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3 i6 The Publishers' Circular March 15,1...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
___-*O*.~ The Booksellers' Trade Dinner....
M . T . P . Du Chaillu responded . He said he was delig hted to meet men of the kind
before him . ' Birds of a feather Hock together ' ( laughter ) . He did not know what would become of authors if there were no publishers
no booksellers , and no paper manufacturers . , This was a very difficult toast to answer for a man wholike himselfwas no speaker , and
who had spert , the early , part of his j . life in ' the forests of Equatorial Africa . AY hen at length he got out of those forests he thought he
would turn to be an author . He thought it would be something splendid to be an author ; but as soon as his book was published he
found it was not so nice to be an author j ( much l w here hter he ) . had W never hen he been went before into a , he new had country s . ane
c h andeville arming name , Baron s app Muncliausen lied to him , impos ; he was tor , Mr liar . ( great laughter ) . Stillthat was not at all an
honour ; and on the other , side he got hosts of friends , who stood by him ; and , after all , life was too short tu remember everything
s unp torms leasan he t kept ( cheers cool ) . , b Jn the ying most to h violent imself , ' Paul , Paul , the truth is always sure to
prevail , sooner or later . ' Then he tried . an historical book about the Land of the Midnight Sun ; and he was called a donkey , as
one t-7 who _ did ' not know anything about what V ' he wrote ( laughter ) . ] Now , to call him a donkey was to call him an impostor ; they
might manage a donkey , but an impostor never ( laughter ) . These were the two branches of literature in which he had engaged . He
liked to be on good terms with his publisheis — nobody ever heard him say a word against them in England , AmericaFranceGermany ,
or Sweden ; and as to the , dear , good , booksellers , why , he loved them ( great laughter ) . When he looked at the card of invitation , and
saw said ' to Booksellers himself ' ' Provident Paul du Chaillu Institution , have ' he , , you helped some of those to go there' ( roars of
laughter ) . The publishers had a winning way with the booksellers—they got them to subscribe for the books , and then the books did
not sell ( laughter ) . At that moment he thanked them in the name of the litterateur for their great kindness in coupling his name
with the toast . He wished he could have done better justice to the toast ; he had , howeverdone the best he could ( cheers ) .
, Booksellers The Chai ' Provident rman , before Institution proposing ' announced * The that amongst letters received from , those
unable to be present was one from Mr . W . H . Smith , M . P ., expressing regret at his inability to accept A the invitation to preside J . on this
occasion of the Institution , and inclosing . Referring a cheque to for the the subject funds of his toast , he said the Society was founded
in 183 V , and one of its chief benefactors was when Mr . Thomas the firm Brown owing , a member to the number of Longmans of its
partners , was , facetiously known as ' The their Long Institution Firm . ' He , proud said of they its were long existence proud of ,
trade ferred and proud . upon Ho of the wiahed the less great they provident benefits were members a little it had better of con the
-Eg ? m ^ m
y % known / ears a . g * o When , they v the had Society a larg — ' e was members founded hip , , fif but ty
now in a few he hoped years there the members would be began a revival to fal . l off He ; wanted the w hole trade to belong to the \
funds Societ , y and ( cheers the ) . Society They were was not managed in want upon of most economical groundsso it had been
decided be made tha to t on the this charity occasion , of no those appeal present should . )
There was one Insurance Society , mentioned I of in collec an articl ting e funds in Blaclicood came to , w 41 here * 47 of the the expenses whole , j
amount collected , and another where the cost was 90 ' 32 ( shame ) . Their income last year was £ 1482 . Ox . 5 . ; they gave in relief j
£ 1 , 317 f ~ % ¦* hw . , 1 5 *' . 4 < / ., and their * working " !• ex _ penses , t were £ 150 . Ids . 7 < l . ( cheers ) . During the fifty-two years of their existence they had
j received ves upon ted managemen £ 30 £ 90 000 , 000 . t , This onl spent y would £ 6 £ , 55 400 , 000 , show and had an relief ex in- - ,
penditure of , about 7 per cent , on management ( applause ) . If a young man under 25 paid in
£ i . 21 21 . , besides besides his his share share ot of the the invented invented iunds funds he would have an insurance which in money value was worth £ 80 ; and , f they included
the funds of the Retreat , it was worth over £ 100 . No society could show a better result than that . 'J hey sought to promote thrift and
insurance . Thrift was a personal matter ; thrift was preventive , insurance was cure . Theirs was distinctly an insurance society .
They had no fixed scale or scheme of allowance ; they gave to those in need only . Down to 1884 there were 50 persons receiving grants
exceeding £ 250 each ; of these 45 were widows ; while over 400 persons had received £ 117 each . The widow of a wholesale publisher had
reor ceived £ 9 ( i 8 for in twenty alland -ei her ght husband years i 34 onl . 12 y * paid . a year £ 21 , to the Society , ( applause ) . It was the duty of
all young fellows to join the Society , and he hoped that all employers would make the Society known ( applause ) . k :
Dr . John Evans proposed The London Publishers and Booksellers . ' The two were much more distinct now than they were in \
former years ; and with regard to authors and I publishers , the former weie content , because , as the rhyme said
With an equal advantage the trade is content , i For it frives to our author . s juM . 60 per cent , ( laughter ) . Under the & e circumstances ho
had no sympathy with authors who tried to publish their own works . The booksellers were invaluable , because they •/ distributed the
mental food throughout the land . They must booksellers not forget . that It was other alway race mjs , a the wonder second to -hand him
how they ever made up their minds to part with the treasures w Inch sometimes fell into their hands . There was Mr . Quaritchthan
whom no one had done more to rescue ancient , 'i works from oblivion ( applause ) . Mr . J . Murray , jun . in responding for
* The Publishers / said that , members of that trade were tho victims of tradition , and one of the chief traditions was that authors and
publishers were always at loggerheads . Another
was that publishers were a race of abnormally
3 I6 The Publishers' Circular March 15,1...
3 i 6 The Publishers' Circular March 15 , 1890
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Citation
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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), March 15, 1890, page 316, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15031890/page/10/
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