Show WHY BOOKS SELL t The Causes Are Jlany and Not Least if Last is Advertising Why do books sell It is a simple question with an easy answer The first and obvious reply on the lips of the Intelligent reader Is that boohs sell because they are the great works of cfrent authors This iy j moot true and just and reasonable And yet one John Milton who was a great author once wrote a great book called Paradise Lost and It didnt sell and others have had the same experience since then Another common sense explanation Is lhat books sell because they are what the people want And thia in i true and apt And yet the historyof recent lit l oralure Is full uC Instances oi bonus which were exactly what the people wan ted but wnuh lingered I I In obscurity obscuri-ty because the peoples had not found them out And ao there are many and good reasons rea-sons why books sell and thq last of all of them and certainly nol tIre least Is i Unit the modern book MOV sets tire bcrefll of apt advertisings artful aid Thin IB almost wholly a modern invention inven-tion Just as the enormous iltfurcs of sal1 which gladden the < yi mid th mijl of llerUure are almos wholy modern The knowledge of this Inn tioii I has bten w idiMy and vh 1 preul l until now the America i published Is i always ready to accept the modified version of Shakespeare which declares that sweet arc the uses of advertising advertis-ing ingLet it not be said that this Ifl I a low and sordid view to take of the exalted question of literature Because after I all the author must live There Is u I i theory that the nearer he Is kept to starvation the finer will be he < quality I of the work he produces They actually actu-ally Insist that the cultivation of literature liter-ature goes hand In hand with its rewards re-wards They are quite convinced that any element which ministers to their i prosperity Is a distinct benefit lo the cause of literature Indeed it is and In their appreciation of the bread andbutter side of the profession their keen Intelligence does not fall to roe ognlzc the importance and the value of thurjudIclouH advertising J which sup plies1 tho ml iln fink In the chain I which blnd tl1cm and their admiring readers together New York World |