People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1895 — REWARDS OF LITERATURE. [ARTICLE]

REWARDS OF LITERATURE.

Number of Author* Eirniug Good ’lncome* Larger than Ever. Not all of the truly worthy authors of 1 past times have been condemned to penury and vagabonage. Some of them, on the contrary, have acquired fortunes I by reason of the liberal compensation they received for their work. Scott was ' paid for one of his novels at the rate of ' $252 per day for the time employed in writing it. and his total literary earnings aggregated $1,500,000. Byron got $20,000 for "Childe Harold" and $15,000 ; for "Don .Tuan.” Moore sold "Dalia ’ Rookh” for $15,750, and his “Irish MeloI dies ' brought him $45,000. Gray received ! only S2OO for his poems, and not a cent i for the immortal "Elegy," out of which ; the publisher made $5,000; but that was because he had an eccentric prejudice against taking money for writing. i Tennyson had an annual income of from $40,000 to $50,000 for many years, though in the early part of his career, when he wrote "Maud" and “In Memorlam,” he realized next to nothing. i Longfellow sold his first poems, including some of his best ones, at very low I figures, but he lived to receive $4,000, or S2O a line, for the “Hanging of the Crane,” and when he died he was worth $.350,000. Whittier left an estate of S2OQ,000 and several of the leading American prose writers have done quite as well. These are exceptions, it is true, but they serve to modify the general rule,, and to show that in cases of superior merit, literature has proved to be notably profitable. It is safe to say that the present rates of pay for literary work of good quality are higher than those of any preceding time, and that the number of persons who are earning respectable Incomes in that way is larger than was ever before known.