Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

of books, and was somewhat astonished to receive $700 worth. An attempt was made to collect payment in both cases, but it did not work.

There is one fact which is noticeable in the book trade of the West, and one which Eastern publishers should bear especially in mind-that is that the West is growing more critical about the mechanical appearance of a book. A poorly-printed, shabbily-bound book seems less precious by almost one half than one whose paper is firm and good, whose type is clear and bright, and whose binding is neat and tasty. I think Eastern publishers will agree with me that the late works from the press of the two principal publishers of this city, S. C. Griggs & Co. and Jansen, McClurg & Co., have been fine specimens of book printing. These gentlemen tell me that their efforts in this direction are appreciated by the public.

Donnelly, Gassette & Loyd have sold the Lakeside Library to George Munroe, publisher of the Seaside Library, New York. It is probable that the name of the Seaside will now be changed to the Seaside-Lakeside. Mr. Gassette, of the Chicago firm, has been in New York the past week, and endeavored to buy the Seaside, but not successful in this, disposed of the Lakeside. The Lakeside was the pioneer library, and its publishers claim it has always paid them well. It is said that the Seaside, although it has issued nearly double the numbers in the Lakeside, has never been a paying affair. The latter library was the favorite in the West, and circulated largely East, while the former's circulation was almost wholly in the East.

Donnelly, Gassette & Loyd will devote more of their attention to regular book publishing than they have heretofore. They will shortly issue a novel by May E. Stone, entitled "The Doctor's Protégé."

POSTAL MATTERS.

A NEW CODE OF REGULATIONS.

D.

THE Post-Office Appropriation Act contained the following important provision:

"For preparing and publishing a new edition of the Laws and Regulations of the PostOffice Department, twenty-thousand dollars, of which sum two thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, may be paid, upon the order of the Postmaster-General, and, in his discretion, to such officers of the Department as he may designate to prepare and superintend the publication of the volume : Provided, That the time so employed shall in no wise interfere with the regular daily duties of such officers; the appropriation herein provided for to be immediately available."

one

In accordance with this provision, the Postmaster-General has appointed Hon. A. H. Bissell, of the law division, than whom no could be better fitted for the work, and Mr. T. B. Kirby, stenographer to the PostmasterGeneral, to prepare the new edition of the "Laws and Regulations," and has directed postal officials to report to them any recommendations suggested by their experience. The two editors have accordingly issued a circular request, which is sent also to those outside of the Department who have made a special study of postal relations. It is hoped to have the new code ready shortly after May 1, when the new law goes into effect.

COMMUNICATIONS.

A NEW HYPHEN WANTED. To the Editor of the Publishers' Weekly:

In printing, the hyphen is the only character made to fill two opposite positions: that of dividing words at ends of lines and joining or compounding words. The fact betrays a poverty of signs or characters.

Its use as a separator should be confined either to compound or to simple words. "Thumbscrew," occurring in or near the middle of a line, is supplied with a hyphen, to denote that it is a compound; and if by chance the word falls so far to the right as to be made divisible, it is justly entitled to its original hyphen as a compound plus another as a divided word. The writer suggests a double hyphen (=), to be used only in dividing compound words. As ordinarily divided, such compounds as "breastplate," " "armor-bearer," "major-general," etc., lose their identity as compounds. means, let us have for such divisions a character which will be definite and fixed.

THE ROCKS, Feb. 25.

By all

JAMES WILSON.

[The device suggested by Mr. Wilson is in desirable in English. The same double hyphen common use in Germany, and certainly seems would be useful also in double compounds, a German fashion already adopted by Carlyle and other English writers, and growing into general use, as stage- and copy-right.—ED.]

DISCOUNTS OUTSIDE OF THE TRADE.

BALTIMORE, March 11, 1879. To the Editor of the Publishers' Weekly:

There is no chance for retailers so long as publishers allow large discounts to outsiders, The last instance that has come to my knowledge is that of a New York house giving 40 per cent discount to an outside purchaser here of a book just published. This sort of thing is killing the retail trade, and must, in turn, damage the publishers. The true interest of the publishing business is to allow no discount to outside parties. This will encourage retailers to keep full stocks. But if they are to be told by customers that they can get 40 per cent discount by buying directly from the publishers, the retailer's business is gone.

UNFORTUNATE RETAILER.

AUTHORS AT WORK. MRS. MACQUOID will commence a story in the March number of Kensington.

[ocr errors]

LISZT's scattered literary essays are about to be collected and published by Lina Ramann. BRITISH Cyprus" is the title of Mr. Hepworth Dixon's forthcoming work, which will be published at once in London.

THE Rev. A. J. Church intends to follow up his "Stories from Homer and Virgil " by a volume of "Stories from the Greek Tragedians."

PROF. STANLEY JEVONS has prepared a new and very thoroughly revised edition of his "Theory of Political Economy," which will shortly be published by Macmillan & Co.

