THE AMERICAN NOVEL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1617, 7 December 1912, Page 9

THE AMERICAN NOVEL.

-e If, as seems probable, there is to bo an influx in the near future of American novels into Britain,' it will -not .be that there is any real demand for them. It j has been recognised in this country that tho United States lws not recently been producing work in fiction on a level with ; that of our best writers, while of excellent ! second-rato fiction we have been producing onough. to supply ' our own wants. The bAoks introduced, therefore, will oompete with those of our average novelists, who will thus have one more Teason for arraigning Dame _ Fortune.' The case, however, seems .different in the colonies. There there seems to be an increasing demand, for American novels. . Tho colonies are new countries, and there may be in the fiction of a country that is not, as nations go, old a spirit that makes a sympathetic appeal to them. It is Australia that is generally quoted in this coimection. That in Australia there is a growing market for American fiction is admitted; that American publishers will still further exploit it seems probable. from an interview with Mr. Dominick, reported some time ago in the New . York "Sun, 1 " and what the future will bring forth no man knows. To suggest, how- 1 ever, as has recently been done, that already the sales of American and English novels , are about' equal is to convey a j false imprefsion. It is inconsistent with. certain statistics which have been recently published. The statistics are official, and show that of books (taking tho word in a sense wide enough to include periodicals, music, directories, and time-tables) Australia bought ,£53,668 worth from the <■ United States, and ,£618.013 worth from ; the United Kingdom. Now, even if, we grant that the ,£53,60S that was suent' on American literature was spent exclusively on fiction, and that no larger a sum was spent upon British fiction, the difference ' ' ; between that amount and .£618,043 is infinitely too largo to stand for the island continent's zeal for British theology, history, poetry, biography, music, ' directories, and time-tables, and the calculation still holds when we make any reason- „ '

able deduction to stand for hooks that, aro imported only to bo Te-eiported to New Zealand. The truth seems to lie that if tho American publishers axe over to overtake their British rivals,- they have still a long bit of leeway to make up.—"Man* Chester Guardian." "•