the advertisements as the Poems of the Brontës, Dyce's Shakespeare, British Poets, etc. It would be difficult to single out from the long record of 45 years of publishing, those undertakings that most deserve comment in such a brief review, but the record does show clearly the rare breadth of interest of the head of the house: Belles Lettres, travel and exploration, history, fiction, children's books, poetry, art, etc. There has been fiction from Frances Hodgson Burnett, Stephen Crane, Gertrude Atherton, Honoré Willsie Morrow and H. G. Wells among many others, the "discovery" of James Branch Cabell, Louis Bromfield, Edna Ferber, Percival C. Wren, Hilda Conkling and many others. An interest in poetry was early evidenced by the printing of Frederick Locker's poems, Clinton Scollard's and others, The attitude of its authors toward the firm has been evidenced by letters which have been printed in this volume of Stokes' history, and, if publishing friends had written, their communications would have been as heartily appreciative. Some idea of the extent of Mr. Stokes' contribution to general trade activities is indicated by the fact that he was secretary of the American Publishers' Association from 1903 to 1907 and president from 1911 to 14, certainly trying years in American booktrade history. The records of that time are full of reference to his unflagging activity in the interests of sound trade progress. He was an active member of the old American Publishers' Copyright League and now secretary of the Bureau of Copyright of the National Association of Book Publishers. He was one of the active leaders in making possible the National Association of Book Publishers, has served as vice president, and on many busy committees. Maynard Dominick and of late the firm has been known as the publisher of Alfred Noyes. In exploration there has been Peary's "Northward Over the Great Ice," followed a little later by the volume called "The North Pole." In the field of education we think first of the Montessori book; in biography of Lord Grey's "Twenty-five Years" and of the "Memoirs of Henry Savage Landor"; in music there have been many significant books, as would be likely from Mr. Stokes' known interest in the subject, as an active member of the McDowell Club. The firm's name will always be closely connected with the story of the publishing of children's books with the "Goop" books, Peary's "The Snow Baby," the inimitable "Dolittle books," "Little Black Sambo" and innumerable books of quality. There is hardly a record of constructive effort in American publishing history that does not find Mr. Stokes' name actively enrolled, and New York publishers have not forgotten the high character of his contribution to the wartime activities when he was chairman of the Publishers' Committee on United War Work and gave of his time and strength untiringly in the booktrade campaigns for the support of the Nation. One of his sons, Horace W. Stokes, now actively connected with the business, was seriously wounded in the war but made a fortunate recovery and Frederick Brett Stokes was invalided home in August 1918 with two wounds. T Copyright? HE National Woman's Party is going to take issue with Register Solberg of the Copyright Office, because he has ruled that women should register copyright under their husbands' names. It is not often that the Copyright Office, important as it is to millions of dollars of American business, can get front page attention in the New York Times as it did on this occasion, which would indicate that, at least in the opinion of one editor, the discussion has news value and might be likely to echo thruout the press. It is rather difficult for an office that tries to make quickly available important information of registered copyrights to adjust its indexing system to the needs of business men and to the sentiments of all authors. The copyright code itself does not specify under what name the claim shall be made, but under the Copyright Office regulations, No. 24, it is stated that "the name of the claimant printed in the notice should be the real name of a living person or his trade name if he always uses one (but not a pseudonym or pen name), or the name of the firm or corporation claiming to own the copyright." It has never been the rule of the Copyright Office that a married woman wishing to claim copyright for her works would be compelled to use her married name, and many hundreds of copyright claims under the maiden names of women authors have been registered. In the case of Mrs. V. D. Hyde of Denver, Colo., both names were stated on the application, and the Copyright Office sent a note to her stating the possible difficulties arising from such a method and the possible advantage to the author of having her claims registered and indexed under the married name. The object of the Copyright Office is to give authors as complete protection as possible by making their claim easy to trace and accurate in detail; it has not been interested in compelling one type of registration. "I' Bookshop Wages T was Gladstone who resolutely opposed increase of salary to British Museum officials because the work must be so agreeable," says an editorial in The Bookseller of London. "And a similar attitude to bookshop assistants has before now been voiced in the correspondown trade papers. ence columns of our This kind of precious nonsense is of no value to the booktrade; it debases the character and quality of assistants. More and more is it necessary that those who deal in books shall possess the ready intelligence to cope with the variety of output. "It is to this end, in the main, that the better minds in the booktrade are directing attention. They feel that the bookseller must have not only training, but status, and the material reward for his service. "The delights of bookselling are to be counted among the real pleasures of life, but they should not be thrown on the scale as part of the remuneration.” Higher Postage in France Further Discussion of the Literary Their choice would have to