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@@ -0,0 +1,1543 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man of Letters as a Man of Business, by +William Dean Howells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Man of Letters as a Man of Business + +Author: William Dean Howells + +Posting Date: July 23, 2008 [EBook #724] +Release Date: November, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN OF LETTERS, MAN OF BUSINESS *** + + + + +Produced by Anthony J. Adam. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +"THE MAN OF LETTERS AS A MAN OF BUSINESS" + +by + +William Dean Howells + + +I think that every man ought to work for his living, without exception, +and that when he has once avouched his willingness to work, society +should provide him with work and warrant him a living. I do not think +any man ought to live by an art. A man's art should be his privilege, +when he has proven his fitness to exercise it, and has otherwise earned +his daily bread; and its results should be free to all. There is an +instinctive sense of this, even in the midst of the grotesque confusion +of our economic being; people feel that there is something profane, +something impious, in taking money for a picture, or a poem, or a +statue. Most of all, the artist himself feels this. He puts on a bold +front with the world, to be sure, and brazens it out as Business; but +he knows very well that there is something false and vulgar in it; and +that the work which cannot be truly priced in money cannot be truly +paid in money. He can, of course, say that the priest takes money for +reading the marriage service, for christening the new-born babe, and +for saying the last office for the dead; that the physician sells +healing; that justice itself is paid for; and that he is merely a party +to the thing that is and must be. He can say that, as the thing is, +unless he sells his art he cannot live, that society will leave him to +starve if he does not hit its fancy in a picture, or a poem, or a +statue; and all this is bitterly true. He is, and he must be, only too +glad if there is a market for his wares. Without a market for his +wares he must perish, or turn to making something that will sell better +than pictures, or poems, or statues. All the same, the sin and the +shame remain, and the averted eye sees them still, with its inward +vision. Many will make believe otherwise, but I would rather not make +believe otherwise; and in trying to write of Literature as Business I +am tempted to begin by saying that Business is the opprobrium of +Literature. + + + +II. + +Literature is at once the most intimate and the most articulate of the +arts. It cannot impart its effect through the senses or the nerves as +the other arts can; it is beautiful only through the intelligence; it +is the mind speaking to the mind; until it has been put into absolute +terms, of an invariable significance, it does not exist at all. It +cannot awaken this emotion in one, and that in another; if it fails to +express precisely the meaning of the author, if it does not say HIM, it +says nothing, and is nothing. So that when a poet has put his heart, +much or little, into a poem, and sold it to a magazine, the scandal is +greater than when a painter has sold a picture to a patron, or a +sculptor has modelled a statue to order. These are artists less +articulate and less intimate than the poet; they are more exterior to +their work; they are less personally in it; they part with less of +themselves in the dicker. It does not change the nature of the case to +say that Tennyson and Longfellow and Emerson sold the poems in which +they couched the most mystical messages their genius was charged to +bear mankind. They submitted to the conditions which none can escape; +but that does not justify the conditions, which are none the less the +conditions of hucksters because they are imposed upon poets. If it +will serve to make my meaning a little clearer we will suppose that a +poet has been crossed in love, or has suffered some real sorrow, like +the loss of a wife or child. He pours out his broken heart in verse +that shall bring tears of sacred sympathy from his readers, and an +editor pays him a hundred dollars for the right of bringing his verse +to their notice. It is perfectly true that the poem was not written +for these dollars, but it is perfectly true that it was sold for them. +The poet must use his emotions to pay his provision bills; he has no +other means; society does not propose to pay his bills for him. Yet, +and at the end of the ends, the unsophisticated witness finds the +transaction ridiculous, finds it repulsive, finds it shabby. Somehow +he knows that if our huckstering civilization did not at every moment +violate the eternal fitness of things, the poet's song would have been +given to the world, and the poet would have been cared for by the whole +human brotherhood, as any man should be who does the duty that every +man owes it. + +The instinctive sense of the dishonor which money-purchase does to art +is so strong that sometimes a man of letters who can pay his way +otherwise refuses pay for his work, as Lord Byron did, for a while, +from a noble pride, and as Count Tolstoy has tried to do, from a noble +conscience. But Byron's publisher profited by a generosity which did +not reach his readers; and the Countess Tolstoy collects the copyright +which her husband foregoes; so that these two eminent instances of +protest against business in literature may be said not to have shaken +its money basis. I know of no others; but there may be many that I am +culpably ignorant of. Still, I doubt if there are enough to affect the +fact that Literature is Business as well as Art, and almost as soon. +At present business is the only human solidarity; we are all bound +together with that chain, whatever interests and tastes and principles +separate us, and I feel quite sure that in writing of the Man of +Letters as a Man of Business, I shall attract far more readers than I +should in writing of him as an Artist. Besides, as an artist he has +been done a great deal already; and a commercial state like ours has +really more concern in him as a business man. Perhaps it may sometimes +be different; I do not believe it will till the conditions are +different, and that is a long way off. + + + +III. + +In the meantime I confidently appeal to the reader's imagination with +the fact that there are several men of letters among us who are such +good men of business that they can command a hundred dollars a thousand +words for all they write; and at least one woman of letters who gets a +hundred and fifty dollars a thousand words. It is easy to write a +thousand words a day, and supposing one of these authors to work +steadily, it can be seen that his net earnings during the year would +come to some such sum as the President of the United States gets for +doing far less work of a much more perishable sort. If the man of +letters were wholly a business man this is what would happen; he would +make his forty or fifty thousand dollars a year, and be able to consort +with bank presidents, and railroad officials, and rich tradesmen, and +other flowers of our plutocracy on equal terms. But, unfortunately, +from a business point of view, he is also an artist, and the very +qualities that enable him to delight the public disable him from +delighting it uninterruptedly. "No rose blooms right along," as the +English boys at Oxford made an American collegian say in a theme which +they imagined for him in his national parlance; and the man of letters, +as an artist, is apt to have times and seasons when he cannot blossom. +Very often it shall happen that his mind will lie fallow between novels +or stories for weeks and months at a stretch; when the suggestions of +the friendly editor shall fail to fruit in the essays or articles +desired; when the muse shall altogether withhold herself, or shall +respond only in a feeble dribble of verse which he might sell indeed, +but which it would not be good business for him to put on the market. +But supposing him to be a very diligent and continuous worker, and so +happy as to have fallen on a theme that delights him and bears him +along, he may please himself so ill with the result of his labors that +he can do nothing less in artistic conscience than destroy a day's +work, a week's work, a month's work. I know one man of letters who +wrote to-day, and tore up tomorrow for nearly a whole summer. But even +if part of the mistaken work may be saved, because it is good work out +of place, and not intrinsically bad, the task of reconstruction wants +almost as much time as the production; and then, when all seems done, +comes the anxious and endless process of revision. These drawbacks +reduce the earning capacity of what I may call the high-cost man of +letters in such measure that an author whose name is known everywhere, +and whose reputation is commensurate with the boundaries of his +country, if it does not transcend them, shall have the income, say, of +a rising young physician, known to a few people in a subordinate city. + +In view of this fact, so humiliating to an author in the presence of a +nation of business men like ours, I do not know that I can establish +the man of letters in the popular esteem as very much of a business man +after all. He must still have a low rank among practical people; and +he will be regarded by the great mass of Americans as perhaps a little +off, a little funny, a little soft! + +Perhaps not; and yet I would rather not have a consensus of public +opinion on the question; I think I am more comfortable without it. + + + +IV. + +There is this to be said in defence of men of letters on the business +side, that literature is still an infant industry with us, and so far +from having been protected by our laws it was exposed for ninety years +after the foundation of the republic to the vicious competition of +stolen goods. It is true that we now have the international copyright +law at last, and we can at least begin to forget our shame; but +literary property has only forty-two years of life under our unjust +statutes, and if it is attacked by robbers the law does not seek out +the aggressors and punish them, as it would seek out and punish the +trespassers upon any other kind of property; but it leaves the +aggrieved owner to bring suit against them, and recover damages, if he +can. This may be right enough in itself; but I think, then, that all +property should be defended by civil suit, and should become public +after forty-two years of private tenure. The Constitution guarantees +us all equality before the law, but the law-makers seem to have +forgotten this in the case of our infant literary industry. So long as +this remains the case, we cannot expect the best business talent to go +into literature, and the man of letters must keep his present low grade +among business men. + +As I have hinted, it is but a little while that he has had any standing +at all. I may say that it is only since the was that literature has +become a business with us. Before that time we had authors, and very +good ones; it is astonishing how good they were; but I do not remember +any of them who lived by literature except Edgar A. Poe, perhaps; and +we all know how he lived; it was largely upon loans. They were either +men of fortune, or they were editors, or professors, with salaries or +incomes apart from the small gains of their pens; or they were helped +out with public offices; one need not go over their names, or classify +them. Some of them must have made money by their books, but I question +whether any one could have lived, even very simply, upon the money his +books brought him. No one could do that now, unless he wrote a book +that we could not recognize as a work of literature. But many authors +live now, and live prettily enough, by the sale of the serial +publication of their writings to the magazines. They do not live so +nicely as successful tradespeople, of course, or as men in the other +professions when they begin to make themselves names; the high state of +brokers, bankers, railroad operators, and the like is, in the nature of +the case, beyond their fondest dreams of pecuniary affluence and social +splendor. Perhaps they do not want the chief seats in the synagogue; +it is certain they do not get them. Still, they do very fairly well, +as things go; and several have incomes that would seem riches to the +great mass of worthy Americans who work with their hands for a +living--when they can get the work. Their incomes are mainly from +serial publication in the different magazines; and the prosperity of +the magazines has given a whole class existence which, as a class, was +wholly unknown among us before the war. It is not only the famous or +fully recognized authors who live in this way, but the much larger +number of clever people who are as yet known chiefly to the editors, +and who may never make themselves a public, but who do well a kind of +acceptable work. These are the sort who do not get reprinted from the +periodicals; but the better recognized authors do get reprinted, and +then their serial work in its completed form appeals to the readers who +say they do not read serials. The multitude of these is not great, and +if an author rested his hopes upon their favor he would be a much more +embittered man than he now generally is. But he understands perfectly +well that his reward is in the serial and not in the book; the return +from that he may count as so much money found in the road--a few +hundreds, a very few thousands, at the most. + + + +V. + +I doubt, indeed, whether the earnings of literary men are absolutely as +great as they were earlier in the century, in any of the +English-speaking countries; relatively they are nothing like as great. +Scott had forty thousand dollars for "Woodstock," which was not a very +large novel, and was by no means one of his best; and forty thousand +dollars had at least the purchasing powers of sixty thousand then. +Moore had three thousand guineas for "Lalla Rookh," but what publisher +would be rash enough to pay twenty-five thousand dollars for the +masterpiece of a minor poet now? The book, except in very rare +instances, makes nothing like the return to the author that the +magazine makes, and there are but two or three authors who find their +account in that form of publication. Those who do, those who sell the +most widely in book form, are often not at all desired by editors; with +difficulty they get a serial accepted by any principal magazine. On +the other hand, there are authors whose books, compared with those of +the popular favorites, do not sell, and yet they are eagerly sought for +by editors; they are paid the highest prices, and nothing that they +offer is refused. These are literary artists; and it ought to be plain +from what I am saying that in belles-lettres, at least, most of the +best literature now first sees the light in the magazines, and most of +the second best appears first in book form. The old-fashioned people +who flatter themselves upon their distinction in not reading magazine +fiction, or magazine poetry, make a great mistake, and simply class +themselves with the public whose taste is so crude that they cannot +enjoy the best. Of course this is true mainly, if not merely, of +belles-lettres; history, science, politics, metaphysics, in spite of +the many excellent articles and papers in these sorts upon what used to +be called various emergent occasions, are still to be found at their +best in books. The most monumental example of literature, at once +light and good, which has first reached the public in book form is in +the different publications of Mark Twain; but Mr. Clemens has of late +turned to the magazines too, and now takes their mint mark before he +passes into general circulation. All this may change again, but at +present the magazines--we have no longer any reviews--form the most +direct approach to that part of our reading public which likes the +highest things in literary art. Their readers, if we may judge from +the quality of the literature they get, are more refined than the book +readers in our community; and their taste has no doubt been cultivated +by that of the disciplined and experienced editors. So far as I have +known these they are men of aesthetic conscience, and of generous +sympathy. They have their preferences in the different kinds, and they +have their theory of what kind will be most acceptable to their +readers; but they exercise their selective function with the wish to +give them the best things they can. I do not know one of them--and it +has been my good fortune to know them nearly all--who would print a +wholly inferior thing for the sake of an inferior class of readers, +though they may sometimes decline a good thing because for one reason +or another they believe it would not be liked. Still, even this does +not often happen; they would rather chance the good thing they doubted +of than underrate their readers' judgment. + +New writers often suppose themselves rejected because they are unknown; +but the unknown man of force and quality is of all others the man whom +the editor welcomes to his page. He knows that there is always a danger +that the reigning favorite may fail to please; that at any rate, in the +order of things, he is passing away, and that if the magazine is not to +pass away with the men who have made it, there must be a constant +infusion of fresh life. Few editors are such fools and knaves as to +let their personal feeling disable their judgment; and the young writer +who gets his manuscript back may be sure that it is not because the +editor dislikes him, for some reason or no reason. Above all, he can +trust me that his contribution has not been passed unread, or has +failed of the examination it merits. Editors are not men of infallible +judgment, but they do use their judgment, and it is