REV. LYMAN ABBOTT is writing "Notes on the Gospel of John," which will form the fourth volume of his "Popular Commentary on the New Testament," for Christian workers and families.

THE important cyclopedia of religious poetry in preparation by Dodd, Mead & Co., which we announced some time since, will be edited by the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff and Mr. Arthur Gilman.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK has in the press, we are informed, two volumes of lectures and essays, one scientific, the other political and social in character. They will shortly be published by Macmillan & Co.

[ocr errors]

M. ALPHONSE DAUDET is at work on a new novel, which will be called "Les Rois en Exil. The late King of Hanover and other dethroned monarchs will figure in it. A new novel by M. Zola is about to appear in Le Voltaire.

MR. OLIVER JOHNSON announces his temporary retirement from The Orange (New Jersey) Fournal, in order to devote himself for a time to literary work-it is understood the writing of a history of the Abolition movement, in which he was an early leader.

GENERAL SIR ARTHUR CUNYNGHAME, who commanded the Diamond Fields Expedition, and directed the active operations in the field against the Gaikas and Galekas, has prepared an account of his travels through and experience in South Africa, 1874-8. The book will be published this spring by Macmillan & Co.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES.
THE trade will do well to be liberally sup-
plied with a full stock of James Miller's new
Florence Edition of Mrs. Browning.

COL. HIGGINSON'S "Young Folks' History of the United States" (Lee & Shepard), which has been translated into three foreign languages, is now printing in raised letters for the blind.

MESSRS. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co. have reduced the price of the "United States Dispensatory" from $10 to $7.50. It is the fourteenth edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged, by Geo. B. Wood, M.D., assisted by H. C. Wood, M.D.

MR. FROUDE'S "Life of Julius Cæsar" may be expected from Charles Scribner's Sons about April 1, simultaneously with its appearance in London. It is a single volume of 12mo size, and is published here by direct arrangement of the publishers with Mr. Froude.

SCRIBNER & Co. are about issuing a second edition of 10,000 of their new hymn- and tunebook, "Spiritual Songs," and announce also a Chapel Edition, containing a selection of over 500 hymns, at 75 cts. retail and 60 cts. in quantities. The page is of the same size.

Randolph & Co.'s, is a decided novelty. It is "EASTER WINGS," just ready at A. D. F. a "ribbon book" cut in the shape of a dove's wing, and printed on the cover in imitation REV. GEORGE D. BOARDMAN, D.D., author of thereof; the little pages contain various ap"The Creation Week" and "The Lord's Pray-propriate scriptural and poetical quotations. er," has made arrangements with D. Appleton & Co. for publishing another book, on "The " Epiphanies of the Risen Lord." All the record ed appearances of our Lord will be treated, and most of them will be illustrated by highly-finished engravings from paintings by the old mas

ters.

STATIONERY NOTES.

THE annual catalogue of the J. G. Shaw Company contains an addition of some forty

different lines of blank books.

DALZIEL & MARKLEY publish, at reasonable rates, a neat card calendar with imprints for business men. The calendar is circular in shape, and the corners can be utilized by inserting illustrations of specialties.

JOHN B. DAVIDS, of Thaddeus Davids & Co., has been granted a patent for a fountain mucilage-brush. A rubber bulb holds the mucilage by suction-the flow being regulated by pressure -and obviates the continual dipping of the oldstyle brush.

44

DANIEL SLOTE & Co. are to the front again with a novelty which will undoubtedly be hailed with delight by a large and growing class of collectors. The American Plant-Book," designed by Harlan H. Ballard and S. Proctor Thayer, is a handsome and convenient scrapbook for preserving and analyzing pressed flowers, ferns, and grasses. Each page designed to receive the flower or leaf is faced by a printed and ruled page on which may be entered the analysis and classification. The pages of the book are 9x12 in., and are stitched with wire. An index and several pages of gummed paper, and a wallet fastened to the inside cover, are useful features. The covers are neatly stamped. The list price is $40 per

dozen.

E. J. HALE & SON will issue early in April a novel entitled "Belleview," by Henry D. Capus, and a "History of Kemper County, Mississippi," with an account of the troubles and outrages committed in that region. The latter is by Jas. D. Lynch, and promises to be very interesting.

[ocr errors][merged small]

He

ONE of Mr. Bryant's latest pieces of work was an introduction to a work called "Thoughts on a Religious Life," by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Alden, Principal of the State Normal School at Albany, an old friend of Mr. Bryant. left it unfinished, so that several gaps remain unsupplied. G. P. Putnam's Sons will publish it, however, with Dr. Alden's work, in a small 16mo volume of a hundred pages.

