LIVED IN POVERTY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 208, 31 May 1935, Page 11

LIVED IN POVERTY

Authors’ Royalties Now Worth Fortunes DICKENS A BEST SELLER “Dominion” Special Service.—By Air MaiL London, May 2. D. 11. Lawrence’s books are now earning big money. H"is publishers put those earnings at £lO,OOO a year. While he was alive Lawrence never made more than £lOOO a year. Leading people in the book trade say this is no Isolated instance. Many great authors of the past died in poverty, yet to-day their books are making fortunes. in most cases it is not the author’s family who gain. After 50 years the copyright expires and the profits go entirely to the publishers and booksellers.

Dickens is to-day lhe best seller among past authors. When he died he left £BO,OOO. His recently-published “Life of Our Lord” may be worth almost as much as he left. If Dickens had received the royalties that his books have earned lie would have received £70,000 during the last 18 months.

In his lifetime, Shakespeare never made more than £2OO a year. If he could be paid all the royalties his works have earned he would be the richest man in the world.

The largest fortune left by a British author was the £200,000 of Hall Caine.

Edgar Wallace’s Debts.

When Edgar Wallace died he left debts amounting to over £lOO,OOO. His royalties have paid off this debt in two years, and still leave the heirs a comfortable income. Of living authors, the man who makes most is Bernard Shaw. The largest fortune ever left was £300,000 by Victor Hugo, yet Shaw is probably better off than Hugo ever was. Probably there is not a single author in the world who is making £25,000 a year. Noel Coward, Priestley, A. A. Milne and Rudyard Kipling are among those who run Shaw, close.

A literary agent said, “Most people have fantastic ideas of authors’ earnings. Many writers whose names are familiar to the public do not make £4OO a. year.”