usually good. + +The young author who wins recognition in a first-class magazine has +achieved a double success, first, with the editor, and then with the +best reading public. Many factitious and fallacious literary +reputations have been made through books, but very few have been made +through the magazines, which are not only the best means of living, but +of outliving, with the author; they are both bread and fame to him. If +I insist a little upon the high office which this modern form of +publication fulfils in the literary world, it is because I am impatient +of the antiquated and ignorant prejudice which classes the magazines as +ephemeral. They are ephemeral in form, but in substance they are not +ephemeral, and what is best in them awaits its resurrection in the +book, which, as the first form, is so often a lasting death. An +interesting proof of the value of the magazine to literature is the +fact that a good novel will have wider acceptance as a book from having +been a magazine serial. + +I am not sure that the decay of the book is not owing somewhat to the +decay of reviewing. This does not now seem to me so thorough, or even +so general as it was some years ago, and I think the book oftener +comes to the buyer without the warrant of a critical estimate than it +once did. That is never the case with material printed in a magazine +of high class. A well-trained critic, who is bound by the strongest +ties of honor and interest not to betray either his employer or his +public, has judged it, and his practical approval is a warrant of +quality. + + + +VI. + +Under the regime of the great literary periodicals the prosperity of +literary men would be much greater than it actually is, if the +magazines were altogether literary. But they are not, and this is one +reason why literature is still the hungriest of the professions. +Two-thirds of the magazines are made up of material which, however +excellent, is without literary quality. Very probably this is because +even the highest class of readers, who are the magazine readers, have +small love of pure literature, which seems to have been growing less +and less in all classes. I say seems, because there are really no +means of ascertaining the fact, and it may be that the editors are +mistaken in making their periodicals two-thirds popular science, +politics, economics, and the timely topics which I will call +contemporaries; I have sometimes thought they were. But however that +may be, their efforts in this direction have narrowed the field of +literary industry, and darkened the hope of literary prosperity kindled +by the unexampled prosperity of their periodicals. They pay very well +indeed for literature; they pay from five or six dollars a thousand +words for the work of the unknown writer, to a hundred and fifty +dollars a thousand words for that of the most famous, or the most +popular, if there is a difference between fame and popularity; but they +do not, altogether, want enough literature to justify the best business +talent in devoting itself to belles-lettres, to fiction, or poetry, or +humorous sketches of travel, or light essays; business talent can do +far better in drygoods, groceries, drugs, stocks, real estate, +railroads, and the like. I do not think there is any danger of a +ruinous competition from it in the field which, though narrow, seems so +rich to us poor fellows, whose business talent is small, at the best. + +The most of the material contributed to the magazines is the subject of +agreement between the editor and the author; it is either suggested by +the author, or is the fruit of some suggestion from the editor; in any +case the price is stipulated beforehand, and it is no longer the custom +for a well-known contributor to leave the payment to the justice or the +generosity of the publisher; that was never a fair thing to either, nor +ever a wise thing. Usually, the price is so much a thousand words, a +truly odious method of computing literary value, and one well +calculated to make the author feel keenly the hatefulness of selling +his art at all. It is as if a painter sold his picture at so much a +square inch, or a sculptor bargained away a group of statuary by the +pound. But it is a custom that you cannot always successfully quarrel +with, and most writers gladly consent to it, if only the price a +thousand words is large enough. The sale to the editor means the sale +of the serial rights only, but if the publisher of the magazine is also +a publisher of books, the republication of the material is supposed to +be his right, unless there is an understanding to the contrary; the +terms for this are another affair. Formerly something more could be +got for the author by the simultaneous appearance of his work in an +English magazine, but now the great American magazines, which pay far +higher prices than any others in the world, have a circulation in +England so much exceeding that of any English periodical, that the +simultaneous publication can no longer be arranged for from this side, +though I believe it is still done here from the other side. + + + +VII. + +I think this is the case of authorship as it now stands with regard to +the magazines. I am not sure that the case is in every way improved +for young authors. The magazines all maintain a staff for the careful +examination of manuscripts, but as most of the material they print has +been engaged, the number of volunteer contributions that they can use +is very small; one of the greatest of them, I know, does not use fifty +in the course of a year. The new writer, then, must be very good to be +accepted, and when accepted he may wait long before he is printed. The +pressure is so great in these avenues to the public favor that one, +two, three years, are no uncommon periods of delay. If the writer has +not the patience for this, or has a soul above cooling his heels in the +courts of fame, or must do his best to earn something at once, the book +is his immediate hope. How slight a hope the book is I have tried to +hint already, but if a book is vulgar enough in sentiment, and crude +enough in taste, and flashy enough in incident, or, better or worse +still, if it is a bit hot in the mouth, and promises impropriety if not +indecency, there is a very fair chance of its success; I do not mean +success with a self-respecting publisher, but with the public, which +does not personally put its name to it, and is not openly smirched by +it. I will not talk of that kind of book, however, but of the book +which the young author has written out of an unspoiled heart and an +untainted mind, such as most young men and women write; and I will +suppose that it has found a publisher. It is human nature, as +competition has deformed human nature, for the publisher to wish the +author to take all the risks, and he possibly proposes that the author +shall publish it at his own expense, and let him have a percentage of +the retail price for managing it. If not that, he proposes that the +author shall pay for the stereotype plates, and take fifteen per cent. +of the price of the book; or if this will not go, if the author cannot, +rather than will not do it (he is commonly only too glad to do anything +he can), then the publisher offers him ten per cent. of the retail +price after the first thousand copies have been sold. But if he fully +believes in the book, he will give ten per cent. from the first copy +sold, and pay all the costs of publication himself. The book is to be +retailed for a dollar and a half, and the publisher is very well +pleased with a new book that sells fifteen hundred copies. Whether the +author has as much reason to be so is a question, but if the book does +not sell more he has only himself to blame, and had better pocket in +silence the two hundred and twenty-five dollars he gets for it, and +bless his publisher, and try to find work somewhere at five dollars a +week. The publisher has not made any more, if quite as much as the +author, and until a book has sold two thousand copies the division is +fair enough. After that, the heavier expenses of manufacturing have +been defrayed, and the book goes on advertising itself; there is merely +the cost of paper, printing, binding, and marketing to be met, and the +arrangement becomes fairer and fairer for the publisher. The author +has no right to complain of this, in the case of his first book, which +he is only too grateful to get accepted at all. If it succeeds, he has +himself to blame for making the same arrangement for his second or +third; it is his fault, or else it is his necessity, which is +practically the same thing. It will be business for the publisher to +take advantage of his necessity quite the same as if it were his fault; +but I do not say that he will always do so; I believe he will very +often not do so. + +At one time there seemed a probability of the enlargement of the +author's gains by subscription publication, and one very well-known +American author prospered