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Show Mlits Deniion'M Popularity. Seeing the announcement of a now book by Mary E. Denison reminds me of this author's two womicrfnlly successful books, "That Husband of Mine" nnd "That Wife of Mine." The story of these books wan recently told me by t lie publisher. When Miss Dcnisou, a number of years ngo. brought the manuscript of "That Husband of Mine" to her publishers (hey accepted It doubtfully, and did not feel warranted in prinliDg more than 500 copies for a first edition. This was all they expected to print at all, for they did not detect the elements ele-ments of popularit y in it. What was their surprise, then, to receive orders amounting amount-ing to 2,000 copies on the day of publica tioul This warned thero to begin printinR a larjje supply, but the orders poured in so fast that for three weeks they were many thousand copies behind the demand. The orders received on a single day amounted Once to 14,000 copies and the total pales of the book reached in the end 150,000 copies. "That Wife of Mine," published not long after, did not reach t tie same figure, but the sale amounted to 70,000 copies, CO.000 of which were ordered in advance. Her other books have none of them obtained the same success, though they have all been widely read. But Miss Donison's pen baa brought j her gold, and her publishers u well. Edward Ed-ward W. Bok's lxt:er. |