PUBLISHING

the period 1910-25 saw first a brief time of prosperity, then, during and following the world war, a decade of extreme disorganisation in book publishing. the year rgro was a4 prosperous one in the book market, as pub- lishers are apt to remember. new books and reprints were in good demand and were readily supplied under normal condi- tions. four years later and those conditions were violently disarranged. effects of the war—the world war, which raised the cost and the market value of many staple commodities, had a spe- cifically stringent effect on book production and the book market all the world over. the book, of all manufactured articles, is most subject to the caprices of popular taste and one of the most sensitive to any change in the normal economic conditions or the ratio of supply and demand. it is not, like food and clothes, an absolute necessity, nor is it to the idle rich what a great sybarite called an ‘ essential luxury.” ‘the process of recovery after a war does not affect books, any more than works of art, with the economic certainty that we observe in boots and shoes, for instance, or in the cotton trade. at the same time certain forms of literature, which offer an escape from actuality and the newspaper, are bound, after a war, to be in growing favour. it is interesting to examine on both counts the post- war returns of books published in great britain. | some figures —in 1918, when the war ended, the number of new books printed and published was 6,750, the number of reprints 966, which together give us a total of 7,716. in 1924, six years later, the new books had risen to over 9,500, while the reprints, which had suffered badly during the war because of the cost of production and the impossibility of supplying cheap books at a profit, showed a startling recovery. they had in- creased to over 3,190, actually 255 volumes more than the num- ber of reprints in the year that immediately preceded the war— 1913. the total number of new books was not quite so large as in the earlier year, whose october output—a test month in book publishing because of its nearness to the christmas season—had established a record, namely 1,699 volumes, new books and re- prints included. the october return in 1924, it is significant to note, was only 180 behind that figure. publishing books in demand.—the increasing vogue of the reprint is remarkable. during the war a new taste for reading grew up among the soldiers who had leisure days to pass in hospital or at the base. some millions of volumes were collected and sent over to the army huts under the auspices of various societies organised for the purpose, or under the seal of the red triangle. the editor of one popular series supervised the collection in london and the dispatch to france of over 2,000,000 volumes, new and old, obtained from a house-to-house canvass of the metropolis. this popularising of literature at large helped to increase the available reading public. but certain classes of books did not maintain their hold on the public when peace came again. in technology, for instance, whose manuals were specially required while the ex-soldiers were secking work tin the skilled trades, the demand fell off noticeably in the suc- ceeding years. the analysis of books in the english catalogue for 1923-4 marks a decrease in the latter year of over 100 published works in technology. in science the decrease was not very far short of that figure. history, medicine and geog- raphy also showed a decrease; on the other hand, fiction— easily first—biography, travel and guide books, including what we may call picturesque topography, poetry and the drama, re- ligious books, sports and games and sociology all showed an in- crease of circulation. a ten-year survey if we take a ten years’ survey, we discover some curious fluctua- tions in the returns. in 1914 fiction came first, religiori second and science third. sociology and technology followed close. poetry, juvenile literature, travel and topography, literature and criticism, history, biography and finally naval and military books, complete the list of a dozen sections, named in the order of their relative popularity. in 1924 fiction was still at the head. juvenile literature had advanced from the seventh to the second place in the list. religion was third. science had fallen from the third to the seventh place. poetry had advanced while technology had lost a point. biography, thanks in part to the interest in characters and personalities who had come into promi- nence during the war, or because of some new reaction to its sharp stimulus, had gained markedly. it is harder to explain why, in that case, history books should have dropped in the comparative scale. books of travel and books dealing directly or indirectly with literature had also declined slightly. it would .be easy to make too much of these differences. as between one year, or one publishing season, to another, it is necessary to allow a margin for accidental delays owing to strikes, as in the winter season of 1925-6, when the packers caused a serious break in the ordinary supply of books and peri- odicals, or for diversions of the public interest, as at the time of political excitement or of general elections. but after every allowance has been made, we find the yearly average in every class of book offers a very fair test of popularity. but as we note the startling preponderance of the first of those classes— fiction, especially the novel—we are driven to consider again how deceptive are the signs of success, and to recognise the notorious discrepancy between the seasonal and the permanent result. | the publishing of novels-—we have it on the authority of one large firm of london publishers, that nine out of every ro novels published are comparative failures; that is, they show no decided profit to author or publisher. another firm put the percentage of failures still higher, and it has been estimated that the average life of a market novel is no more than a month, and that very few survive the year of their birth. in an essay written by andrew lang on “ the last fashionable novel,” he lamented that the type of story in which lords and ladies were favourite characters as during the victorian vogue, had ceased to exist. that fall from favour serves to remind us that the novel, whether viewed as one of a group or as a single product, is the most per- ishable of all