fabulously in that way. The percentage +offered by the subscription houses was only about half as much as that +paid by the trade, but the sales were so much greater that the author +could very well afford to take it. Where the book-dealer sold ten, the +book-agent sold a hundred; or at least he did so in the case of Mark +Twain's books; and we all thought it reasonable he could do so with +ours. Such of us as made experiment of him, however, found the facts +illogical. No book of literary quality was made to go by subscription +except Mr. Clemens's books, and I think these went because the +subscription public never knew what good literature they were. This +sort of readers, or buyers, were so used to getting something worthless +for their money, that they would not spend it for artistic fiction, or +indeed for any fiction all, except Mr. Clemens's, which they probably +supposed bad. Some good books of travel had a measurable success +through the book agents, but not at all the success that had been hoped +for; and I believe now the subscription trade again publishes only +compilations, or such works as owe more to the skill of the editor than +the art of the writer. Mr. Clemens himself no longer offers his books +to the public in that way. + +It is not common, I think, in this country, to publish on the +half-profits system, but it is very common in England, where, owing +probably to the moisture in the air, which lends a fairy outline to +every prospect, it seems to be peculiarly alluring. One of my own +early books was published there on these terms, which I accepted with +the insensate joy of the young author in getting any terms from a +publisher. The book sold, sold every copy of the small first edition, +and in due time the publisher's statement came. I did not think my +half of the profits was very great, but it seemed a fair division after +every imaginable cost had been charged up against my poor book, and +that frail venture had been made to pay the expenses of composition, +corrections, paper, printing, binding, advertising, and editorial +copies. The wonder ought to have been that there was anything at all +coming to me, but I was young and greedy then, and I really thought +there ought to have been more. I was disappointed, but I made the best +of it, of course, and took the account to the junior partner of the +house which employed me, and said that I should like to draw on him for +the sum due me from the London publishers. He said, Certainly; but +after a glance at the account he smiled and said he supposed I knew how +much the sum was? I answered, Yes; it was eleven pounds nine +shillings, was not it? But I owned at the same time that I never was +good at figures, and that I found English money peculiarly baffling. +He laughed now, and said, It was eleven shillings and nine pence. In +fact, after all those charges for composition, corrections, paper, +printing, binding, advertising, and editorial copies, there was a most +ingenious and wholly surprising charge of ten per cent. commission on +sales, which reduced my half from pounds to shillings, and handsomely +increased the publisher's half in proportion. I do not now dispute the +justice of the charge. It was not the fault of the half-profits +system, it was the fault of the glad young author who did not +distinctly inform himself of its mysterious nature in agreeing to it, +and had only to reproach himself if he was finally disappointed. + +But there is always something disappointing in the accounts of +publishers, which I fancy is because authors are strangely constituted, +rather than because publishers are so. I will confess that I have such +inordinate expectations of the sale of my books which I hope I think +modestly of, that the sales reported to me never seem great enough. +The copyright due me, no matter how handsome it is, appears deplorably +mean, and I feel impoverished for several days after I get it. But +then, I ought to add that my balance in the bank is always much less +than I have supposed it to be, and my own checks, when they come back +to me, have the air of having been in a conspiracy to betray me. + +No, we literary men must learn, no matter how we boast ourselves in +business, that the distress we feel from our publisher's accounts is +simply idiopathic; and I for one wish to bear my witness to the +constant good faith and uprightness of publishers. + +It is supposed that because they have the affair altogether in their +hands they are apt to take advantage in it; but this does not follow, +and as a matter of fact they have the affair no more in their own hands +than any other business man you have an open account with. There is +nothing to prevent you from looking at their books, except your own +innermost belief and fear that their books are correct, and that your +literature has brought you so little because it has sold so little. + +The author is not to blame for his superficial delusion to the +contrary, especially if he has written a book that has set everyone +talking, because it is of a vital interest. It may be of a vital +interest, without being at all the kind of book people want to buy; it +may be the kind of book that they are content to know at second hand; +there are such fatal books; but hearing so much, and reading so much +about it, the author cannot help hoping that it has sold much more than +the publisher says. The publisher is undoubtedly honest, however, and +the author had better put away the comforting question of his integrity. + +The English writers seem largely to suspect their publishers (I cannot +say with how much reason, for my English publisher is Scotch, and I +should be glad to be so true a man as I think him); but I believe that +American authors, when not flown with flattering reviews, as largely +trust theirs. Of course there are rogues in every walk of life. I +will not say that I ever personally met them in the flowery paths of +literature, but I have heard of other people meeting them there, just +as I have heard of people seeing ghosts, and I have to believe in both +the rogues and the ghosts, without the witness of my own senses. I +suppose, upon such grounds mainly, that there are wicked publishers, +but in the case of our books that do not sell, I am afraid that it is +the graceless and inappreciative public which is far more to blame than +the wickedest of the publishers. It is true that publishers will drive +a hard bargain when they can, or when they must; but there is nothing +to hinder an author from driving a hard bargain, too, when he can, or +when he must; and it is to be said of the publisher that he is always +more willing to abide by the bargain when it is made than the author +is; perhaps because he has the best of it. But he has not always the +best of it; I have known publishers too generous to take advantage of +the innocence of authors; and I fancy that if publishers had to do with +any race less diffident than authors, they would have won a repute for +unselfishness that they do not now enjoy. It is certain that in the +long period when we flew the black flag of piracy there were many among +our corsairs on the high seas of literature who paid a fair price for +the stranger craft they seized; still oftener they removed the cargo, +and released their capture with several weeks' provision; and although +there was undoubtedly a good deal of actual throat-cutting and +scuttling, still I feel sure that there was less of it than there would +have been in any other line of business released to the unrestricted +plunder of the neighbor. There was for a long time even a comity among +these amiable buccaneers, who agreed not to interfere with each other, +and so were enabled to pay over to their victims some portion of the +profit from their stolen goods. Of all business men publishers are +probably the most faithful and honorable, and are only surpassed in +virtue when men of letters turn business men. + +Publishers have their little theories, their little superstitions, and +their blind faith in the great god Chance, which we all worship. These +things lead them into temptation and adversity, but they seem to do +fairly well as business men, even in their own behalf. They do not +make above the usual ninety-five per cent. of failures, and more +publishers than authors get rich. I have known several publishers who +kept their carriages, but I have never known even one author to keep +his carriage on the profits of his literature, unless it was in some +modest country place where one could take care of one's own horse. But +this is simply because the authors are so many, and the publishers are +so few. If we wish to reverse their positions, we must study how to +reduce the number of authors and increase the number of publishers; +then prosperity will smile our way. + + + +VIII. + +Some theories or superstitions publishers and authors share together. +One of these is that it is best to keep your books all in the hands of +one publisher