Among the Literati

Alfred King, the young and carefully impetuous publisher whose name was not always King, has made a public announcement to the effect that he will henceforth issue to the readers of this great Republic a better type of fiction than has been his wont in the past. Mr. King, during the short life of his company, has issued a countless number of “light fiction” titles. He is now going in for “heavier” stuff. What caused this sudden change of heart is not apparent in Mr. King’s releases to the press. I am sure it is not due to any great cultural awakening which might have taken place in Mr. King’s soul. He is after all, only a Harvard man. I am afraid that the publisher is moved by purely mundane motives. It has been discovered that although the public is still interested in sex, sweetness and light, books that deal with such subjects are not selling and that readers demand more solid fare.

Marshall A. Best, of Viking Press, has made the best possible answer to my remarks that the books of Broun, F.P.A., Sullivan and Woolcott do not sell. He writes with dignity that F.P.A.’s books are unsuccessful but that Sullivan’s last book, “In One Ear”, did very well indeed. About Woollcott he remarks that the chunky gentleman with the mellow style has not written a book in five years. The latter is hardly an answer and, as for “In One Ear”, it may have done very well but only compared to Sullivan’s previous books. I didn’t see it on any best seller list. Mr. Best adds that my remarks about Halpert’s unpublished novel, “Windy City Blues”, was slightly awry. He says, “We did not pay him to publish it but paid for an option on the book to follow. We have no intention of bringing out the earlier work simply because the second one was successful. If it is ever brought out, it will be a completely different book than what it was when we saw it before.” The answer will be forthcoming when “Windy City Blues” is published; as I read the original manuscript before Mr. Best saw it and when it was titled “Chicago Blues” I await its publication with increasing impatience.

Mrs. Dorothy Parker to whom credit is given, whether she deserves it or not, for many of the good gags that go the rounds of the town, is of our faith. She is the bane of all editors. Her word that she will have a piece ready on a certain day is about as good as a German mark during an inflation. She is the female Ring Lardner of America but outdoes the famous satirist in cruelty to her characters. Her talents lie in the short story and verse and she sticks to these forms of expression. She is responsible for much unhappiness among young men because so many girls try to imitate her clothes, speech and philosophy. She has seen thirty summers and probably a couple of winters and is the most quoted woman in New York.

A good gift for that lawyer friend of yours is A. L. Schlosser’s “Lawyers Must Eat” …A. Kroch, Chicago bookseller who now controls Brentano’s, is a visitor to these sidewalks. He came in to see the publishers…. For the first time since 1929 publishers’ advertising has increased for three successive months and is running far ahead of last year’s….

Things to wonder about—the remarkably long life as a best seller of Stefan Zweig’s “Marie Antoinette”, published last April…. The number of Gentiles working in Jewish publishing houses and the few Jews working in Gentile houses…. The large number of Jews who review books and the scarcity of Jewish literary editors… The consistent skill with which the judges of the Book of the Month club pick best sellers…. The bridge playing of Dick Simon…. When Max Schuster is going to write that history of world culture, the notes for which will soon have him crowded out of his office…. The ties and colored shirts of Alfred Knopf…. What Konrad Bercovici would do if he lost his cane and moustache on the same day…. The inability of Donald Friede to travel any distance except by plane…. Why Otto Kahn advised the late Horace Live-right in the latter’s investments……. The Doubleday Doran dollar book club is nothing more than a clever way of disposing of its overstock. These books, which cannot be sold at the regular published price and would have to be sold to the “remainder” buyers at prices ranging from twenty to forty cents a copy, are offered to the public at one dollar…. The book publishers have agreed upon a code, a very inoffensive one. It contains no startling or important innovations…. There will be no really upsetting changes made in the New York Times staff until conditions improve. With unprecedented kindness the executives refuse to fire people until chances of getting other jobs are more propitious… It may be pretty late to talk about it now but Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” had as its main character a Jewish novelist, whose counterpart we all know. He was very active in the late technocracy movement, in fact he wrote a book on the subject…. Aline Bernstein, whose name is familiar to those in theatrical business, is the author of a book called “Three Blue Suits”, which will be elegantly published’ in a limited signed edition of 600 copies. Not a bad idea, since this is the lady’s first venture between book covers and sales of first novels are rarely very much in excess of 600 copies…. Ludwig Lewisohn, one of the modern discoverers of Judaism, will be out in time for Christmas with a new book, “Creative America”, an anthology of prose and verse…. All the people, and it has been all the people, who have been humming “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” will be able to have it in book form very soon. It is being issued as a children’s book, which will be a good excuse for adults to buy it. The title, however, is “Three Little Pigs” and it was written by Walter Disney.