SOME PUBLISHERS' BLUNDERS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 770, 19 March 1910, Page 9

SOME PUBLISHERS' BLUNDERS

Publishers, like other people, sometimes make mistakes. Mr. E. Cochrane, ill the "Book Monthly," recalls porno famous examples. George Meredith, as publisher's reader to Chapman and Hall, gave an opinion emphatically against the. acceptance of Mrs. Henry . Wood's "East Lynne." The loss of this declinature has been estimated at .£30,000 to this publishing firm, and of the connection, presuming that they had. issued her other novels, nt JUOO.OOO. James Payn declined "John luglesaut," as reader lor Smith, Elder, and Co., and it become a valuable literary property in the hands of Macmillan and Co. Edna Lyall's "Wo Two" was rejected by half a dozen publishers. A publisher's reader pronounced W. Clnrk Russell's "Wreck of ' the 'Grosvenor' " a catalogue of ship's furniture. It is the-boast of Mr.-lialLCaiiie that no novel of his hue been hawked from publishing hbuso to publishing house. Mr. G. ii. Sims records that a short story of his, "A Pleasant Evening," was declined by the "Family Herald," "Chambers' Journal," and "All tho Year Round." Mr. Eider Haggard's "Dawn" was declined by fiv'o or six publishers. When Norman MacLeod was editor of "Good Words," he arranged with i\ p.opiu lnr novelist for a serial-which on reading he found unsuitable. The publisher, Mr Alexander Strahan, agreed in thfc verdict, and paid the forfeit of .£500,' returning the MS. to' its author, Anthony Trollope. Messrs. Smith, Elder refused "Lorna Doone."