Fortunes in Authorship

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 21, 16 April 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

Fortunes in Authorship

F THERE money in authorship? Sometimes, yes: more often, no. Successful writers have someth6B Piled up big fortunes; on the other hand, some of the greatest geniuses have found it difficult to a bare living. For “Paradise Lost** Milton received th widow later getting a further payment of £B. The price paid J* an American syndicate to a very Jopular English writer of humorous stories is £3OO per story. George Gissing, who painstakingly *rote novels that are now regarded as Gassics, lived and died poverty-pur-f Ued - Hutchinson is said ;° bav e made £ 100,000 from “If Winter Comes’’ alone. Fortune for a History.

One reason why the modern popu*r w riter sometimes accumulates *cnes from his inkpot is the fact that successful book may be filmed, ramatlsed, and translated. All these mgs mean handsome royalties. Hut even in the days before these avelopments there were writers who . iots of money. Alexander Pope da ” on3Gr . a sum equal to £30.000 toP .J. The “Decline and Fall’’ brought ribbon, the historian, £IO,OOO. Macauuy made £25,000 out of hik “His°ry of England.’* **ut fiction, naturall>, supplies the tar* 1 BtartHn S instances of big monehP^.returns from the inkpot. When had established himself, Charles sickens made £IO.OOO a year, leav Ann K hen he died about £IOO.OOO. a he was not careful about money. rhS r l ter Scott, finding himself, set no of bis own, *n debt, <• to work to pay off his creditors w fifing novel after novel. He ct on k e p a jd off over

£IO,OOO, and became a fairly well-to-do man again. But the strain broke up his health. Short Stories —£1000 Each. In our own times there are many in stances of the fickleness of fortune. For many years Joseph Conrad had to write in dire poverty. Few of his books sold more than 1500 copies

when first published. The turn came when he was nearing the end of his life; he left nearly £20,000. Sir James Barrie, who started as a pressman, netted £40,000 from his immortal “The Little Minister” alone. Kipling, vho started in the same way, now receives £IOOO for a short story.

A Castle Bought With Books

| Sir Hall Caine, starting without money, managed to buy himself a fine castle What he makes is not known. But since several of his novels have sold half a million copies, he must be a rich man. J. J. Bell, ihe Scottish humorist, received £SO for all rights in “Wee Macgregor,” which made a fortune for his publishers. When Mrs Rice wrote "Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,” she probably hoped for an adequate return. Did she ever dTeam of the £20,000 which that very human story actually brought her? Does Poetry Pay?

John Davidson, the poet, ended his life because he could not induce the public to buy the poems the critics praised so highly. But Mrs Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the American versifier, made a five-figure income from rhymes at which the critics sneered. Contrary to general belief, fame in writing does not always bring wealth. Francis Thompson, the poet, made less in a year than many an unknown journalist makes in a poor month. Among living authors who may safely be said to have made big fortunes from their inkpots are Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, Edgar Wallace, Ethel M. Dell, I. A. R. Wylie, A. S. M. Hutchinson. E. M. Hull, Sir J. M. Barrie, G. Bernard Shaw, and Sir Hall Caine. There are many others equally famous, equally fortunate. Did a man ever set out to write a “best seller” and succeed? Probably not. Most books wtv '.hieve vast circulations do so because, whatever their intrinsic literary value, they were written in absolute sincerity by their authors.