Fame in Their Lifetime; Boom Days for the Moderns

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 19

Fame in Their Lifetime; Boom Days for the Moderns

EORMERLY an author’s reputation was made after his death. Now we establish his fame while he is still alive to enjoy it,” said a well-known New York bookseller to me the other day (writes W. F. Bullock in the “Daily Mail”). Turning to a catalogue on his desk, the bookseller pointed to an announcement of Mr. Lytton Strachey’s new biography, “Elizabeth and Essex,” of which the first limited edition has just been published —in America at the price of £4. “Here,” he said, “is the latest fashion in the book world—books hitherto unpublished coming out in limited first editions expensively dressed and

priced. It is the newest craze: among collectors. This starring of authors while they are still alive Is something new in the literary world, but for the booksellers it is something of a venture.”

Other authors, American and English, beside Mr. Strachey have been and are being honoured with these beautiful special editions of their latest hooks. Mrs. Virginia Woolf, a particular favourite with the American collector, may also be seen In a delightful first edition of her fanciful “Orlando.” And, incidentally, nct> copies of this “Orlando” are found getting dusty on the booksellers’ shelves. Mr. Philip Guedalla, also, in “Bonnet and Shawl,” has enjoyed the same high appreciation of a limited edition, although Mr. Guedalla is not yet. enshrined in the hearts ot' American collectors as is Virginia Woolf. The passion for collecting runs through every strata of American society and is increasing rapidly. Limited editions—but only of classics like Shakespeare—are often sold out before the printing begun. It only needs a whisper from England that u sumptuous edition is contemplated and collectors on this side are eager to be in at the birth. There is jnucli complaint that Eng-

lish readers often get a. much larger supply of these editions than is allotted to the American market. Collectors here have come to think that they are entitled to equal if not to more consideration than their English cousins. They claim to havo made some English authors, or at least to have rescued them from tho comparative penury which would have been their lot if there had been no eager American public to buy. But it matters little whether these editions come from England or are produced here, their popularity is immense. Multi - millionaires rub shoulders with clerks and typists In their ambition to possess the first edition of a favourite author. Women have Joined the craze, although as yet their numbers are less than, those ot men collectors.

“I have one customer," explained the bookseller, “who is a railroad clerk earning his seven pounds a week. He has never earned more; a quiet, unambitious fellow, yet he has been my faithful customer for twentyfive years. I let .him have his books at so much down and the rest by instalments, and he has a collection for w'hich I would give him a fortune if he would only resell it to me. “These people,” he went on, “always read w-hat they buy. I have a few millionaire customers who purchase by rota, but most collectors I know love not only the outside but also tho inside of their purchases. There is a famous New York surgeon—he never charges less than a thousand pounds for an operation—to whom his library of first editions is an anaesthetic. Tired and shaken by an arduous day at the operation table, he retires to his library—his sedative for tingling nerves." American booksellers frequently display a small stand in their windows with the title on top, "Book of the Day.” Often an English novel occupies this pride of place. A New York newspaper has Just printed n symposium of opinions by well-known Americans on “Recent Books I Have Liked.” Mr. Aldous Huxley’s “Point Counter Point” was a favourite on the lists. One American publisher is preparing for the New Year an 85,000 first edition of a first novel by an Englishman, Mr. H. W. Freeman. The “Book of the Month Club,” row finding many imitators, commands a tremendous circulation for the book chosen, although the author does not enjoy the royalty percentage that he would receive in the usual contract “The Crime Cliib” offers its members a monthly detective story. It has chosen Mr. Edgar Wallace’s ‘‘Tho Double” for its mystery story in December, an indication that Mr. Wallace is coming into popularity here. Just why he has not yet earned the millions of readers that he has in Eng- | land remains an enigma to book- . sellers on. this side. They are in- ! dined to attribute the cause to an i overcrowded market and perhaps the I iack of advertising. He is doing a little education himself by contributing. a weekly article on crime to a ; New York newspaper.