A PUBLISHER’S STORY

Evening Star, Issue 20311, 21 October 1929, Page 1

A PUBLISHER’S STORY

SEX HOVEL HOT A BEST SELLER 0. HENRY ROMANCE. A man who has published works by nearly every well-known modern novelist in Groat Britain during the. past twenty-seven years sat in his office in the Strand recently recalling memories of the great masters of fiction he lias mot and discussing the public taste in books. Ho is Mr Eveleigh Nash, who is retiring from the chairmanship of the well-known publishing firm of Evoleigh Nash and Grayson, which lie founded in 1902. When 1 asked the inevitable question: •'What about sex novels?” ho made a reply that will probably surprise many people. “ You seldom get a very big sale for sex novels,” lie said. “ I don’t think the public really want such _ books. Other kinds of novels, biographies, and auto-biographies of famous people, and , popular historical works, seem to mo to be the kind of books that sell first,” ho added. The, novel which Mr Nash thinks makes the greatest appeal to the public is that which “takes the reader out of himself in a brighter and more interesting world.” Among authors whoso works, or some of which. Mr Nash has published, are Hardy, Kipling, Conrad, \V. H, Hudson, George Gissing, Conan Doyle, 0. Henry, Hall Caine, and Rider Haggard. One of Mr Nash’s greatest feats as a publisher was to introduce 0. Henry to readers in this country. “ I actually published twelve of his thirteen books in one day,” he told mo. “ They had appeared in America, but until 1 took them in hand Henry had been unable to find anybody in London to publish them. “I knew Joseph Conrad well. It always amazed mo that a man who spoke English with such a had accent was such a master of the language in his writings.” . Mr Nash's greatest success has been ‘The Sheik,’ ‘by Mrs Hull, of which over a million copies were sold in this country, and 25U,(K)0 in America. This was after it had been red used by nearly every well-known publisher in London. >