Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, December 01, 1877, Page 249, Image 17
240 EnrromAi.s. Vol.. vr might even have suiTcrcd from his pover ty, hnd it not been for his appointment to the Consulship at Liverpool by his friend, President Picrec. Lowell is independent, but not from his fine poetry and essays, however. Whittier is a bachelor, and lives beneath his own humble New England roof on fflOO a year. O. W. Holmes has not made $2r,000 from all that he has written. lie is rich, but his wealth comes from his knowledge of medicine, and by inheritance. J. G. Holland is generally thought to be an author who has amassed wealth from his writings. His books have sold as largely as those of any other American author. He may be worth $200,000, but a large part of this he has obtained from his partnership in the Springfield Titpuh. lieun. George William Curtis is dependent upon his salary from the Harpers. Ho never made $5,000 a year with his pen. Parton makes about live thousand a 3'car from fugitive wiitin;s, and Muds it hard to get on. Hret JIartc depends upon fugitive writ ing for subsistence, and never has a dollar ahead. Gail Hamilton imver received $IS,000 in her life for her work. T. U. Ahlricli,.!. T. Trowbridge, H. 11. Robinson, and T. W. Higgin&on, depend upon fugitive wiiting, and ant anything but rich. From these ugiues it will lie .seen that authors receive less pay for their work than any other class of pinfcssionnl men. I have enumerated above nl -onie of our first-class writers persons whose names are familiar in every household. If they receive such meagre compensa tion for their literary labors, what may a merely good writer expect ? Almost nolh ing. In this country cheap literary work in ay be had by the bushel almost, for the printing of it. The country is Hooded with merely good writers, and every year the number Increases out of all propor tion to the population and general de mand for their work. Some editors, and in parliuulai those editing magazines, re ceive double the number of manuscripts that they were wont to two or three .ears ago. ijcribiiflr'a Monthly received in IK7I, 1,010 manuscripts; in 1N75, 2,420; and in 1H70, the large number of !l,20!. With other lirst-class magazines the increase is nearly in a similar proportion This one example will serve in general to illustrate the fact. Some allowance must be made for the increase in population 'and in the popular demand for reading matter; but no increase in population or demand would warraut such an increase in the number of author? as the above figures would seem to show. . The Harpers now receive for their three periodicals, the Magazine, Weekly, and Jlnzar, from five to six thousand manuscripts yearly. Of these only a small portion receive a plaee in their columns, while the remain der tint! a grave in the waste basket. And yet, in the face of all these discourage ments, and with small prospects of suc cess, and for a mere pittance or nothing men and women will continue to write as though to be an author were the summum boiinnn of life. Young men and young women dream of authorship as the high est end of their ambitious and aspira tions. Young li. A's., and H. Ss., and all the root ol the B's. and I )., whatever else may be their profession, deem it titling that they .shall do something pro bono publico in the way of literature. Some, times they succeed, but oftener they but add to the heap of refuse in some editor's waste basket. Uocs this profit tt mmi Fiimiu'iitlty, no hae seen that it does not; and as to the honor which one may win by it, inelhinks there is ijiiiu; as small incentive to work in this age and country where all "the young critics of the agev the clerks, apprentices, etc.," as Fielding would say, may in some respects become authors. Let every young aspirant to literary renown ponder thej.e facts before he enter