if you can, because then he can give them more attention +ad sell more of them. But my own experience is that when my books were +in the hands of three publishers they sold quite as well as when one +had them; and a fellow author whom I approached in question of this +venerable belief, laughed at it. This bold heretic held that it was +best to give each new book to a new publisher, for then the fresh man +put all his energies into pushing it; but if you had them all together, +the publisher rested in a vain security that one book would sell +another, and that the fresh venture would revive the public interest in +the stale ones. I never knew this to happen, and I must class it with +the superstitions of the trade. It may be so in other and more +constant countries, but in our fickle republic, each last book has to +fight its own way to public favor, much as if it had no sort of +literary lineage. Of course this is stating it rather largely, and the +truth will be found inside rather than outside of my statement; but +there is at least truth enough in it to give the young author pause. +While one is preparing to sell his basket of glass, he may as well ask +himself whether it is better to part with all to one dealer or not; and +if he kicks it over, in spurning the imaginary customer who asks the +favor of taking entire stock, that will be his fault, and not the fault +of the question. + +However, the most important question of all with the man of letters as +a man of business, is what kind of book will sell the best of itself, +because, at the end of the ends, a book sells itself or does not sell +at all; kissing, after long ages of reasoning and a great deal of +culture, still goes by favor, and though innumerable generations of +horses have been led to water, not one horse has yet been made to +drink. With the best, or the worst, will in the world, no publisher +can force a book into acceptance. Advertising will not avail, and +reviewing is notoriously futile. If the book does not strike the +popular fancy, or deal with some universal interest, which need by no +means be a profound or important one, the drums and the cymbals shall +be beaten in vain. The book may be one of the best and wisest books in +the world, but if it has not this sort of appeal in it, the readers of +it, and worse yet, the purchasers, will remain few, though fit. The +secret of this, like most other secrets of a rather ridiculous world, +is in the awful keeping of fate, and we can only hope to surprise it by +some lucky chance. To plan a surprise of it, to aim a book at the +public favor, is the most hopeless of all endeavors, as it is one of +the unworthiest; and I can, neither as a man of letters nor as a man of +business, counsel the young author to do it. The best that you can do +is to write the book that it gives you the most pleasure to write, to +put as much heart and soul as you have about you into it, and then hope +as hard as you can to reach the heart and soul of the great multitude +of your fellow-men. That, and that alone, is good business for a man +of letters. + +The failures in literature are no less mystifying than the successes, +though they are upon the whole not so mortifying. I have seen a good +many of these failures, and I know of one case so signal that I must +speak of it, even to the discredit of the public. It is the case of a +novelist whose work seems to me of the best that we have done in that +sort, whose books represent our life with singular force and singular +insight, and whose equipment for his art, through study, travel, and +the world, is of the rarest. He has a strong, robust, manly style; his +stories are well knit, and his characters are of the flesh and blood +complexion which we know in our daily experience; and yet he has failed +to achieve one of the first places in our literature; if I named his +name here, I am afraid that it would be quite unknown to the greatest +part of my readers. I have never been able to account for his want of +success, except through the fact that his stories did not please women, +though why they did not, I cannot guess. They did not like them for +the same reason that they did not like Dr. Fell; and that reason was +quite enough for them. It must be enough for him, I am afraid; but I +believe that if this author had been writing in a country where men +decided the fate of books, the fate of his books would have been +different. + +The man of letters must make up his mind that in the United States the +fate of a book is in the hands of the women. It is the women with us +who have the most leisure, and they read the most books. They are far +better educated, for the most part, than our men, and their tastes, if +not their minds, are more cultivated. Our men read the newspapers, but +our women read the books; the more refined among them read the +magazines. If they do not always know what is good, they do know what +pleases them, and it is useless to quarrel with their decisions, for +there is no appeal from them. To go from them to the men would be +going from a higher to a lower court, which would be honestly surprised +and bewildered, if the thing were possible. As I say, the author of +light literature, and often the author of solid literature, must resign +himself to obscurity unless the ladies choose to recognize him. Yet it +would be impossible to forecast their favor for this kind or that. Who +could prophesy it for another, who guess it for himself? We must +strive blindly for it, and hope somehow that our best will also be our +prettiest; but we must remember at the same time that it is not the +ladies' man who is the favorite of the ladies. + +There are of course a few, a very few, of our greatest authors, who +have striven forward to the first place in our Valhalla without the +help of the largest reading-class among us; but I should say that these +were chiefly the humorists, for whom women are said nowhere to have any +warm liking, and who have generally with us come up through the +newspapers, and have never lost the favor of the newspaper readers. +They have become literary men, as it were, without the newspapers' +readers knowing it; but those who have approached literature from +another direction, have won fame in it chiefly by grace of the women, +who first read them, and then made their husbands and fathers read +them. Perhaps, then, and as a matter of business, it would be well for +a serious author, when he finds that he is not pleasing the women, and +probably never will please them, to turn humorous author, and aim at +the countenance of the men. Except as a humorist he certainly never +will get it, for your American, when he is not making money, or trying +to do it, is making a joke, or trying to do it. + + + +IX. + +I hope that I have not been hinting that the author who approaches +literature through journalism is not as fine and high a literary man as +the author who comes directly to it, or through some other avenue; I +have not the least notion of condemning myself by any such judgment. +But I think it is pretty certain that fewer and fewer authors are +turning from journalism to literature, though the entente cordiale +between the two professions seems as great as ever. I fancy, though I +may be as mistaken in this as I am in a good many other things, that +most journalists would have been literary men if they could, at the +beginning, and that the kindness they almost always show to young +authors is an effect of the self-pity they feel for their own thwarted +wish to be authors. When an author is once warm in the saddle, and is +riding his winged horse to glory, the case is different: they have then +often no sentiment about him; he is no longer the image of their own +young aspiration, and they would willingly see Pegasus buck under him, +or have him otherwise brought to grief and shame. They are apt to gird +at him for his unhallowed gains, and they would be quite right in this +if they proposed any way for him to live without them; as I have +allowed at the outset, the gains ARE unhallowed. Apparently it is +unseemly for an author or two to be making half as much by their pens +as popular ministers often receive in salary; the public is used to the +pecuniary prosperity of some of the clergy, and at least sees nothing +droll in it; but the paragrapher can always get a smile out of his +readers at the gross disparity between the ten thousand dollars Jones +gets for his novel, and the five pounds Milton got for his epic. I +have always thought Milton was paid too little, but I will own that he +ought not to have been paid at all, if it comes to that. Again, I say +that no man ought to live by any art; it is a shame to the art if not +to the artist; but as yet there is no means of the artist's living +otherwise, and continuing an artist. + +The literary man has certainly no complaint to make of the newspaper +man, generally speaking. I have often thought with amazement of the +kindness shown by the press