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been issued since its inauguration. He He was created a Baron in 1877 by the late Duke of Coburg, and he was a member

of the Upper Chamber of the Saxon Diet; he was also British Consul-General for the kingdom of Saxony.

THE BOOK MART.

FOR BOOKREADERS, BOOK BUYERS, AND BOOKSELLERS.

BOOKSELLING.

THE SYSTEM ADOPTED IN GERMANY FOR THE PREVENTION OF UNDERSELLING AND FOR PROMOTING THE SALE OF BOOKS.

(Abridged from an address made in London by William Heinemann.)

II.

The sudden abolition of discount, which had increased from 10 to 15 per cent., and then to 20 and even 25 per cent., naturally gave rise to a good deal of dissatisfaction among a certain portion of the public, who tried to insist on the continuance of the accustomed terms; and in places it seemed for a while as if the local bookseller could not resist the pressure. Therefore, it was necessary that he should be protected by the corporate body whose commands he obeyed. For that purpose a carefully prepared circular was given him for distribution among his clients. In it the public were put into possession of the facts of the whole case. It was pointed out that a local bookseller was of inestimable advantage both to the public and the author, because the former was enabled to examine regularly all new publications as they came from the press, while the latter was certain to have his work actually submitted to every possible purchaser. It is also stated that in order to get a living profit on a small turnover, the bookseller must charge full price, and that it is therefore necessary, in order to protect the interests not only of the book trade-the publisher and the bookseller-but also the interests of the author and his public, to make all discount-giving illegal. By no other means could the existence of the small local man be assured. It is natural that a large concern with a large turnover can work relatively cheaper than a small concern with a small turnover, and the larger the turnover the cheaper could the thing be done-so that the whole business would ultimately be done by a few gigantic distributing machines working with the cheapest labour available. But, argues the "Börsenverein"--and very rightly it seems to me, the more widely you distribute a publication, and the more intelligently you offer it to the public, the larger will be its sale; and the larger its sale, the cheaper can the publisher make it and sell it. Therefore, by the increased sale brought about by the painstaking, intelligent local bookseller, will the public gain likewise in the end; because there will be everywhere a tendency to cheapen the selling prices of books-an advantage, surely, for the classes as well as the masses.

As I have just said, author and publisher are benefited by this system as well as the bookseller, and ultimately the public; because every new book is actually and intelligently put on sale in every corner of the Empire. It is not left to the

chance of a possible customer seeing a possible advertisement. You know yourself best how many sales are lost by that most fatal of answers "not in stock." The local bookseller in Germany, particularly in smaller towns, has an establishment which every educated person in the place visits from time to time-weekly generally, on the arrival of the Leipzig parcel. He inspects the newest publications, sees them within a few days of their issuing from the publishers. He is able to handle them, to examine them, and to select from them. Need I assure you that for this advantage he has at length become perfectly satisfied to pay the price which gives a decent living to his great benefactor and friend, the local bookseller?

But while so regulating the attitude of the book trade toward the public, the "Börsenverein" applied itself at the same time to the regulation of the conditions which should exist between publisher and bookseller. It laid down that in order to carry on a decent and profitable business, the bookseller must be allowed a certain percentage. Publishers are, therefore, required to give at least a minimum discount off all books; or otherwise they shall inform the public that the bookseller is entitled to something extra by way of commission over and above the advertised price. At all hazard, and by every means the bookseller's position must be secured. Without him the publisher could not reach his customer; without him the student must frequently be without a guide and a friend in his difficult and bewildering choice. It was recognised as essential that the profits of booksellers should be adequate and fair, because only by a decent reward was it found possible to attract a sufficiently educated class of young men to the business. Many assistants-I might almost say most of the assistants-in booksellers' shops in Germany have matriculated at one of the universities, and seldom if ever do you find an assistant who is not capable of compiling a catalogue, for instance, to satisfy the exigent requirements of the Librarian of the British Museum. The small bookseller and his studious assistant are the makers of those wonderful bibliographies and catalogues which are the pride of the German book trade, the comfort of the student, and the testimony of an intelligent affection for a business which has many splendid rewards besides the reward of money.

