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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), 1st November 1890, Edition 1 of 1, Page 1406, 9 ; ^i I4o6 The Publishers' Circular Nov...

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    • COITTEITTS
    • St. Dunstan's House, E.C. | November 1, 1890. j
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    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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      9 ; ^I I4o6 The Publishers' Circular Nov...

      9 ; ^ i I 4 o 6 The Publishers' Circular Nov . i , 18 90

      Coitteitts

      COITTEITTS

      Literary Intelligence 1406 I Books And R...

      LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 1406 i BOOKS AND RTTMOURS OP BOOKS 1407

      NOTES AND NEWS 1410 CONTINENTAL NOTES 1412 BOOKSELLERS OF TO-DAY . XIX

      MR . T . BURLEIGH 1414 LORD BEACONSFIELD' 1415 AN AUTHOR ON PUBLISHERS 1416

      BOOKSELLERS' PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 1417 TRADE CHANGES " . V 1417 IN MEMORIAM 1417

      THE LATE MR F . A . SUTTABY 1419 ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE SEASON 1419

      REVIEWS , < fcc 1421 INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT

      BRITAIN BETWEEN OCTOBER 16 & 31 H 2 G BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM OCTOBER 16 TO 31 1428

      NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED .. 1435 . MISCELLANEOUS 1474 BUSINESS CARDS 1481

      BUSINESSES FOR SALE usa SITUATIONS WANTED ] 484 ASSISTANTS WANTED i 4 W

      BOOKS FOR SALE .. 1484 BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE U 85

      ™ " mm * ^ — ' "" " " '" " ¦ - ' ¦¦¦

      St. Dunstan's House, E.C. | November 1, 1890. J

      St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C . | November 1 , 1890 . j

      Hen Our Last Issue Went To Press The | W...

      HEN our last issue went to press the | Wcontroversy which arose out of Arch "

      deacon Farrar's speech at the Church Congress was still proceeding ; and as we had no desire

      to interfere until both sides should have spoken we made only a passing allusion to the

      matter . Now , however , the correspondence is closed and comment will be more

      appropriate . It will be remembered that , in condemning the commercial immorality of the

      country in general , Archdeacon Farrar specially singled out publishers as persons incorrigibly

      addic were t accused ed to ' of dishonourable being given to customs 4 sweat . ' They ' ;

      other reprehensible practices which effectually placed them outside the pale of respectab —ility .

      j * . a word , they were rogues « . Coming from such a quarter , from one having extensive

      relations with the trade , this was a serious charge . True , the Archdeacon subsequently

      explained that he had prefaced his remarks on dishonest publishing with the words * there

      are many publishers who are the soul of honour . ' Still the imputation lay on

      publishers as a class , and unless they could dispose of it promptly and successfully the public

      would not be slow to draw its own inferences . It was naturally supposed that Archdeacon

      Farrar was speaking out of the fullness of personal knowledge , and it therefore lay on

      the publishers who have issued his most important works to speak . Accordingly Messrs .

      Cassell & Co . published a statement of their dealings with Archdeacon Farrar , with the

      result that he who was so violent in his arraignment 4- ^ was left without a leg «—* to stand on .

      Messrs . Cossell ' s letter , which was printed in our last number , speaks for itself . It shows

      that not only has Archdeacon Farrar had 1 . -tii « r 4- « s » 4 * fWvm \\\ tk « vn 1 VIf * Vk /»«•<¦ lv » i + 4 lkn f- \\ t ± Una

      ¦ UOV 1 VV lAVUk «** KP |/ UWUaMVtO . IISUV MM » V Mm \ J AMMO * ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦

      been treated with a princely generosity which

      we think would have awakened in most writers such lively sentiments of gratitude as

      would have put charges of unjust dealing out of the question . But Archdeacon Farrar is

      not an ordinary author , and he has views of his own . What is his case ? With a large

      experience of publishers and of the worldhe undertook to do certain stipulated work upon ,

      certain stipulated terms , which he must have thought Liiuugiu equitable equitaoie , , or or , iit t is is to to be be presumed presumed , he he

      would not have accepted , them . The work , was performed so much to the

      satisfaction of his employers that they paid him the price agreed upon and some thousands of

      pounds more , to which , by every law that governs commerce , he was not entitled .

      Ordinarily this would be called generous conduct on the part of employers , but Archdeacon

      Farrar was not satisfied . He considered himself entitled to a further share of the profits . He had been given an inch and he wanted an

      ell . Let us suppose that the works which he wrote at the suggestion of Messrs . Cassell & Co .

      had failed , that the publishers had made a heavy loss : what would be thought of their

      ideas of business if they demanded that the agreement should be set aside , and that

      Archdeacon Farrar should bear his share of the loss ? Naturally he would object , he would fail t o

      see the equity of such a proposal . Yet his own demand is quite as absurd .

      Of course the quarrel could not be settled without the interference of the Society of

      Authors , and bo Mr . Besant comes valiantly to the assistance of the plundered Archdeacou .

      Mr . Besant ' s views on publishing are peculiar . He thinks for instance that publishers never

      make losses . We have never yet been able to discover a publisher who held the same opinion ,

      who , in fact , could not prove by figures that quite the opposite is the truth ; so thai the

  • Citation
    • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Nov. 1, 1890, page 1406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01111890/page/4/