be based on TH Guild HE new year is to see launched a new experiment in book publishing on a plan that so intimately involves the established relationships between producers and distributors of books that it deserves most careful analysis, in order that the trade may as fully as possible understand its probable effect. The Publishers' Weekly issued on December 4th and 11th accounts of The Literary Guild, Inc. of New York, and, on December 18th, printed a reply written by Samuel Craig the president of the new corporation. These articles have brought many comments to the office, and have been recognized as an important contribution to the study of the situation. In still further discussion of the points raised, the Publishers' Weekly ventures reemphasis on a few of the points: First, the precedent for this type of publishing. When Mr. Craig first broached the idea of a Literary Guild early last year and printed an elaborate brochure on the subject, he had patterned his plan directly on German precedent, which was for the publishing of books to be sent to club members at lower prices and with the exclusion of the bookstore as an outlet. As was pointed out in discussion last spring, one of the disadvantages of this type of publishing is that it does not give the author the benefit of the full discussion and general reading that comes from reviewing, advertising and general display in the stores. It is not a type of publishing that builds the reputation of an author and prepares the way to further interest in his books. In the revised form in which Mr. Craig now presents the plan, there is to be both a club and a trade edition, the trade edition to be published for the bookstores at the usual prices and the club edition to be on the basis of $18 for 12 books. The Guild does not announce that its selection for the month will be the best book of the month or the best selection in any particular field, but the plan would seem to be that the members would get the best editorial judgment of a very competent jury who would select among the material that was presented to them each month. available manuscripts, and, with the trade publishers, as far as is reported, against the plan, it is not clear how extensive their basis of selection could be. Besides a comparison with the German clubs, there will be immediate comparisons drawn with the recently organized Bookof-the-Month Club. In the public minds. the two will be linked together, but the Book-of-the-Month Club is drawing its selections from all published books insofar as they can be examined, by a committee, and the basis of selection is thus broad and inclusive. The Guild differs, also, from the Book-of-the-Month Club on the question of price, as the latter organization issues books at the trade rates and therefore does not sell this service on price appeal but on the basis of the public's interest in a competent jury's selection from current output. The Club has not competed with the bookstores in price, and there is evidence that it has helped sales. As to membership. There seems to be considerable confusion in the minds of the booktrade as to how the large circulation necessary to the enterprise can be built up for the program outlined. It apparently intends to undertake three methods of business-building: first, thru national advertising with mail-order return; second, thru house-to-house canvass backed up with national advertising; and third, thru bookstores on a commission basis for subscriptions received. It is expected that the Guild will continue its work on the basis of the method found most inexpensive and effective, and it has already tried out sample canvasses with indications satisfactory to itself that this method can be used. The attitude of booksellers has not been fully canvassed but a special committee from the Board of Trade of the American Booksellers Association has had two recent conferences with the representatives of the Guild and is of the opinion that a program of subscription taking will not be in the best interest of their members. Again, what is the relation of the general publisher to this situation? Mr. Craig, in his article in the December 18th Weekly, said that the Club intends to do business with the publishers and not deal directly with the authors. At the same time the Guild is related by directorate with book publishing and could negotiate for book rights as well as club rights. Other publishers would inject confusion and delays in their own publishing dates and plans only to have about one chance in five of getting even one book a year into the list. This hardly seems worth while. As far as the Weekly has been able to interview publishers, they have been uniform in their feeling that this is not good business for publishers. J. W. Hiltman, president of D. Appleton & Company and for four years president of the National Association of Book Publishers, was interviewed on his return from Europe last week, and stated that he was of the positive opinion that such a program was not a constructive one, and that the success of book distribution and book sales in this country depended on cooperative programs between book publishers and bookstores and not on the building so experimental an agency as the Guild. About half a dozen large houses interviewed within a week have expressed a similar attitude to that of Mr. Hiltman. The publishers and booksellers who have been most active in the forward movement in the booktrade in the last six or eight years have been the most positive in their opinions that this plan would be detrimental to American booktrade interests. The price cutting aspect. In the opinion of the Publishers' Weekly, the most serious aspect of the proposed Literary Guild is that of price-cutting, as its campaign of sales will inevitably be based on an appeal to the public on the ground of lower prices for selected books. If there are practical ways to get lower prices on books, the Publishers' Weekly is certainly interested as is every booklover and every distributor of books, but in this