The committee of the "Börsenverein" is kept in close relations with its members through its daily organ, the Börsenblatt. I believe there is hardly in the world a more carefully studied, a more widely read paper (for its circulation) than the Börsenblatt. It is read by the principals and by every one of his assistants day by day. It is discussed, and on account of its splendid independence and authority, it is respected with an almost ridiculous awe.

The "Börsenverein" also issues annually a Directory of all its members, and of every firm in connection with the German book trade, not only in Germany, but also abroad, forming an enormous volume-not so very much less bulky than the London directory. And there are, further, a number of publications such as the Archives and History of the German Book Trade, of which sixteen volumes have so far appeared, a catalogue of the library of the “ Börsenverein," which is one of the finest bibliographical libraries in the world, as well as numerous other publications, all of them relating to the interests of the book trade.

The Börsenverein' has recently established a branch depôt in New York, bringing the American German book trade-not inconsiderable, I assure you, when one remembers that New York itself has the third largest German-speaking population in the world-under the sway of the home government.

I must touch upon another branch, and a most important one, of the activity of the " Börsenverein." I mean its most efficient and excellent charitable institutions, as well as the provision it makes for old age, sickness, and undeserved difficulties in business of all its members. It has at its disposal a very large fund, which has accumulated partly from the very modest fees imposed on members, and partly from handsome donations. It is now one of the largest charities in Germany, and is able to keep anyn umber of its members from actual destitution and poverty. In addition to this general fund, there is also a fund for widows and orphans of members, and an affiliated benevolent society for the lower assistants and their families, as well as those who are in any way even remotely connected with bookselling.

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The local organisations and societies send annually representatives to Leipzig to attend the committee meetings which take place during the Easter Fair. The Easter Fair is, in fact, the rendezvous of all engaged in book-selling. lishers and booksellers meet en camarade, exchange views, settle their scores, carry forward books which are out on sale-a system, by the way, which is more largely practised in Germany than with us and part again with the consciousness that they are full and equal members, all of them, of a sound and splendid republic.

Of course this annual gathering has an enor. mous influence on the spirit of the whole book trade. It creates an extraordinary feeling of comradeship and of good fellowship. Plans can be formed, suggestions made, difficulties smoothed over; difficulties such as unfortunately crop up even in so peaceful a walk of life as that which we gentlemen have adopted. All this can be done with no unnecessary waste of patience, time, and writing, without an intermediary-directly from mouth to mouth.

The idea, of course, of an annual meeting of this description is less practicable in England, and would hardly be desirable with us Our publishing business is so centralised in London and Edinburgh, and so few books are published else where; also our bookselling trade is, at present, at least (and I look upon this as one of the gravest aspects of the present condition of your trade), so centralised in large towns that publishers and at least the larger bookseller are brought into continual and fairly close contact. Moreover, we English publishers-in default of the Börsenblatt as a medium of daily exchange between ourselves

and our clients; in default of a regular date of settlement (as in Germany, at Michaelmas and Easter, effected at a public exchange in as business-like a way as stock-broking settlements are carried on at our Royal Exchange)-visit through our travellers the country book trade, and are in that way brought into a sort of com. munication with our customers. Our travellers are welcomed and received kindly by the country bookseller, while the German traveller is abhorred and detested among his clients (if he has any), so that there is hardly a reputable publisher in Germany who employs travellers in the same sense as we English publishers do. Yet I am sure the right thing is to meet and to exchange views and to help one another as far as one can. I for one do not envy the person who is engaged in so endobling a business as ours, living as he does in the the companionship of great minds, past and present; I do not envy him, I say, who feels that in such a calling and in such a cause there is no higher obligation, no other purpose, than that of making profit at the expense of his neighbour; a process, moreover, which from a collective point of view, at least, is simply the taking of money out of one pocket and putting it into the other, but is assuredly not the right road to the making of riches and the creating of a commonwealth.

Protect your interests, your collective interests, as they did in Germany eight years ago, under difficulties greater than are yours at the present moment; insist on a living profit, and put down those who are frivolously dissipating your financial possibilities. Among such an assembly of men there can be no difficulty in finding half a dozen who will bind themselves together and who will unite to fight for this common cause. My one feeling of sorrow and regret is that the movement is not at present shared largely enough by members of my branch of our business. Perhaps I am over sanguine. One is often wrong when one feels strongly and with conviction and enthusiasm about a thing. It seems to me that our old historic publishing houses are doing themselvesbut chiefly you-a wrong in their attitude of indifference to the condition of the bookseller. they will all come in when they see that you are determined to have your way, just as their sleepy confrères did in Germany. L'union fait la force!