quasi-literary commodities, and that the producers of such books are tempted to inflate their selling value artificially. it was so when the three-volume novel was given the absurd 263 price of 31s. 6d. it is so when the novel is put upon the market at a net price of 7s. 6d. great britain and the united states: a comparison the trade organ in new york that corresponds to the pub- lishers’ circular in london, namely, the publishers’ w eckly, does a like service in collecting annually the returns of new books and reprints that are issued from the press. in 1924 the num- ber of new books published in the united states—or “ new titles,’ as the register more precisely terms them—written by american authors, was 6,380. in addition, over 600 english and foreign works were printed and manufactured in america, and over 1,700 were imported. roughly summarised, the amer- ican production, that is so far as it is comprised in the new york returns for the whole book trade, is compared with that of great britain in the ratio of eight to six. more to our present purpose is the comparison instituted in the publishers weekly between the book returns for 1923-4 in america with a further recast to the year 1910. there was effectively a 2% increase in 1924 over 1923, but the new titles registered in 1924 were only on a par with those of 20 years before 1904. six years later, in 1910, the number of new titles was 11,671, or nearly double that of 1924. as regards the comparative popularity in america of the dif- ferent classes of books, in 1924 fiction was at the head of the list, but not with anything like the preponderance it showed in the british book trade. religion came second, poetry and the drama together came third, with a total of 13 new titles more than those registered in great britain. science stood relatively low in the scale and showed a decrease from the figures of the pre- ceding year. juvenile books, too, lost a point or two; but biog- raphy, as in the london book market at the same period, marked a distinct rise. business books, which are rather an american speciality, also had appreciated in the scale. conditions in other countries certain wider questions which affect book production and the writers, publishers and sellers of books can only be treated summarily. we must turn to the bibliographie de la france if we would estimate the signs of recovery in the french book market since the war. in 1923 the returns give a total of 8,784 books, a pro rata advance since 1918, steadily maintained year by year, but not so marked in recent seasons. at the same rate of progression, the returns for 1924 should give a total of books registered slightly ahead of that for the year when the war broke out—1or4. in germany the returns are noticeably higher than in any other country, displaying a total for 1923 of over 35,000 publi- cations. but that includes miscellaneous publications which are not counted as books in the returns for other book-producing countries. in the italian census furnished by the bolictino delle publicazioni italiane, the lists for 1921 and 1922 are relatively encouraging, and in the international scale show an unusually high percentage of educational text books and manuals. in the former year, for example, the number of works of fiction issued from the press was 580, while in social science the number was 660, and students’ manuals are little behind that high figure. poetry and the drama together number 477 volumes, religion only 206. philology, surprising to say, stands higher than history. philosophy is well placed, but cannot compete with the science of words. in the returns for the following year these classes preserve very much the same comparative position, but fiction and religion lose ground; history and biography gain. so do volumes dealing with the fine arts, and also those with military and naval science. among other european returns may be noted those for norway, spain and switzerland, as marking a slight advance in 1922 from the figures of the year previous. the present position.—in the republic of books all the world over the signs are in the main encouraging, and disclose a healthy state of recovery from the war years of stagnation. in a 25 years’ review and retrospect, the publishers’ organ in new york pointed to several notable factors in the increased power of the 264 book and the widening of its market since the opening of the 20th century. the better ordering and specialising of the bookshops, the greater intelligence of the booksellers and the national development of children’s libraries, have all contributed to that advance. england might learn some practical lessons from america in these things. nevertheless, by the establishment of such asso- ciations as the national book council and the society of book- men she has shown herself of late years newly alive to the cordial co-operation of publishers, booksellers, authors and bookmen. a recent writer, alluding to the book fairs in florence, frank- furt and paris, advocated a similar yearly event in london itself. paris had two book fairs in 1925, one at the universal exposi- tion, the other, a smaller, more specialised bibliophilic festival, was held in connection with the time-honoured fair of saint- germain. either of these might be imitated, with an english or american difference, in london or new york, with good effect in stimulating the interest of the public and the activities of the book producers and publishers. bibliography.