Among the Literati

That perpetual feud, Author versus Publisher, was the subject of a recent article in Publisher’s Weekly, that sometimes sprightly organ of the book trade. Recounting in detail the major woes of the author, the writer set down a few of the more important problems confronting the publisher and suggests that both parties formulate a code for their relationship. In substance, the article stated that the relation of author and publisher was not unlike that of bride and groom. Now, I ask, how can you expect lasting peace with a formula like that?

It is true that most of the trouble arises because publishers are heedless. They often neglect to consult the author about jackets, printing designs, blurbs, advertising, or publicity. It is equally true that authors make too much fuss over such matters, which are, after all, the publisher’s business. A few years ago before Seward Collins discovered economics and his Bookman was appearing with more or less regularity, there appeared in that august publication an article titled “Authors Are Awful,” in which the writing gentry was called unpleasant things. Many instances were set down to prove that the scribbling tribe was a bunch of ingrates. Much that the article contained was true but in spirit it was a little one-sided.

As a general proposition, good authors are successful authors; there are exceptions but in the main publishers have little or no trouble with authors whose royalty statements attract respectful attention from the income tax collector. It is the “first” author or “flop” writer who is responsible for the subdued air so prevalent around publishers’ offices. Self-blame is not the common characteristic of an egotist and authors are egotists or they would’t be authors. Being what they are, they naturally blame everything possible for the failure of their work, except the work itself. Publishers are not blameless; they have and will tread needlessly on the ego of authors but as a rule publishers treat authors much better than they themselves are treated. And, after all, why shouldn’t they, for without authors, even poor ones, there would be no publishers.

PURE AND IMPURE GOSSIP

The Horace Liveright corporation was finally sold by the referee in bankruptcy. The price was $18,100 and the purchaser a gentleman named Victor Gold who was acting as dummy for Arthur Pell, former president of the company. Thus Pell once again gets control of what’s left of the business. The sale was rather exciting. It seems that a few weeks before it was to take place Pell had made a deal with Coward-McCann whereby that house was to become a partner with Pell in the sale. At the last moment, Mr. Pell decided not to go through with the deal and informed Tom Coward to that effect. Coward then went to the sale and bid for the business himself. He went up to $18,000; the extra hundred by Gold clinched the deal….

Julian Messner, once an officer in Liveright, announces that he is starting a publishing house of his own. A great many books will be sold over the drug store counters before the first Messner imprint is seen… Dr. Hans Preiss, one of the best known international booksellers in the world, whose shop in Berlin has been the gathering place of book collectors, has been forced out of business by the Nazis… Why hasn’t Louis Stark, star labor reporter for the New York Times, written a book on labor problems in these United States? He knows more about conditions in that field than anyone writing today.