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    Mr. Gbobge Bancroft's Advice to Authors....

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    Mr. John Burroughs.—A correspondent of t...

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    Authors' Correctionh. — ' Authors' cor- ...

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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.

    The Free Library, Museum, And Walker Art...

    per cent , during the year . ' This is principally manifest in the department of prose fiction

    where the volumes read A have diminished A from , 882 per day to 698 or 20 per cent . This

    undoubtedly indicates , a greater proportionate demand for a higher class of literature . Even

    on the reduced scale the circulation of more than ^^^ ^^ P ^^ " ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 10 , ^ g 000 — ^^ volumes ^ ¦ ™» " — —^^ w ~ - " ~ per h — - ™~ ——* week - » ^ ~^™~ - ^^^^ —~^^ w of - ^^ p ~ q ^^ v wholesome W W ^^ b ^^ V " ^^ ^^ H ^^^^ V ^^ v ^^^^ ^ " ^»^^ fc ^^ S *^^»

    literature , much of it of a high class , diffusing its — influence through every stratum of society

    cannot but have a *—** very favourable influence 4 / , both morally and intellectually w . During — — — the

    year , 113 volumes «* worn out have not been ^^ % replaced , after allowing for which an addition

    lias been made of 2 , 108 , volumes , making the number now on the shelves 93183 .

    The Lending Libraries have , during many ¦ year — " — s been - — worked y - — — — up — — ™ j to the — - ^— - ^* - extent ^^ - « v ^^ ^ v ^ a * - ^ v ^ K ^ p of - ^—r- ^^ their ^^ ^» ^ w ^ 1 ^ ^ fc ^^

    capacity , so that any serious increase in the issues is not to be looked for . It will be seen

    however , from an inspection of the figures , , that there has been an -- extension —<— of the v > issues — — — — — — — — ^^ - ^^ ^ . v ^^ pv ^ p- ^^ r ~ . m ^ r *^ ^^ " ^» ^^^ w ^^

    volumes during the . last One year very from gratif 405 ying , 271 circumstance to 427 , 532

    connected with these libraries is the very small percentage of books lost or unaccounted for .

    Out of issues during the last two years of . nearly a million volumes , only 9 are lost or

    missing . This speaks well both for the honesty of the readers and the efficiency of the working

    staff . The existing reading rooms continue to be popular , the attendance in each of them

    having increased , amounting in the whole to 114777 as against 106264 in the previous

    year , . , The visitors to , the Museum have increased during the year from 255616 to

    291754 . Since October 1 last the Museum , has , been thrown open to the public on Monday

    evenings from 7 to 10 . Some years since a similar attempt ^ m was made ~ — ¦ — ~_ - , — but _ - _^ ^¦ _ r . i ^ ^ v owing ' ¦ i f ^ v V ^ m ^ m ^ * ^|^ h to ^^ ~ — the ^^^ BB fli * vt ^'

    disorderly conduct of some of the visitors it had find to that be at abandoned present the . It utmost is gratif order ying and to

    propriety prevail , indicating an advance and improvement in the popular feeling .

    During the year the Walker Art Gallery has been open on 292 days , and closed for

    cleaning and other purposes on 21 days . The total number of visitors was 460 , 937 , or a

    aaily dailv averag average e attendance attendance ot of 1 I ,. o £ V 77 o ft . Included Tnolnrlprl in the above total are 71 , 495 visitors to the Autumn Exhibitionand 10000 pupils of

    schools of various , denominations , admitted

    tree .

    Ar01704

    May 15 , 1889 The Publishers Circular - 2 -

    Mr. Gbobge Bancroft's Advice To Authors....

    Mr . Gbobge Bancroft ' s Advice to Authors . —Mr . Bancroftthe distinguished

    American historianis now , on the of ninetyand yet is able , we believeto verge pursue

    his historical , studies , and researches , . He recently recentlv wrote wrote a a letter letter of ot literary literarv advice advice . baa based « d

    on his own experience , which is printed , in the May number of the Booh Buye ~ ra New

    York critical journal , from which , we , quote the following V . J interesting yjas we ] l as sensible

    passage : —* Writing at night and sometimes into the early hours of the morning is very

    injurious . I have tried it and become convinced . My practice is to work slowly , but

    to accomplish something every day . 1 very

    seldom average more than three hundred words a dayand a few lettersand this is

    generally done , before nine o'clock , in the morning . Ten o ' clock every evening finds me

    in bed , and six o ' clock each morning I am at my desk . No man whose profession or duties

    demand considerable mental work should allow himself less than seven hours' sleepand if

    he occasionally takes eight or nine the , overdose will have no serious effect . There ard

    persons , I know , who will tell you that they can , and have , performed what seemed to them their best work by gas or lamplight . Why do

    they say so ? Simply because they have never tasted the sweets of early morning . No one

    can understand the inspiration which the first hours of the morning bring to his literary work

    until he has been under its influence . What outdoor exercise do I recommend ? Healthy

    exercise of all kinds . With me the saddle is a source of the most thorough delightand to

    B A K H & H K A , K H my dail . ^^ y indul ^ ^^ m gence of a long ^ -distance ^ gallop ^^ I attribute much of the good health which now

    allows me to perform my work with a clear

    brain and a steady hand .

    Mr. John Burroughs.—A Correspondent Of T...

    Mr . John Burroughs . —A correspondent of the New York Critic states in that journal :

    — 'I have had the pleasure of running % ) across John Burroug *_/ hs two or three times lately t / , jand

    he tells nxe that he is not doing as much literary work ~ a ~ S he used "to do—he isin fact

    turning his attention to husbandry . , He has , just added to his acres at West Parkand is

    now going in for the scientific cultivation , of the vine . He set out slips X a year V or so ago QJ , Jand

    expects to pick the first grapes off the new vines very - »/ early in the season . Mr . Burroug Ohs

    goes about the vineyard himself , and says that he can easily pick a ton of grapes in a day . He

    thinks the cultivation of the vine is going to bring him in a handsomer income than the

    cultiv o , iilt , ivn ation , t , ion ot of the the pen Den , . and and T 1 hav have e no no dou doubt bt lift he is right . It pays to write a successful novel like those of that other Hudson River fruit-grower

    the late Mr . Itoe—but such literature as Mr . , Burroughs creates is not read by the million . Of

    course , 1 do not mean that Mr . Burroughs ' books are published x . at a loss . Far from it .

    At the same time he would find it pretty hard to live on the income froni his pen , for it takes

    a good many thousand copies of a book to y •» ield an author much of a revenue .. . l » ... on a ten ,

    per cent , royalty . Mr . Burroughs still retains ; a Government appointment , for he ~ is the

    postmaster at West Point , Jn . Y .

    Authors' Correctionh. — ' Authors' Cor- ...

    Authors' Correctionh . — ' Authors' cor- f rections' says a witty writer' are the bugbear

    of the publisher , , the delight of , the author , and bread and jam to the printer . ' Years ago

    JM MB M . fA H M H K , broug some ht one a whose few pages book of did manuscri ^ well (^ ^ in ^ pt the . ^ to end the ,

    Leadenhall Press , and asked for six slip proofs with margins of three or four times the usual

    dimensions scored-out , interlined and on these corrected the author and built wrote - , . l up

    Every few , days he put , in an appearance , and

    found his way to one of the private rooms , where he ousted the shorthand clerk from his 3 pp *

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 15, 1889, page 527, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15051889/page/17/