to our whole unworthy craft, and of the +help so lavishly and freely given to rising and even risen authors. To +put it coarsely, brutally, I do not suppose that any other business +receives so much gratuitous advertising, except the theatre. It is +enormous, the space given in the newspapers to literary notes, literary +announcements, reviews, interviews, personal paragraphs, biographies, +and all the rest, not to mention the vigorous and incisive attacks made +from time to time upon different authors for their opinions of +romanticism, realism, capitalism, socialism, Catholicism, and +Sandemanianism. I have sometimes doubted whether the public cared for +so much of it all as the editors gave them, but I have always said this +under my breath, and I have thankfully taken my share of the common +bounty. A curious fact, however, is that this vast newspaper publicity +seems to have very little to do with an author's popularity, though +ever so much with his notoriety. Those strange subterranean fellows +who never come to the surface in the newspapers, except for a +contemptuous paragraph at long intervals, outsell the famousest of the +celebrities, and secretly have their horses and yachts and country +seats, while immodest merit is left to get about on foot and look up +summer board at the cheaper hotels. That is probably right, or it +would not happen; it seems to be in the general scheme, like +millionairism and pauperism; but it becomes a question, then, whether +the newspapers, with all their friendship for literature, and their +actual generosity to literary men, can really help one much to fortune, +however much they help one to fame. Such a question is almost too +dreadful, and though I have asked it, I will not attempt to answer it. +I would much rather consider the question whether if the newspapers can +make an author they can also unmake him, and I feel pretty safe in +saying that I do not think they can. The Afreet once out of the bottle +can never be coaxed back or cudgelled back; and the author whom the +newspapers have made cannot be unmade by the newspapers. They consign +him to oblivion with a rumor that fills the land, and they keep +visiting him there with an uproar which attracts more and more notice +to him. An author who has long enjoyed their favor, suddenly and +rather mysteriously loses it, through his opinions on certain matters +of literary taste, say. For the space of five or six years he is +denounced with a unanimity and an incisive vigor that ought to convince +him there is something wrong. If he thinks it is his censors, he +clings to his opinions with an abiding constance, while ridicule, +obloquy, caricature, burlesque, critical refutation and personal +detraction follow unsparingly upon every expression, for instance, of +his belief that romantic fiction is the highest form of fiction, and +that the base, sordid, photographic, commonplace school of Tolstoy, +Tourguenief, Zola, Hardy, and James, are unworthy a moment's comparison +with the school of Rider Haggard. All this ought certainly to unmake +the author in question, and strew his disjecta membra wide over the +realm of oblivion. But this is not really the effect. Slowly but +surely the clamor dies away, and the author, without relinquishing one +of his wicked opinions, or in anywise showing himself repentant, +remains apparently whole; and he even returns in a measure to the old +kindness: not indeed to the earlier day of perfectly smooth things, but +certainly to as much of it as he merits. + +I would not have the young author, from this imaginary case, believe +that it is well either to court or to defy the good opinion of the +press. In fact, it will not only be better taste, but it will be +better business for him to keep it altogether out of his mind. There +is only one whom he can safely try to please, and that is himself. If +he does this he will very probably please other people; but if he does +not please himself he may be sure that he will not please them; the +book which he has not enjoyed writing, no one will enjoy reading. +Still, I would not have him attach too little consequence to the +influence of the press. I should say, let him take the celebrity it +gives him gratefully but not too seriously; let him reflect that he is +often the necessity rather than the ideal of the paragrapher, and that +the notoriety the journalists bestow upon him is not the measure of +their acquaintance with his work, far less his meaning. They are good +fellows, those poor, hard-pushed fellows of the press, but the very +conditions of their censure, friendly or unfriendly, forbid it +thoroughness, and it must often have more zeal than knowledge in it. + + + +X. + +Whether the newspapers will become the rivals of the magazines as the +vehicle of literature is a matter that still remains in doubt with the +careful observer, after a decade of the newspaper syndicate. Our daily +papers never had the habit of the feuilleton as those of the European +continent have it; they followed the English tradition in this, though +they departed from it in so many other things; and it was not till the +Sunday editions of the great dailies arose that there was any real hope +for the serial in the papers. I suspect that it was the vast demand +for material in their pages--twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, +thirty-six--that created the syndicate, for it was the necessity of the +Sunday edition not only to have material in abundance, but, with all +possible regard for quality, to have it cheap; and the syndicate, when +it came into being, imagined a means of meeting this want. It sold the +same material to as many newspapers as it could for simultaneous +publication in their Sunday editions, which had each its special field, +and did not compete with another. + +I do not think the syndicate began with serials, and I do not think it +is likely to end with them. It has rather worked the vein of +interviews, personal adventure, popular science, useful information, +travel, sketches, and short stories. Still it has placed a good many +serial stories, and at pretty good prices, but not generally so good as +those the magazines pay the better sort of writers; for the worse sort +it has offered perhaps the best market they have had out of book form. +By the newspapers, the syndicate conceives, and perhaps justly, that +something sensational is desired; yet all the serial stories it has +placed cannot be called sensational. It has enlarged the field of +belles-lettres, certainly, but not permanently, I think, in the case of +the artistic novel. As yet the women, who form the largest, if not the +only cultivated class among us, have not taken very cordially to the +Sunday edition, except for its social gossip; they certainly do not go +to it for their fiction, and its fiction is mainly of the inferior sort +with which boys and men beguile their leisure. + +In fact the newspapers prefer to remain newspapers, at least in quality +if not in form; and I heard a story the other day from a charming young +writer of his experience with them, which may have some instruction for +the magazines that less wisely aim to become newspapers. He said that +when he carried his work to the editors they struck out what he thought +the best of it, because it was what they called magaziny; not +contemptuously, but with an instinctive sense of what their readers +wanted of them, and did not want. It was apparent that they did not +want literary art, or even the appearance of it; they wanted their +effects primary; they wanted their emotions raw, or at least saignantes +from the joint of fact, and not prepared by the fancy or the taste. + +The syndicate has no doubt advanced the prosperity of the short story +by increasing the demand for it. We Americans had already done pretty +well in that kind, for there was already a great demand for the short +story in the magazines; but the syndicate of Sunday editions +particularly cultivated it, and made it very paying. I have heard that +some short-story writers made the syndicate pay more for their wares +than they got from the magazines for them, considering that the +magazine publication could enhance their reputation, but the Sunday +edition could do nothing for it. They may have been right or not in +this; I will not undertake to say, but that was the business view of +the case with them. + +In spite of the fact that short stories when gathered into a volume and +republished would not sell so well as a novel, the short story +flourished, and its success in the periodicals began to be felt in the +book trade: volumes of short stories suddenly began to sell. But now +again, it is said the bottom has dropped out, and they do not sell, and +their adversity in book form threatens to affect them in the magazines; +an editor told me the other day that he had more short stories than he +knew what to do with; and I was not offering him a short story of my +own, either. + +A permanent decline