EASTERN LETTER.

But

NEW YORK, September 1, 1895. Unquestionably the most interesting and active feature of the book trade during the last month has been vacations, for in the early part of August business generally reaches its lowest ebb. The month started off with an unusual lull, but later sales improved, and the month as a whole compared favorably with that of the previous year.

While this applies particularly to the retailers and publishers of miscellaneous literature, the makers of holiday books have been busy shipping their orders, which on the whole look well for the season. These lines do not differ materially from those of previous years, consisting largely of 16mos, 12mos, illustrated editions of popular novels, and novelties in the way of calendars and booklets. The large flat table books of former years are now rarely seen, and the cheap board

bound juveniles are rapidly disappearing, their sale being mostly confined to the dry-goods houses and small towns The latter part of August has shown the customary revival in school books. Every year shows a falling off of business in the hands of the retailer, as the text-book publishers are gradually securing direct co-operatian with the consumer through the boards of education. Of recent educational books which are especially popular may be mentioned Frye's series of Geographies, Hart's Handbook of Composition and Rhetoric, Rolfe's Cornelius Nepos and Arrowsmith and Whicher's First Latin Readings. Orders from libraries have continued good for this season of the year, and the number of lists to be priced indicate an early increase.

The summer trade in paper-bound hooks is now practically over. While odd volumes have had a large sale, the various series as a whole have not been as successful as in previous years. No new books of especial importance in this style have been recently issued.

The annual publication of Chautauqua books is now ready and is meeting with its customary popularity; Thinking, Feeling, and Doing, by Dr. E. W. Scripture, being the most successful volume in point of sale.

Fiction has been the mainstay of the trade for the past month, and under this heading two titles, namely, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush and The Prisoner of Zenda, have far outsold all others. The latter has shown in the city and vicinity a marked increase since its dramatisation. Other of the older works still continuing in demand are The Manxman, The Lilac Sunbonnet, The Adventures of Captain Horn, and Coffee and Repartee. About Paris, by Richard Harding Davis, illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson, undoubtedly stands first as a probable seller, while The Little Huguenot, by Max Pemberton, and The Veiled Doctor, by Va rina Anne Jefferson Davis, are already having a large sale. Stanley J. Weyman has given us two new books entitled From the Memoirs of a Minister of France and The King's Stratagem, for which first orders have been good.

The following list of the most popular books during the month is so entirely composed of fiction as to indicate the general relaxation of the

season:

The Prisoner of Zenda. By Anthony Hope. 75 cts.

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. By Ian Maclaren. $1.25.

The Story of Bessie Costrell. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. 75 cts.

The King's Stratagem. By Stanley J. Weyman. 50 cts.

Chiffon's Marriage. By "Gyp." 50 cts. Chimmie Fadden, Major Max, and Other Stories. By E. W. Townsend. Paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00.

The Woman Who Did. By Grant Allen. $1.00.

The Adventures of Captain Horn. By Frank R. Stockton. $1.50.

The Gods, Some Mortals, and Lord Wickenham. By John Oliver Hobbes. $1.50.

My Lady Nobody. By Maarten Maartens. $1.75.

The Lilac Sunbonnet. By S. R. Crockett. $1.50.

Coffee and Repartee. By John Kendrick Bangs. 50 cts.

The Manxman. By Hall Caine. $1.50. Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica. By John Kendrick Bangs. $1.25.

The Veiled Doctor. By Varina Anne Jefferson Davis. $1.25.

Barabbas. By Marie Corelli. $1.00.

ment.

WESTERN LETTER.

CHICAGO, September 1, 1895. Business during the first half of August was very dull, reaching what will probably be the lowwater mark for the year. The last two weeks, however, showed a tendency toward a revival, and sales have increased steadily up to the time of writing. From now on we may expect a decided improvement. In surveying the month's business there is not much that calls for special comThe most striking feature has been the continuance of the extraordinary demand which has manifested itself throughout the summer months for the popular fiction of the hour. The favourites in this class sold splendidly and were, in fact, the mainstay of the month's trade. Several good orders for miscellaneous books have been received from public libraries. Country orders for autumn trade are just beginning to come in, and are, so far, fairly satisfactory in regard to quantity.

