"AT JOHN. MURRAY'S"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1933, Page 17

"AT JOHN. MURRAY'S"

PUBLISHERS ARID AUTHORS

THE CASE OF THE "LONDON .MERCURY"

'(By "Ajax.") At John Murray's: Bee'ords of a Literary Circle,-1843-1892. By George : Paston. • Preface by Lord Ernie. London: John Murray. ' Pp. svi and 320. Published'price, los net. [First Notice.] As I leaijn from my notes of the 19th January, 1929, on the death of John. Murray IV, no less than four John Murrays in succession had carried on the. great publishing business since its foundation by the first of them in 1768, and when., the last of. the ': four died on the 30th November, 1928, it passed into the hands of a fifth. The periods during which these 'four men owned and jnanaged the business were as follows:— '■ John Murray 1, 1768r1793. John Murray 11, 1793-1843. John Murray 111, 1843-1892. John Murray IV, 1892-1925. «■ .■'- , •::- ■' * At tho : 'fequest of. John Murray 111 Dr. Smiles produced in IS9I .the life of John Murray 11, together with a history of the business, under tho title, "A Publisher and His Friends: Memoir and- Correspondence of the' late John Murray, with an Account of tho Origin and Progress of the House, 1765-1843." 2 volumes. The book was well received, but twenty years later, when a new edition was called for, John Murray 111 decided that it should be abridged. 'In the preface'to this-edition he, referred to the original work as .follows:— The chief value of these volumes conSiste in the-fact that'they supply an important, if not an indispensable, chapter in the literary history of England during ,the first half of the 19th Century. Byron and Scott, Loekhart, Croker, George Borrow, Hallam, Canning, Gifford.i Dis- ,. raeli, Southey, Milman are but a few of . the names occurring in these pages, the whole list.-.of which, it would bo tedious :to relate.. : . -. ," ... ~ .' ,■" :'•■ '- r *. -. ■■••■;'.'.' ' ■;'• ''•-.- This invaluable matter, "a .pioiis desire to do justice to the1 memory of John Murray the-Second—-'the'. Anax -.-•' [King] of Publishers,' as Byron called him"—led, in the opinion of his son, to the. addition, in. the original volumes of some material' that could ■ now 'be ... spared. _ By the omission of? thi3 matter . Dr. Smiles's bo'ok'was reduced -in size, . '.: and the edition which appeared in-19-11 is described as'"condensed'and 'edited .by Thoma.s Mackay." It is'only this - abridged ■ edition—abridged,- yet V extending to 400*. octavo pages, and published in those happy days before the war at 2s 6d—that I know, and I havo seldom read a more entertaining volume. . If "tho superior -people who sneer' at Smiles because he is- moral would read "A-'Publisher and His Friends'? they would find that for pages together he can be as entertaining as Boswell, who suffered from no such handicap. ■]>: ■:- .._•.. .;. '..'. * . #■;■-: .'■ Lord Ernie—still better known perf haps in his literary capacity as" Bdw--■"land (not, as the name appears in the : ?nde,x, Roland)- E. Prothero-^opens his interesting, but far too brief, preface with the remark that F0r...a., century- and • a half one of the chief centres of the literary life of the natjon has, been, "at, Mr. Murray's." Fromthis text he proceeds to a rapid of. the revolution which has during those 150" years overtaken what in the.;aßth';Ceritiiry; used to be called "The Trade." The stimulus given to literature1 and journalism by the passing of the! Copyright let and; the abolition of the newspaper tax; the differentiation °fc publishing.;aiia bookselling, the' oiSMisation 'of ;authors, publishers, 'and bjpkSellers in itheir -separate associations, the'development of tho circulating library and the Book Society, an^ .the transformation of advertise- • mentvinto at once a .science and an art —these'are some "of the outstanding - features of the change that are noted by Lord Ernie. ■ -■' >:<■ •:■■:*;.'■:.«. * •Tie stately editions'of "established works historical or-otherwise in which Mr. MurTay once. excelled, he continues, have been exchanged for cheaper and handier forms. .Ihe three-volume novel, is1 dead. The -biographies which were a feature of last .century are sharing the fate of great London houses. They are being converted, so to speak,'into labour-saving flats, and M. Jslaiirois' has shown a special genius in adapting collections of letters or bio- . graphical facts into literary kitchenettes It is.not surprising that the, number of books published in a single year has increased from 5000 in 1870 to 14,000 in 1930 btill ; more striking is the change in subjects). I n 1870, works bearing on.theology held, the first, place. In 1900 fiction had taken the lead and theology had sunk to the fourth place. In 1930 fiction- outnumbered theology in the proportion of four to; one.' f... ■: ; ... ■ : •: ' ■.»■■■ * • What effect the publication of literature by wireless is having, or may ultimately, have, upon the book trade isa subject which Lord Ernie does not touch. But there appears to have been no check : so far, and for the favourites this easy access to the lazy and illiterate must have greatly increased their notoriety and their profits. It may perhaps be another case of "To him that hath shall be given," but it is ■unnecessary for me to speculate on a matter which Lord Ernie leaves alone. Of far greater concern is what he has to say about the' apportionment of tho extra profits represented by tho increase of nearly 200 per cent, in book production in 60 years. * • * ■"•»■' If the reading and buying public has grown, Lord Ernie continues, so has also' the number of those who share the profits of "The .Trade."1 Authors, publishers, literary agents, readers," travellers, critics, paper-makers, printers, bookbinders, booksellers, libraries, and librarians—many of them with staffs and overhead chargesclaim portions of the proceeds of making and selling books. It would be interesting and it might be pathetic to know how many of the 14,000 books of 1930, even of those that attained a moderate success, have paid a net profit, to author and publisher combined, of more than £50. Yet the Btream of-writers swells almost daily and as in. 1870,. so in 1932, unsuccessful authors attribute their failures to the rapacity or incompetence of publishers. On these and similar points vivid and varied . details will be .found "at Mr. Murray's." . * . * -» A poignant comment on Lord Ernie's speculations about the earnings of writers is provided by the ease of McKenzie v. the London Mercury, Ltd., which was reported on pago \' of Monday's "Post." The "London Mercury," one of the best of the monthlies, and' from a purely literary standpoint perhaps the best of 'all, has reduced its standard rates of payment from £1 10s, first to £1 and then to 15s a thousand words—tho last being less than a quarter of the rate at which a few years before the' war I applied my 'prentice hand to London journalism! The-salary of Mr. J.C. Squire, who has edited the' paper ever since its foundation 13 years ago, has been sue-

cessively reduced from £1200 to £750 and £.500 a year, and finally to nil! And almost simultaneously I learn of the reduction of the price of the "Mercury" from 3s to Is, a chargo which, according to some of the "Press' exclamations" recorded in a full-page advertisement in the "Spectator" of the 18th November, is hailed by one paper or another as "a breath-taking event," "an epoch-making event," "best shillingsworth in the world," or "what a bobsworth!"; and I reserve the last place for what is neither the most exciting nor the least essential of them all—the "otherwise it is unchanged" of "The Times.V • '.' • ■ • : If Mr. Squire is. willing to work for nothing in order to' save the magazine that he has made from perishing, is it not for booklovers in all parts of the world to lend him a hand? Hitherto I have been content with; an occasional browse iii the "Mercury. on the Public Library table, or with the occasional investment of 3d or even 6d on a second-hand copy. But I am now happy to sign on as a subscriber for 15s, which covers a year'si subscription, including postage. And that I may not seem to be Setting ,shis' down for virtue.let me confess that I had come to'this decision on purely selfish grounds .before I had been thrilled by Mr. Squire's great act of self-sacrifice! '