THE American Unitarian Association has in preparation a small volume to be entitled "Unitarian Affirmations," and to contain the lectures recently delivered in Washington by Drs. Hedge, Clarke, Briggs, Ellis, and Revs. Burke Herford and S. R. Calthrop. lectures by such representative clergymen may confidently be anticipated to give a definite and adequate reply to the question so frequently asked: "What do Unitarians believe?"

These

D. LOTHROP & Co. will publish shortly Miss Yonge's very interesting Young Folks' History of England," which in 400 pages tells the most striking facts in English story clearly and effectively, and emphasizes the impression by a large number of illustrations of much better quality than often appear in books of this kind

This series of histories cannot fail of having a large sale, they form so pleasant and attractive an introduction to the histories of Greece, Germany, France, Rome, England, and other

countries.

THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY has in advanced preparation several new books, of which a life of Jonas King, well known as the veteran missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. at Athens, a considerable and interesting volume, will be of much importance, as will be also Hesba Stretton's new religious story, A Thorny Path." Two coming juveniles are 'Frolic at Maple Grove," by Mrs. M. F. Butts, with pretty illustrations by Miss Jessie Curtis, and "Helen Gray," by Miss Packard; there is also a new wall-roll, "Thoughts for the Day."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

POTT, YOUNG & Co. will presently have ready a two-volume "Life of Bishop Selwyn, late of Lichfield," a well-known leader in the English Church who made several visits to this country, written by Rev. W. H. Tucker; a series of "Studies on the Collects of the Communion

Office, Critical and Devotional," by Dean Goulburn, and a volume of "Sermons for Children," by that well-known writer, Rev. S. Baring-Gould. A volume of Manchester Sermons," by the revivalist Rev. W. J. KnoxLittle, recently in this country, will be an important book later in the spring.

THE "New Choir and Congregation," by Geo. F. Root, just issued by J. Church & Co., is a handsomely printed new service of gospel song, designed to unite choirs and congregations, and make them necessary to each other. It contains standard hymns and tunes with Scripture preludes; responsive services for reading and singing; gospel songs; classic solos which may be used as preludes. It is offered by the publishers as "the most comprehensive and complete manual for musical service and worship that has ever been pub

lished."

A NEW edition (the fourth) of Mr. John C. Hamilton's "History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and of his Contemporaries" will be published very soon by Houghton, Osgood & Co. It will be far ..ore desirable than any previous edition, as it will contain a large number of heliotype copies of steel portraits of the illustrious men associated with Hamilton in the Revolution and in the early administration of the government. It comprises seven volumes octavo, and will be sold at $25.

"A GREAT tendency to synoptical writing has set in," writes the London correspondent of the Evening Post. "It began first with Messrs. Blackwood's little volumes "Ancient Classics for English Readers," followed by "Foreign Classics for English Readers;" then came Messrs. Chapman & Hall's volumes on "Contemporary Science;" these were succeeded by Messrs. Macmillan's series of English classics, edited by Mr. John Morley; now come Mr. Strahan's Books for the People;” and, finally, I hear of a firm that intends to spend $500,000 on a similar project.

ROBERT CLARKE & Co., Cincinnati, have just ready"The Secret of the Andes," a romance, by the Hon. F. Hassaurek, late Minister to Ecuador, and author of "Four Years among

Spanish Americans." The scene of the story is laid at Quito, South America, about sixty years after the discovery and conquest of Peru by the Spaniards. The heroine of the story is the beautiful grand-daughter of the last of the Incas, who knows the secret of the imperial treasure, which is still a tradition in Peru, and strives to devote it to the liberation of her race. This plot is said to be worked with much power.

D. APPLETON & Co. have nearly ready "The Fairyland of Science," a charming book by Arabella B. Buckley, in which she introduces the children to the wonders of nature as no less delightful than those of the nursery tales. Among the chapters are "The Fairyland of Science how to enter it; how to use it; how to enjoy it ;" Sunbeams and the work they do; The Aërial Ocean in which we live," A Drop of Water on its Travels;" "The Two Great Sculptors, Water and Ice;" "The Voices 44 The Life of Nature, and how we hear them;" of a Primrose ;" "The History of a Piece of Coal;" "Bees in the Hive," and "Bees and Flowers." The book is illustrated.

[ocr errors]

44

CHAS. SCRIBNER'S SONS will have ready as their next issue Jules Simon's important work on The Government of M. Thiers," which will, in all matters connected with the liberation of France from German invasion, supplement in a very interesting way some of the ut terances of the Prussian Chancellor recorded

in the volumes of Dr. Busch, aside from its great inherent value and interest; and a volume on "The Dawn of History," treating" in a brief and interesting way of the various phases of the life of man in prehistoric times, and putting the unscientific reader in a position to appreciate the results of the labors of recent years in the field of prehistoric inquiry." We are glad to note that this American edition will be supplied with an index.