—the publishers’ circular or booksellers’ record (london); publishers’ weekly and annual summary (new york); bibliographie de la france (paris); bersenblat (leipzig); brinkman's list van bocken (amsterdam); bollettine delle publicazione italiane (florence); bibliotheque wuniverselle et revue de geneve (geneva); the bookseller (london); the bookseller and stationer (new york); the publishing world (london). (e. rh.) puccini, giacomo (1858-1924), italian composer (see 22.632), died in brussels nov. 29 1924. his later works include la fanctulla del west (the girl of the golden west, 1910); la rondine (1916); [1 tabarro, suor angelica and gianni schiccht (1918). the opera turandot, on which he was working at the time of his death, was finished by sig. f'ranco alfano under the direction of sig. toscanini, and was produced at milan in april 1926. ; pugilism: see boxing. pulitzer, joseph (1847-1911), american editor and news- paper proprietor, was born in mako, hungary, april 10 1847. his father was magyar-jewish; his mother austro-german. his father was a substantial grain merchant, who retired from busi- ness when the boy was six years old and went to budapest to live. here young pulitzer was privately educated. he deter- mined to embark upon a military career, but was excluded from the austrian army because of physical defects, and failed also in an attempt in paris to join the foreign legion. in hamburg, on his way home, he was induced by an american agent to emi- grate to the united states as a prospective recruit for the union army, and on arriving in boston harbour in aug. or sept. 1864 he swam ashore at night so that he, instead of the agent, might collect the enlistment bounty. making his way to new york city, he enrolled in company l. first new york lincoln cav- alry, for a term of one year, and joined his regiment at pleasant valley, maryland, in november. discharged on july 7 1865 in new york city, he looked for work there but found none. in the autumn he started west for st. louis, where he arrived penniless. in st. louis, with its large german population, pulitzer’s progress was rapid. while making his living by odd employ- ments, he studied for the bar, and was admitted in 1867. on march 6 of that year he was naturalised. his studious habits and tireless energy made him known to the leading german citizens, and in 1868 he entcred journalism as a reporter on the westliche-post staff. his labours as correspondent at the state capital drew his attention to politics, and in dec. 1869, he was elected to the lower house of the legislature. here he clis- tinguished himself by leading a successful movement to reform the corrupt county government of st. louts; and during his first month of service clashed with a county office-holder whom he shot in the leg. when the revolt against grant led to the liberal ~ republican movement in 1871-2, pulitzer’s reform zeal and his friendship for gov. b. gratz brown, who in 1870 had appointed him one of the three police commissioners for st. louis, made him an early adherent. he helped organise the liberal repub- puccini—pulitzier lican party in missouri, and was one of the secretaries of the cincinnati convention which succeeded in nominating greeley for president. as a sequel to the liberal republican campaign, pulitzer entered the field of newspaper proprietorship. some of the owners of the lvestliche-post sold him a share on liberal terms. this he soon resold for $30,000, using part of the proceeds for an extended tour of europe. on his return he executed a profitable business stroke by purchasing a moribund german daily, the st. louis staais-zeitung, for a song, and selling its associated press franchise to the globe for $20,000. in 1876 he took an active share in the presidential campaign, breaking loose from all his republican associates. on june 19 1878 he married miss kate davis, a distant rela- tive of jefferson davis. on dec. 9 of the same year he laid the foundation for his fortune by purchasing at auction the worn-out st. louis dispatch, paying $2,500 cash and giving a $30,000 lien. this newspaper he merged with the post, owned by john a. dillon, as the post-dispatch, which immediately began to pay and soon dominated the st. louis evening field. it was inde- pendent in politics and devoted to hard money and tariff reform. in 1880 pulitzer purchased dillon’s share and became sole owner. he laboured with unremitting energy, and the profits were soon running from $40,000 to $85,000 a year. unfortunately in oct. 1882 his chief editorial aid, col. john a. cockerill, shot and killed a lawyer, col. alonzo w. slayback, in a bitter quarrel of political origin. the case did not come before the courts, but public ‘reprobation was so great that the past-dispatch lost revenue and pulitzer thereafter felt unwelcome in st. louis. he departed for the east in the spring of 1883, and bought the new york jforld for $346,000, taking possession may ro. in 1884 he was elected to congress from the ninth district, a position he resigned before his term expired. under its new management the |vorld won an immediate prosperity. it was aided by a quarrel in which its rival, the [erald, became engaged with the newsdealers, and by the swi’s disastrous decision in 1884 to support benjamin f. butler for the presidency. by 1886 the annual earnings of te world were more than $500,000. with these resources pulitzer in 1887 established the evening werld, which lost $100,000 the first year, but by 1890 was highly profitable. william r. hearst’s purchase of the new york journal in 1895 brought the ilvorld a powerful competitor, and it met the challenge on feb. ro 1896 by reducing its price from two cents toone. the daily circulation of 7he world quickly rose to 300,000, and its sunday circulation before the end of 1896 reached 623,000 copies. to the world, as to the post-dispatch, pulitzer gave a tone of aggressive editorial independence. the paper earnestly supported cleveland in bis contests for the presidency in 1884, 1888 and 1892. it was sympathetic to labour, and in 1892 took the side of the striking steel workers at homestead, pa. it opposed bryan for the presidency in 1896. a year later the world became an advocate of war with spain, for pulitzer’s sympathies were warmly aroused by the cuban struggle for liberty. . meanwhile pulitzer’s health, always precarious, had in 1889 become so bad that specialists forbade him to continue his daily editorial labours. the following year his eyesight suddenly failed him, and his vision thereafter was dim and uncertain, his nerves also were shattered, and he suffered from hardening of the arteries. though compelled to live the secluded existence of an invalid, he kept in intimate touch with the werld and exer- cised absolute control over its policies until within a few weeks of his death, in charleston, $.c., oct. 29 1911. during his lifetime pulitzer had given liberally. in 1903 he endowed the school of journalism of columbia university, opened in ror2. in his will he established a series of prizes, to be awarded annually, in the interests of letters, the drama, music and newspaper work, and bequeathed sums for other purposes. these are known as the pulitzer prizes. birliography.—don. c. seitz, joseph pulitzer, fis life and letters; alleyne breland, joseph pulitser—reminiscences hy a secre- tary. (w. li; a. nev.) pumps