weighs but little more than one half as much as the U American book of the same size Thus This is due to the superiority superiority superiority of the tho paper entering into them In America the th paper pa Is mainly of the glazed gla variety more inure than halt half U its Ita weight eight being made up of oC clays and other glazing ma materials In the second place the English bindings are better than American bind WOO ings of or the same Ame class elass It ia Is also aa as asserted asserted 11 that the ink used is of a higher grade It Jt has never been estimated e what hat proportion of the printed books book of o to today today today day will be he readable a hundred years rs from rom now but In the case ease of handwriting ink experts declare that It is doubtful If I Imore more than on of 1 per cent of the ink used In writing today too A will be via vis v vIDI Ibis IDI at the end of or a hundred hund years yell There are fashions and fats fads In the book took trade an as a well ae RII In every other branch of ot industry The newest Idea Idee le 18 the Who Woo publication There Thero are now dozens of these and the organization or or profession that has not a ho Who 00 to represent it ft is ill humble Indeed There are Whoa for the lawyers the doc doe doctors tore tors t the preachers for nearly every everybody everybody body and the bookseller finds find no inconsiderable h erable er ble demand for them themA A t recent suit gave the world an insight into sonic some me of the profits of or Roosevelt from his writings A certain publisher was to supply a III well known woman booklover kloer with an edition de of or Mr works It was to be bound in genuine elephant skin printed from type and not from plates and to con contain contain tain original inal etchings What she got did not come up to these the e specifications in any an particular She sued tine publisher and andIn andIn andin In the hearing of the case it was brought out that he had bad sold four tour limited edi editions editions of or works sets In all aU alland alland and had realized realised for or them of or which Mr share was wa 1 S SOne One of or the greatest enemies of or books te Is t the bookworm There are a number of varieties arlett in which the human kind is 15 not now Included They attack the books booksin in different ways was Some of them K go through the Inside of a book as a in m mol it IN goes through a vegetable garden Oth Others ers era eat the paste in the binding Some Sometimes Sometimes times libraries freeze them by putting the books in cold storage for a while Others Oth Others Other ers er heat the books to degrees Fahren Fahrenheit Fahrenheit Fahrenheit heit at which temperature no worm that has baa a taste for things literary ran can an survive sur Bur survive BurI I vive Germany has bas now come CO along with witha a filler CUler for a long felt want with a ma machine machine chine which it is claimed clamed will shake the pests peets to death without the th slightest in injury inJury injury jury to the books There is no fad that has he a firmer hold holdon on Of its votary than book collecting has on the bibliophile One of them stated re recently that be he would rather spend an evening evening at a book auction than with the president of the United States Slates or the tit king kin kinor of or England At a recent auction In New NewYork NewYork York a copy of the flirt first edition of f baak Waltons Angler published In London In brought At this sal al althere althere there were ere no less les than different edi editions I I tiers Uena of or the Angler Anger represent represented ed fd The rare volume made so 10 b there are so fO few In existence or because it il was once onet owned by b some famous personage person personage age a is always In demand and booksellers ers era will cross the ocean OIn for a chance l to bid on some Ome of them at public The whole publishing world is I on Hi tl t I lookout for tor the new nc author Too TK often In past generations has the great liter literary literary I Iary ary light had to go from pillar to post in I 1 quest que t of or a Il publisher Remembering these th i things the average publisher is given inn to t I hospitality toward authors author in the tbt hope hoP that he hf may J IQ entertain an angel an el unaware unawares He Is always alway watching out for the to discover a new literary star of the first magnitude Motleys Motley expert experience core ence with his Dutch Republic shows what may mR happen to a III publisher In all an I London he hI was not able ble to find Ond a II pub publisher usher lisher to bring brin out his book Then lie hf pub published i It at t his own expense a thing few fern f authors can an doand It became very Tel pop popular popular popular ular Afterwards he hI enjoyed that de delectable experience of having the th first fin t publisher who had turned him down do cots come I and beg be hint him for or all aU he bp would write Publishers everywhere take a hopeful view of the future utu and that means pros 1101 for Cor the bookseller ller Of or the making me of or of books there ere in la II indeed no end fOnd and the I world is buying more of them with wit h each t h passing pas fRt year The decline of illiteracy the Intellectually of the peo poo pip pie of the t rural districts the pioneering pig Influence of the daffy laHy newspaper I Is going to tens of o thousands of homes home today Into which It had never cone eone o a year par j I before in ln short a hundred Influences ar are areat j jat r rat at work broadening and bettering bt th t the h i Im m d of the people and ami It spells pew new n 1 prosperity new success and greater tr fields for or the publisher and the bookseller i Copyright 19 loot 1900 by I Frederic J Haskin J |