From the bookseller's point of view, quantity rather than quality distinguished the books published in August, only two or three of them meeting with more than moderate success. Mallock's Max Pemberton, were the best of these, and both, The Heart of Life, and The Little Huguenot by especially the latter, are being much enquired for at present My Lady Nobody, Maarten Maarten's new story, which appeared late in July, sold remarkably well, as did also Gilbert Parker's When Valmond Came to Pontiac. An Imaginative Man, by Robert Hichens, is having a fair run. As an indication that summer reading is not confined to fiction alone, we may mention that the sales of such books as Drummond's Ascent of Man, Nordau's Degeneration, and Kidd's Social Evolution made a very good showing. Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush led the van in the month's sales, with The Adventures of Captain Horn as a good second. The Manxman had a good sale, and The Story of Bessie Costrell went better than it did in July. Conan Doyle's books, especially the detective stories, sold well, and Yale Yarns, Princeton Stories, and Harvard Stories were much in request. Interest in books on Hypnotism and Mental Science is still strong, and The Law of Psychic Phenomena, which has probably had the best run of any book on this subject, is now in its ninth edition.

The Colonial period of our history is one that is of peculiar interest to what may be called the better class of readers, and books by writers who have made this field their own are always sure of a ready sale. Indeed, the success of such books as Colonial Days and Dames and Through Colonial Doorways and Three Heroines of New Eng land Romance was one of the features of the holiday trade last year. Lovers of the literature of this period will be pleased to know that both Alice Morse Earle and Annie Hollingsworth Wharton have books in preparation for the holidays, which, judging from advance announcements, will equal in interest anything either writer has yet produced.

The following list of books which sold best last month includes, as will be seen, most of the old favourites :

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. By Ian Maclaren. $1.25.

The Adventures of Captain Horn. By F. R. Stockton. $1.50.

The Manxman. By Hall Caine. $1.50.
Trilby. By George Du Maurier.

$1.75. My Lady Nobody. By Maarten Maartens. $1.75.

An Imaginative Man. By R. S. Hichens. $1.25.

When Valmond Came to Pontiac. By Gilbert Parker. $1.50.

The Story of Bessie Costrell. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. 75 cts.

The Prisoner of Zenda. By Anthony Hope. 75 cts.

The Princess Aline. By R. H. Davis. 75 cts. The Woman Who Did. By Grant Allen. $1.00. Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica. By Bangs. $1.25. The Little Huguenot. By Max Pemberton. 75 cts.

The Heart of Life. By W. H. Mallock. $1.25. With the Procession. By Henry B. Fuller. $1.25.

The Master By I. Zangwill. $1.75.

An Errant Wooing. By Mrs. Burton Harrison. $1.50.

ENGLISH NOTES.

LONDON, July 22 to August 17, 1895. The period above indicated commenced with a slightly improved trade, which was maintained for about a fortnight. Foreign trade remains steady, and, as a whole, satisfactory. This class of business does not, as a rule, fluctuate very much; at least, not so noticeably as other branches.

Trilby, Trilby, Trilby, is the cry from all parts of the kingdom. The sale of this work is without a precedent in the history of the one-volume edition of a popular novel. Every copy of the edition de luxe of the work was sold before publication.

The Badminton Magazine starts well and supplies a want, in this country, at any rate. Chambers's Journal and the other popular magazines, such as Strand Magazine, Quiver, Woman at Home, etc., show no signs of falling off.

There has been a very free enquiry for the new volume of the Badminton Library. Sea-fishing is the subject of which it treats, and the publication of the volume is very well timed. All works dealing with sports and pastimes have their season just now. Possibly these keep the trade alive until the time arrives for the reassembling of the schools.

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Appended is a list of the newer publications which are most in request at the time of writing. Fiction predominates, as usual, and probably will always do so. The 6s. novel may now be considered as a well-established item of trade. The demand for the life of Stambouloff shows the in terest taken in any matter dealing with Eastern Europe, and the inclusion in the list of H. Norman's work on Japan and China speaks for itself. Trilby. By G. Du Maurier. 6s. The Master. By I. Zangwill. 6s. The Manxman. By Hall Caine.

