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    A subject which has lain dormant for Pau...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Iii Jiile Commendable Programme Of The A...

    meeting of the soft-handed sons of toil , whose tasks are more trying than those of the

    roughest day-labourer , though his palms might shame the hide of a rhinoceros . How

    complex , how difficult is the work of the brainoperative ! He employs the noblest

    implement which God has given to mortals . He handles the most precious material that is

    modelled by the art of man : the imperishable embodiment of human thought in language .

    * Is not the product of the author ' s industry an _ addition — — — -to the wealth of his country w and

    _ of civilisation as much as if it were a ponderable or a measureable substance ? It cannot

    be weighed in the grocer ' s scales , or measured by the shopkeeper ' s yard-stick . But nothing

    is so real , nothing so permanent , nothing of human origin so prized . Better lose the

    Parthenon than the " Iliad ; " better level St . Peter ' s than blot out the " Divina Commedia ;"

    better blow up Saint Paul ' s than strike " Paradise Lost" from the treasures of the

    English language . * How much a great work costs I What

    fortunate strains of blood have gone to the , formation of that delicate yet potent

    braintissue ! What happy influences have met for the development of its marvellous capacities !

    What travail , what throbbing temples , what tension of every mental fibre , what conflicts ,

    what hopes , what illusions , what disappointments , what triumphs , lie recorded between

    the covers of that volume on the bookseller ' s counter I And shall the work which has

    drained its author ' s life-blood be the prey of the first vampire that chooses to flap his

    penny-edition wings over his unprotected and hapless victim ?

    ' This is the wrong we would put an end to . The British author , whose stolen works are in

    the hands of the vast American reading public , may possibly receive a small pension if he

    come to want in his old age . But the bread of even public charity is apt to have a bitter

    taste , and the slice is , at best , but a small one . Shall not our English-writing brother

    have his fair day ' s wage for his fair day ' s work in furnishing us with instruction and

    entertainment ? ' As to the poor American author , no pension

    will ever keep him from dying in the poorhouse . His books may be on every stall in

    Europe , in their own or in foreign tongues , but his only compensation is the free-will

    offering of some liberal-minded publisher . This should not be so . We all know itand

    , some among us have felt it , and still feel it as a great ^¦~ wrong . I think especially of those

    * w * 4 « or who are in the flower of their productive

    period , and those who are just coming into

    too their far time advanced of inflorescence to profit by . any To provision us who fo ¦ =

    justice likely to be made in our day , it would ^ still be a great satisfaction to know that th writers who after will

    and that genius come will no us longer be fairl be an y treated outlaw it

    as soon as crosses tne -AXiantic .

    ¦ Mr *2hp^>V^ - :. ¦ Iit * " * Rlv; ¦ *%...

    ¦ * 2 HP ^> v ^ - :. ¦ iiT * * ; ¦ * % ¦ i ¦ ' :. - vw'T ¦; ^ ' ¦ ¦ v- '" ' ¦ ; - ¦ ;• ¦ ¦ •; ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦' ¦ - ¦ " ¦ '' ¦ ,: - ¦¦ ¦ •• ^^^^ "SiF ¦ ^^ W ?^^ - ;¦ -- ¦ ¦ 'y : p J ^' 8 5 e 85 ° 6 The _ Publish ,. , ers , Circular ^ ^ T Jul T ; i f 188 4 > i

    A Subject Which Has Lain Dormant For Pau...

    A subject which has lain dormant for Paul time ' Journals , Trench has of been , General & Co revived ., in Gordon connection by Messrs at Kartoum with . Keg some the an

    '* v ^/ vLL ^ . In a circular letter addressed to the editors of newspapers , the publishers made a fair

    very reviewing appeal requesting the book that 1 1 should the ^ be extracts confined —— given within ir in

    •— ' -ww * a VXLLII . reasonable limits , believing that ' any excessive quotation . *» as distinguished vf from ^^ comment WAAiixiVill ^

    would tend to diminish the sale of the work . ' It is evident that among reviewers ¦¦ the

    t ^^ J —» F - ** r ^ f . ^ VA L \ J practice of adding to the pith of their notices and at the same time reducing their share of

    actual work , by the introduction of lon ^ quotations quotations , , is is larselv largely on on the tne increase increase . . This This is i « 1

    a remarkably easy method of ' reviewing , ' and to the newspaper itself undoubtedly has its I

    advantages . The readers are supplied with the gist of a new book by means of extracts

    strung together in such a form that those who peruse them , have little desire left to appeal to

    the original work . Not a few newspapers and ' reviews' live in the most extravagant

    manner upon the extracted essence of new books , many of which have been acquired and

    m * . fc produced at an enormous outlay to the publishers , whose enterprise JL and experience JL . are

    but poorly encouraged when they see column after column of quotationsclosely massed in

    the daily newspap jl ersso that , y the public in terest is largely gratified , without any further

    examination of the subject . That such extracts benefit a great book to the extent

    imagined by reviewers is an exploded idea . They althoug only enliven h the the reviewer pages think of the s or newspapers pretends to ,

    think that the longer the extracts the greater the kindness he is doing to the book .

    JKeera & . ega With n n Jfaul Paul regard <& fc Uo Co to ... it the is is interesting interes appeal ting of to Messrs nuu notice ^ .

    , to quirements what ext . ent On attention examining was the paid newspapers to — its re of - I the day \ forced to \ come \ to \ the » -- conclu- I

    sion matter U vmv | k { VUVUJ uu that > r , , it JLV we if » r would j »* any VU uj are , o editorial xv be KJKJ / lvou impossible XAJ . A , k / ILftslOXt uv heed s ^ y ^ xx Avy * . was ^ to w vs conceive ww given to have the the .

    extent to which the quotations might been lified in the absence of such an

    appeal Kf \ JT ~>* . A amp tA . /* . X The * . JJ \ i . X \\ JKA ' Journals . XXX ltJ . AV > ' c « MfJV were ¥ » w drawn ~ - notice upon - with W AOXl . unsparing UJJLBJJcXiJ . J . JUg rapacit JLCLpUiUJ . y ^ . . It JLM was <*» ^ even » " — ?

    able that ' Full Extracts from Gordon s Diaries ' formed the boldest attractionof con ^ L

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), July 1, 1885, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01071885/page/2/