Alfred King, who, some months ago, made an announcement that he was finished with publishing the “popular” drug store variety of fiction now has ready for display his first book in his new school of publisching. It is called “Mad Hatter Village,” by Mary Cavendish. A close perusal of this tome leads to the inevitable remark that Mr. King has not completely overcome his taste for books of the emotional type.
After following the itinerary of Fannie Hurst’s many activities over the past months I couldn’t figure out how she could find time to devote to writing, but from Harper’s comes the word that her next novel, titled “Anitra’s Dance,” will be published on March 21.
Spring book business, from advance reports from salesmen on the road, looks as though it will be the best it has been since Sinclair Lewis pasted Theodore Dreiser. Figures recently released show that 8092 trade and text books were published during 1933, nearly a thousand less than were issued in 1932, but in England nearly a thousand more books were bublished in 1933 than were issued in 1932. In this country most new books were issued by Macmilaan, which issued 564 tiltes.
As long as I have started with statistics, etc, I might as well go the whole hog and tell you about the best selers of 1933. Of course “Anthony Adverse” leads the list. “As the Earth Turns” was second, “Ann Vickers,” “The Magnificent Obsession,” “One More River,” “Forgive Us Our Trespasses,” “The Master of Jalna,” “Miss Bishop,” “The Farm” and “Little Man, What Now ?” followed. The last named did not sell in excess of 20,000 copies so you can see what state book business was in last year. By the way how many of these fiction titles did you read ? The best selling non-fiction included “Life Begins at Forty,” “Marie Antoinette,” “British Agent,” 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs,” “The House of Exiles” “Geography,” “Looking Forward.”
CORRECTION
Some time ago there appeared in thses columns a story about William Soskin, the new literary editor of the “New York American,” in which it was stated that Mr. Soskin had been twice married. According to Mr. Soskin who has written to me, this is not so. He states that I was in error about his marital affairs.
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