highly competitive trade the prices have been made as low as competing firms could make them. Lower prices can be made after publication, when reprint editions without the initial overhead or the higher royalties can be planned. The Guild expects to make a saving in the payment to authors and in that part of the publisher's overhead that is involved in the search and testing out of books. There will be no saving in the cost of selling, as every publisher experienced in the field of canvass methods knows. The advertising expense must be heavier than for the ordinary trade book, and the manufacturing cost can be only slightly curtailed, except in the matter of the original plates, which, it may be presumed, the trade edition is expected to cover. This price of $18.00 for 12 books that they have arrived at will be broadcast to the whole country as a suitable price for current books. A thousand times more people than ever subscribe to the Guild will read the advertising and be persuaded that books can be cheaper. Ten times as many people as actually sign on the dotted line will be visited by the canvasser and hear the argument for lower book prices. It is hardly to be expected that either the display advertising or the canvasser will take much time to explain the different situation that faces the book which bears full royalty, initial expense of plates and the publisher's overhead of the searching and testing of books. Every book country in the world has gone thru its discussion of price-cutting as a method of distribution, and this country among others. Such price-cutting as we have now is local, and this is to be broadcasted by national display. The best known writer of direct mail copy has been retained by the Guild to make this story of lower prices appealing, and an experienced organizer in the field of direct canvass is planning the national house-to-house methods. In our opinion, the message that they will carry out, both in print and by word-of-mouth, is nothing that will ultimately help the increase of reading in the country or the increase of the ownership of books, but will lead American bookselling up a blind alley, from which it will take some time to recover. The matter in its first stages concerns authors and their agents, and, if they see fit to have their books published thru this method, the plan will go forward, as it means only twelve books a year for the program. It is time for clear thinking on the part of all those who are in any way connected with American book distribution. The country has room for all sound methods of book publishing, those that will grow in strength and efficiency. The Postal Matters Before THE Senator McKellar recommends that the second-class rates existing in 1920 be restored, that the one cent rate on third-class matter be restored, and that the service charge of two cents on parcel post be repealed. Senator McKellar points out that the Post Office Department has been opposed to destroying the present distinction in second-class matter between news and advertising, the department maintaining that without this distinction there would be no reason for permitting any loss on this class of mail; also, that the department was opposed to a poundage rate on thirdclass matter. The House has now passed five bills that embody the recommendations of the majority, and these are referred in the Senate to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads. These bills are as follows: H. R. 13446, to restore the one cent rate on private mailing cards. H. R. 13449, to establish the rate of one cent for each two ounces for periodicals and newspapers mailed by other than the publisher, this rate to be without regard to weight or distance. H. R. 13448, to authorize the transmission of business reply cards with the reply charge to be collected on return at the rate of two cents each. H. R. 13445, to establish a special handling charge for packages of two pounds. H. R. 13447, to provide additional charge on first-class matter that has been short paid on mailing. Planning a Pocket Size Volume THE situation of Congress on postal matters is complicated and does not give ways a special problem with the publisher, and the success of a new series involving large investment may depend on the way in which this problem of small size is met. In the current issue of Now and Then, the trade organ of Jonathan Cape, London, there are full details of how they worked out this problem in connection with their Travelers' Library, a series that was to sell for 3s. 6d. It was decided that there should be a wider format than is customary in pocket size books, and the size of the page adopted was 634 x 45%, headings in small caps, page numbers at the bottom. The number of pages in the volumes to be included in the series ranges from 224 to 432, and, in order that the thickness of each volume could remain uniform, eight different weights of paper were ordered and a ton or so of each is kept permanently in stock. The binding chosen was light blue, with flexible boards, the pliable binding being less damageable in packing or in the pocket; the jacket, a brilliant Chinese yellow, with show cards the same color. Books for Binders A NEW practical volume on "The Book Binding Craft and Industry" has just been published by Isaac Pitman & Sons. The author is T. Harrison, formerly instructor on book binding and design in London. It is an up-to-date book of 125 pages, illustrated with photographs of the different machines and processes and with a chapter on hand bindings, also illustrated. The volume is, of course, written from the point of view of English experience, but, in the case of binding machinery, this is frequently the same as our own. Workers in hand tooling will find practical suggestions as to the handling of leather, the development of the finish, and the art of design. A volume on "Finishing the Printed Job" by Robert F. Slade has been issued by the American Printer. It is a volume. of 230 pages, indexed, and illustrated with photographs of different machines. |