6s.

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The interest still evinced in the Hero of Trafalgar is noticeable from the reception given to the new volume of "English Men of Action," by J. K. Laughton, dealing with Nelson. The critics pronounce this to be a very remarkable and original work, which may account for its very free. sale.

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Story of Bessie Costrell. By Ward. 75 cts. (Macmillan.)

3.

It is reported in the trade that three of the lead. ing writers of the day have disposed of the serial rights only of their new works to American magazines for a sum which must make some of the immortal writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth, aye, and of the nineteenth, centuries turn in their graves.

5. Wild Ass's Skin. By Balzac. $1.50. (Macmillan.)

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6. Heart of Life. By Mallock. $1.25. (Put- 2 Bonnie Brier Bush. nam.)

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(Dodd, Mead & Co.) 3. Shadow of a Crime.

(Knight.)

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4. Kentucky Cardinal. By Allen. $1.00. (Harper.)

5. In the Midst of Alarms. By Barr. 75 cts. (Stokes.)

Adventures of Captain Horn. By Stockton. $1.50. (Scribner.)

DENVER, COL.

Mead & Co.)

6. Lyre and Lancet. By Anstey.

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millan.)

BOSTON, MASS.

(Dodd, Mead & Co.)

2. Adventures of Captain Horn. By Stockton.

$1.50. (Scribner.)

$1.25.

3. My Lady Nobody. By Maartens. (Harper)

Bonnie Brier Bush. By Maclaren.

(Dodd, Mead & Co.)

Adventures of Captain Horn. By Stockton. $1.50. (Scribner.)

3. Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica. By Bangs. $1.25. (Harper.)

4. Chimmie Fadden. By Townsend. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cts. (Lovell, Coryell.)

5. Degeneration. By Nordau. $3.50. (Appleton.)

6. Story of Bessie Costrell. By Mrs. Ward. cts. (Macmillan.)

$1.75.

4. Stories of the Foot Hills. By Graham. $1.25.

(Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)

5. Degeneration. By Nordau.

ton.)

$3.50. (Apple

$1.25.

6. Under the Man Fig. By Davis. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)

HARTFORD, CT.

75. Adventures of Captain Horn.
$1.50. (Scribners.)

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2. From a New England Hillside. Paper, 25 cts. (Macmillan.)

By Stockton.

By Potts.

75

3. The Little Huguenot. By Pemberton. cts. (Dodd, Mead & Co.)

4. Story of the Plants. By Allen. 40 cts. (Appleton)

My Lady Nobody. By Maartens.

$1.50.

(Harper.)

75 cts.

Bonnie Brier Bush.

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(Dodd, Mead & Co.)

8. Adventures of Captain Horn. By Stockton.

4. The Little Huguenot. By Pemberton.

$1.50. (Scribner.)

(Dodd, Mead & Co.)

When Valmond Came to Pontiac. By Parker. $1.50. (Stone & Kimball.)

6. With the Procession. By Fuller. $1.50. (Harper.)

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$1.25.

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2. Kentucky Cardinal. By Allen. $1.00. per.)

(Har

3. Story of Bessie Costrell. By Ward. (Macmillan.)

75 cts.

$1.75.

My Lady Nobody. By Maartens. (Harper.)

Adventures of Captain Horn. By Stockton.

$1.50. (Scribner.)

6. With the Procession. By Fuller.

$1.25.

(Harper.)

CLEVELAND, O.

1. Water Tramps. By Bartlett. $1.00. nam.)

The Master. By Zangwill. $1.75. (Harper.) By Maclaren. $1.25.

Bonnie Brier Bush.

(Dodd, Mead & Co.)

5. Woman Who Did. By Allen. $1.00. (Roberts.)

6. Phantom Death. By Clark Russell. 75 cts. (Stokes.)

LOUISVILLE, KY.

Princess Aline. By Davis. $1.25. (Harper.) 2. Under the War Flags of 1861. By Pickard. $1.50. (Dearing.)

3. The Veiled Doctor. By Davis. $1.25. (Harper.)

(Put-When Valmond Came to Pontiac. By Parker. $150. Stone & Kimball.)

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