IN quoting the English returns of books in 1878, the Tribune says: "New editions of novels were almost as numerous as the novels themselves, while of works on theological subjects hardly a third went beyond the first. It is a curious and impressive fact, that fiction should thus get the better of theology. The time was very recent when theology led in the race. In the large catalogue of the British Museum, the vast majority of titles are those of books that treat of religion, and Allibone, in his 'Dictionary of Authors,' gives a list of 12,829 English writers on "Divinity," while next in number are writers of poetry, who make a total of only 5, 194. There are no fewer than eight other classes before 'fiction' is reached, with its list of only 2,257. Allibone's list includes men of all times and places who wrote in English, and these figures, in contrast with those for the past year, afford a striking sugges tion of the intellectual changes of a people. should be remarked, however, that the Allibone religious books are largely pamphlet sermons, now published chiefly in the newspapers.

It

[blocks in formation]

Lowland or broad' Scotch dialect, as distinguished from the Celtic or Gaelic, has much in common," notes the Bookseller (London), "with the vernacular of our northern counties, and the old English of Chaucer and Gower. Many of its words and meanings may be found in Shakespeare. The late Dr. Jamieson, some seventy years ago, compiled a dictionary of the language; a work never superseded by later scholarship. The new edition will be a reprint of the first, embodying also the supplement, which appeared in two volumes. Mr. Gardner has distinguished himself by the beauty and accuracy of his typography and press-work, so that, as far as printing is concerned, it may be taken for granted that the edition will be all that could be desired." The work is to be published by subscription; Mr. Gardner would be glad to have orders from this country, or would make terms for the American market.

MR. MURBY, a London publisher, has in the press an Insurance Dictionary, by Mr. William Swain Champness.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

which have made that one name famous, but a record of contemporary events which marked an epoch in the world's history. The name of Victor Emmanuel is thus associated with the story of Italian unity; that of Judas Maccabæus with the revival of Jewish nationality; that of Coligny with the arrest of Protestantism in France; of Abraham Lincoln with the abolition of slavery. Each volume will thus be complete in itself, both as a biography of its central figure and a historical study of a period. Rev. W. J. Brod ribb and Mr. Walter Besant are the general editors, and the following volumes have been provided for: "Coligny and the Failure of the French Reformation," by W. Besant; "Judas Maccabæus and the Revival of the Jewish Nationality," by Lieut. C. R. Conder; Victor Emmanuel, and the Attainment of Italian Unity," by E. Dicey; “Abraham Lincoln, and the Abolition of Slavery," by C. G. Leland; "Joan of Arc, and the Expulsion of the English from France," by Janet Tuckey; "Alexander the Great and his Age," by the Rev. W. J. Brodribb; "The Caliph Haroun al Raschid and Saracen Civilization," by Prof. E. H. Palmer; Richelieu and his Court," by W. H. Pollock; 'Hannibal and Carthaginian Civilization," by Samuel Lee; Harold Fair-Hair and the Scandinavians," by Erik Magnússon; 'Charlemagne and his Time." by Prof. Beesley; Gustavus Adolphus," by R. Garnett; and “Richard Whittington," by James Rice.

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

MAN AND WIFE. BY WILKIE COLLINS. 15 cents.
THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By OLIVER GOLDSMITH.
25 cents.

To

JANE EYRE. BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË. 15 cents.
THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII. By EDWARD BULWER
(Lord Lytton). 15 cents.

OUR PROFESSOR. By Mrs. E. LYNN LINTON.
15 cents.
LADY CARMICHAEL'S WILL and other Christmas
Stories. By MARY CECIL HAY, F. W. ROBINSON, and
JUSTIN M'CARTHY. 15 cents.

THE SORROW OF A SECRET. BY MARY CECIL HAY.

15 cents.

'TWAS IN TRAFALGAR'S BAY. By WALTER BESANT
and JAMES RICE. 20 cents.

ELINOR DRYDEN. BY KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. 20 cts.
LIGHT AND SHADE. BY CHArlotte G. O'BRIEN. 10 cts.
LOVE'S CROSSES. By F. E. M. NOTLEY. 15 cents.
A DARK INHERITANCE. BY MARY CECIL HAY. 15 cts.
RARE PALE MARGARET. 10 cents.

THE MISTLETOE BOUGH. Edited by Miss BRADDON. 15 cents. MACLEOD OF DARE. BY WILLIAM BLACK. DAISY MILLER. 12mo, cloth, By HENRY JAMES, Jr. 20 cents. illustrated, $1.25; 8vo, paper, illustrated, 60 cents; 4to, THE VIRGINIANS IN TEXAS. By W. M. BAKER. 75 paper, 10 cents.

cents.

HARPER & BROTHERS will send either of the above works by mail (excepting the larger works, whose weight excludes them from the mail), postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price.

HARPER'S Catalogue mailed free on receipt of Nine Cents.

HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y.

« AnteriorContinuar »