Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1881 — A Reward es Genius. [ARTICLE]

A Reward es Genius.

N«w York TUml The $60,000 received by Lord Beaconafleld for his last novel is believed to represent the largest amount given in England for any work of fiction* Scott received $40,000 for “Woodstock,” and George Elliot the same amount for “Middle-march.'’ Bulwer Lytton’s earlier novels, even when he was the rage, did not bring him in more than from $3,000 to $5,000, but he subsequently received handsome amounts for a copyright of a collective edition. Lord Beaoonsfield’s earlier novels, notwithstanding the success of the first, “Vivian Grey,” had a very limited sale, and could be bought for next to nothing within a few months of publication. They never became in general request as components of a library, and in England were only read with interest by persons familiar with political and social life. “Coningßby” excited by far the moqt interest, and the key, which soon afterwards * appeared, waa eagerly scrutinised. Probably ;“Endymion” and “Lothair” have together produced more tham double of all the previous works of the author, albeit very inferior to'some of them. The “Curiosties of Literature'’ of the elder Disraeli must have produced k large sum of money. It forms a put of every good collection of English books, ana has passed through ntany editions. Dickens leit s4oo,ooo,and a considerable slice of this came from books; but it was his “readings” which made him affluent, and so, too, with Thackeray. For receipts from actual writings no one has yet approached Boott, whose income for several years ranged from £IO,OOO to £15,000, mainly drawn from this source, Richardson was the first Englishman who made a really good thing out of writing, and mainly because he was publisher of his own novels, In the past thirty yens French novels have received very large sums. Bat Balzac's rewards for his genius and tremendous toil were

miserably small. Probably Miss Braddon’a receipts frem. writing rank among the first half-dozen highest among writers of fiction, She has the advantage of a publisher for a husband. Reynolds, who wrote “The Mysteries of London,'* and other works of a lower sensational type, was, from a pecuniary point of view, ’one of the most successful of British authors. Many of those books which pay so well are the last which occur to persons as being lucrative. Thus f ‘Thorn ton’s Family Prayers" has been a little mine of money to an English fondly.