in the market for a kind of literary art which we +have excelled in, or if we have not excelled, have done some of our +most exquisite work, would be a pity. + +There are other sorts of light literature once greatly in demand, but +now apparently no longer desired by editors, who ought to know what +their readers desire. Among these is the travel sketch, to me a very +agreeable kind, and really to be regretted in its decline. There are +some reasons for its decline besides a change of taste in readers, and +a possible surfeit. Travel itself has become so universal that +everybody, in a manner, has been everywhere, and the foreign scene has +no longer the charm of strangeness. We do not think the Old World +either so romantic or so ridiculous as we used; and perhaps from an +instinctive perception of this altered mood writers no longer appeal to +our sentiment or our humor with sketches of outlandish people and +places. Of course this can hold true only in a general way; the thing +is still done, but not nearly so much done as formerly. When one +thinks of the long line of American writers who have greatly pleased in +this sort, and who even got their first fame in it, one must grieve to +see it obsolescent. Irving, Curtis, Bayard Taylor, Herman Melville, +Ross Browne, Ik Marvell, Longfellow, Lowell, Story, Mr. James, Mr. +Aldrich, Colonel Hay, Mr. Warner, Mrs. Hunt, Mr. C.W. Stoddard, Mark +Twain, and many others whose names will not come to me at the moment, +have in their several ways richly contributed to our pleasure in it; +but I cannot now fancy a young author finding favor with an editor in a +sketch of travel, or a study of foreign manners and customs; his work +would have to be of the most signal importance and brilliancy to +overcome the editor's feeling that the thing had been done already; and +I believe that a publisher if offered a book of such things, would look +at it askance, and plead the well-known quiet of the trade. Still, I +may be mistaken. + +I am rather more confident about the decline of another literary +species, namely, the light essay. We have essays enough and to spare, +of certain soberer and severer sorts, such as grapple with problems and +deal with conditions; but the kind I mean, the slightly humorous, +gentle, refined, and humane kind, seems no longer to abound as it once +did. I do not know whether the editor discourages them, knowing his +readers' frame, or whether they do not offer themselves, but I seldom +find them in the magazines. I certainly do not believe that if anyone +were now to write essays such as Mr. Warner's "Backlog Studies," an +editor would refuse them; and perhaps nobody really writes them. +Nobody seems to write the sort that Colonel Higginson formerly +contributed to the periodicals, or such as Emerson wrote. Without a +great name behind it, I am afraid that a volume of essays would find +few buyers, even after the essays had made a public in the magazines. +There are, of course, instances to the contrary, but they are not so +many or so striking as to make me think that the essay could not be +offered as a good opening for business talent. + +I suspect that good poetry by well-known hands was never better paid in +the magazines than it is now. I must say, too, that I think the +quality of the minor poetry of our day is better than that of +twenty-five or thirty years ago. I could name half a score of young +poets whose work from time to time gives me great pleasure, by the +reality of its feeling, and the delicate perfection of its art, but I +will not name them, for fear of passing over half a score of others +equally meritorious. We have certainly no reason to be discouraged, +whatever reason the poets themselves have to be so, and I do not think +that even in the short story our younger writers are doing better work +than they are doing in the slighter forms of verse. Yet the notion of +inviting business talent into this field would be as preposterous as +that of asking it to devote itself to the essay. What book of verse by +a recent poet, if we except some such peculiarly gifted poet as Mr. +Whitcomb Riley, has paid its expenses, not to speak of any profit to +the author? Of course, it would be rather more offensive and +ridiculous that it should do so than that any other form of literary +art should do so; and yet there is no more provision in our economic +system for the support of the poet apart from his poems, than there is +for the support of the novelist apart from his novel. One could not +make any more money by writing poetry than by writing history, but it +is a curious fact that while the historians have usually been rich men, +and able to afford the luxury of writing history, the poets have +usually been poor men, with no pecuniary justification in their +devotion to a calling which is so seldom an election. + +To be sure, it can be said for them that it costs far less to set up +poet than to set up historian. There is no outlay for copying +documents, or visiting libraries, or buying books. In fact, except as +historian, the man of letters, in whatever walk, has not only none of +the expenses of other men of business, but none of the expenses of +other artists. He has no such outlay to make for materials, or models, +or studio rent as the painter or the sculptor has, and his income, such +as it is, is immediate. If he strikes the fancy of the editor with the +first thing he offers, as he very well may, it is as well with him as +with other men after long years of apprenticeship. Although he will +always be the better for an apprenticeship, and the longer +apprenticeship the better, he may practically need none at all. Such +are the strange conditions of his acceptance with the public, that he +may please better without it than with it. An author's first book is +too often not only his luckiest, but really his best; it has a +brightness that dies out under the school he puts himself to, but a +painter or sculptor is only the gainer by all the school he can give +himself. + + + +XI. + +In view of this fact it become again very hard to establish the +author's status in the business world, and at moments I have grave +question whether he belongs there at all, except as a novelist. There +is, of course, no outlay for him in this sort, any more than in any +other sort of literature, but it at least supposes and exacts some +measure of preparation. A young writer may produce a brilliant and +very perfect romance, just as he may produce a brilliant and very +perfect poem, but in the field of realistic fiction, or in what we used +to call the novel of manners, a writer can only produce an inferior +book at the outset. For this work he needs experience and observation, +not so much of others as of himself, for ultimately his characters will +all come out of himself, and he will need to know motive and character +with such thoroughness and accuracy as he can acquire only through his +own heart. A man remains in a measure strange to himself as long as he +lives, and the very sources of novelty in his work will be within +himself; he can continue to give it freshness in no other way than by +knowing himself better and better. But a young writer and an untrained +writer has not yet begun to be acquainted even with the lives of other +men. The world around him remains a secret as well as the world within +him, and both unfold themselves simultaneously to that experience of +joy and sorrow that can come only with the lapse of time. Until he is +well on toward forty, he will hardly have assimilated the materials of +a great novel, although he may have accumulated them. The novelist, +then, is a man of letters who is like a man of business in the +necessity of preparation for his calling, though he does not pay +store-rent, and may carry all his affairs under his hat, as the phrase +is. He alone among men of letters may look forward to that sort of +continuous prosperity which follows from capacity and diligence in +other vocations; for story-telling is now a fairly recognized trade, +and the story-teller has a money-standing in the economic world. It is +not a very high standing, I think, and I have expressed the belief that +it does not bring him the respect felt for men in other lines of +business. Still our people cannot deny some consideration to a man who +gets a hundred dollars a thousand words. That is a fact appreciable to +business, and the man of letters in the line of fiction may reasonably +feel that his place in our civilization, though he may owe it to the +women who form the great mass of his readers, has something of the +character of a vested interest in the eyes of men. There is, indeed, +as yet no conspiracy law which will avenge the attempt to injure him in +his business. A critic, or a dark conjuration of critics, may damage +him at will and to the extent of their power, and he has no recourse +but to write better books, or worse. The law will do nothing for him, +and a boycott of his books might be preached with immunity by any class +of men not liking his opinions on the question of industrial slavery or +antipaedobaptism. Still the market for his wares is steadier than the +market for any other kind of literary wares, and the prices are better. +The historian, who is a kind of inferior realist, has something like +the same steadiness in the market, but the prices he can command are +much lower, and the two branches of the novelist's trade are not to be +compared in a business way. As for the essayist, the poet, the +traveller, the popular scientist, they are nowhere in the competition +for the favor of readers. The reviewer, indeed, has a pretty steady +call for his work, but I fancy the reviewers who get a hundred dollars +a thousand words could all stand upon the point of a needle without +crowding one another; I should rather like to see them doing it. +Another gratifying fact of the situation is that the best writers of +fiction who are most in demand with the magazines, probably get nearly +as much money for their work as the inferior novelists who outsell them +by tens of thousands, and who make their appeal to the innumerable +multitude of the less educated and less cultivated buyers of fiction in +book-form. I think they earn their money, but if I did not think all +of the higher class of novelists earned so much money as they get, I +should not be so invidious as to single out for reproach those who did +not. + +The difficulty about payment, as I have hinted, is that literature has +no objective value really, but only a subjective value, if I may so +express it. A poem, an essay, a novel, even a paper on political +economy, may be worth gold untold to one reader, and worth nothing +whatever to another. It may be precious to one mood of the reader, and +worthless to another mood of the same reader. How, then, is it to be +priced, and how is it to be fairly marketed? All people must be fed, +and all people must be clothed, and all people must be housed; and so +meat, raiment, and shelter are things of positive and obvious +necessity, which may fitly have a market price put upon them. But +there is no such positive and obvious necessity, I am sorry to say, for +fiction, or not for the higher sort of fiction. The sort of fiction +which corresponds to the circus and the variety theatre in the +show-business seems essential to the spiritual health of the masses, +but the most cultivated of the classes can get on, from time to time, +without an artistic novel. This is a great pity, and I should be very +willing that readers might feel something like the pangs of hunger and +cold, when deprived of their finer fiction; but apparently they never +do. Their dumb and passive need is apt only to manifest itself +negatively, or in the form of weariness of this author or that. The +publisher of books can ascertain the fact through the declining sales +of a writer; but the editor of a magazine, who is the best customer of +the best writers, must feel the market with a much more delicate touch. +Sometimes it may be years before he can satisfy himself that his +readers are sick of Smith, and are pining for Jones; even then he +cannot know how long their mood will last, and he is by no means safe +in cutting down Smith's price and putting up Jones's. With the best +will in the world to pay justly, he cannot. Smith, who has been boring +his readers to death for a year, may write to-morrow a thing that will +please them so much that he will at once be a prime favorite again; and +Jones, whom they have been asking for, may do something so +uncharacteristic and alien that it will be a flat failure in the +magazine. The only thing that gives either writer positive value is +his acceptance with the reader; but the acceptance is from month to +month wholly uncertain. Authors are largely matters of fashion, like +this style of bonnet, or that shape of gown. Last spring the dresses +were all made with lace berthas, and Smith was read; this year the +butterfly capes are worn, and Jones is the favorite author. Who shall +forecast the fall and winter modes? + + + +XII. + +In this inquiry it is always the author rather than the publisher, +always the contributor rather than the editor, whom I am concerned for. +I study the difficulties of the publisher and editor only because they +involve the author and the contributor; if they did not, I will not say +with how hard a heart I should turn from them; my only pang now in +scrutinizing the business conditions of literature is for the makers of +literature, not the purveyors of it. + +After all, and in spite of my vaunting title, is the man of letters +ever a business man? I suppose that, strictly speaking, he never is, +except in those rare instances where, through need or choice, he is the +publisher as well as the author of his books. Then he puts something +on the market and tries to sell it there, and is a man of business. +But otherwise he is an artist merely, and is allied to the great mass +of wage-workers who are paid for the labor they have put into the thing +done or the thing made; who live by doing or making a thing, and not by +marketing a thing after some other man has done it or made it. The +quality of the thing has nothing to do with the economic nature of the +case; the author is, in the last analysis, merely a workingman, and is +under the rule that governs the workingman's life. If he is sick or +sad, and cannot work, if he is lazy or tipsy and will not, then he +earns nothing. He cannot delegate his business to a clerk or a +manager; it will not go on while he is sleeping. The wage he can +command depends strictly upon his skill and diligence. + +I myself am neither sorry nor ashamed for this; I am glad and proud to +be of those who eat their bread in the sweat of their own brows, and +not the sweat of other men's brows; I think my bread is the sweeter for +it. In the meantime I have no blame for business men; they are no more +of the condition of things than we workingmen are; they did no more to +cause it or create it; but I would rather be in my place than in +theirs, and I wish that I could make all my fellow-artists realize that +economically they are the same as mechanics, farmers, day-laborers. It +ought to be our glory that we produce something, that we bring into the +world something that was not choately there before; that at least we +fashion or shape something anew; and we ought to feel the tie that +binds us to all the toilers of the shop and field, not as a galling +chain, but as a mystic bond also uniting us to Him who works hitherto +and evermore. + +I know very well that to the vast multitude of our fellow-workingmen we +artists are the shadows of names, or not even the shadows. I like to +look the facts in the face, for though their lineaments are often +terrible, yet there is light nowhere else; and I will not pretend, in +this light, that the masses care any more for us than we care for the +masses, or so much. Nevertheless, and most distinctly, we are not of +the classes. Except in our work, they have no use for us; if now and +then they fancy qualifying their material splendor or their spiritual +dulness with some artistic presence, the attempt is always a failure +that bruises and abashes. In so far as the artist is a man of the +world, he is the less an artist, and if he fashions himself upon +fashion, he deforms his art. We all know that ghastly type; it is more +absurd even than the figure which is really of the world, which was +born and bred in it, and conceives of nothing outside of it, or above +it. In the social world, as well as in the business world, the artist +is anomalous, in the actual conditions, and he is perhaps a little +ridiculous. + +Yet he has to be somewhere, poor fellow, and I think that he will do +well to regard himself as in a transition state. He is really of the +masses, but they do not know it, and what is worse, they do not know +him; as yet the common people do not hear him gladly or hear him at +all. He is apparently of the classes; they know him, and they listen +to him; he often amuses them very much; but he is not quite at ease +among them; whether they know it or not, he knows that he is not of +their kind. Perhaps he will never be at home anywhere in the world as +long as there are masses whom he ought to consort with, and classes +whom he cannot consort with. The prospect is not brilliant for any +artist now living, but perhaps the artist of the future will see in the +flesh the accomplishment of that human equality of which the instinct +has been divinely planted in the human soul. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man of Letters as a Man of Business, by +William Dean Howells + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN OF LETTERS, MAN OF BUSINESS *** + +***** This file should be named 724.txt or 724.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/724/ + +Produced by Anthony J. Adam. 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