Independent (Newspaper) - May 4, 1899, London, Middlesex THE 4th SUNDAY PAPERS Letters from the Bishop of the Bishop of Arnold and WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED at the L as a J MAY r per post L per post J PRICE ONE PENNY WITH 4 is RICH IN PLASTIC SUBSTANCES For Cleanliness Use Only MAKERS TO THE REPINED BLACK WHITSUNTIDE EXCURSIONS PARTS and BOULOGNE and CALAIS and i CAEN and to and and BRUSSELS and lid ROTTERDAM and ANTWERP and PERSONALLY CONDUCTED with 8 days PARIS and with Carriage BATTLEFIELD of and with CYCLING TOUR to 4 v CHEAP ONE WEEKS EXCURSION to including DAYS GENEVA and PARIS or for HOLLAND and DEAD 3ITIES of ZUYDER SPECIAL TOUR to 12 THE and CYCLING TOURS to and inclusive to 15 Programmes THOMAS COOK Ludgate and Branch ROME LAST DEPARTURE OF THE MAT Fare includes travel and seven days Extensions to Illustrated Programme free from COOK Ludgate CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AMD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Demy with Handsome Edition on Oxford India Paste Grain German Calf Gold Roll Gold Roll Bevelled per copy BEND FOR LIST OF ALL EDITIONS ON ORDINARY Sales nearly One Million Used by over One Thousand AND PRICES FROM TO Theological and other Works on Sale In the Book in nearly all cases per Send for HENRY PUBLICATION MEMORIAL CHRISTS Principal Home Public School Practical Science 1 LEADER Booms in 281 TOPICS ov THB WEEK 282 SIB TANGYE OH 283 THB By Shan 284 TO THE 285 AN FOB THE WEEK TABLE TALK 286 BY THE 289 THE TWENTIETH 290 291 UNION OP THE 292 THB HOME For the Children A Brave Choice LADIES Conducted by Arnica 294 LESSON By Wayland of Christian Endeavour World COUNCIL 295 THE AGAINST SUNDAY 297 THE ABOUT 298 THE EDUCATION 299 THE ASCENT THROUGH op NONCON 800 BOOMS IN The sudden and widespread wave of popularity with which certain books are greeted by the reading public is one of the mysteries of social It comes sometimes on the instant of publication in other after a curious period of or shall I say of incuba which the conditions for the boom that awaits them are This literary which is quite a recent feature of the is one that may well puzzle us for the reasons that first suggest themselves are clearly by no means the actual reasons which account for By way of take this list of books which have met with an exaggerated reception during the last ten or fifteen years from the omnivorous British It is merely and others might be added without King Solo mons Mines and Robert Elsmere and John The True History of Joshua Davidson and Looking Esther Waters and The Woman Who Natural Law in the Spiritual World and The Ascent of The Time Machine and The War of the A Window in Thrums and The Bonnie Brier and but in many senses most remarkable and mysterious of In His Steps and The Crucifixion of Phillip Here is a collection of books representative of the most diverse points of dealing with an extra ordinary breadth of a to very heterogeneous class of and preaching the most contradictory What is the feature in common which emerges out of this mass of literature It is clear to begin with that the test of style does not In spite of the extravagant eulogies lavished by amateur reviewers on most of these it is doubtful if one of them will take a permanent place in literature as models of modern A few stand out as being thoroughly well and several con tain passages of unique beauty and eloquence but on the there is none that can cone pare with such books as Mark Rutherford produced most of them will by 110 means rank with several almost unnoticed works from the pens of Oliphant or Blackmore and in point of style I would personally rank Conan Doyles Clarke above all but two or A considerable proportion are by no means well put and a few are atrocious specimens of Nor is it a question of A book never really booms simply because it is produced by a particular Sometimes an author languishes in neglect for several patiently writing books that scarcely pay their before he strikes the right When he and his name begins to be noised it is always in virtue of a particular work which the public taste after of his previous works have a certain and those which he usually makes haste to write afterwards attain a vogue which is in marked contrast with their intrinsic Generally few writers produce more than one book attains success purely on its own merits the others are caught up on the advancing or follow in its wake by a process of literary For this what was recently said to me by a prominent man of that no writer can nowadays count on a longer lease of popularity than ten or twelve years is easily He is expected to produce an unlimited supply of literature of the same kind and flavour as that which floated him into public esteem and that no man can When his store of ideas in that direction is his readers forsake him for a new favourite with a fresh flavour of his Under these circumstances the temptation to overwrite oneself is so strong that few popular writers are proof against it indeed the names of not a few who began with bright promise are likely to be buried under the pile of mediocre potboilers which are pretty sure to follow the book that booms them into It is also a curious feature of the phenomenon we are considering that neither author nor publisher ever seems to be able to foretell the boom of any particular They sow at or in a faith that is sometimes pathetic they know not whether shall either this or or whether they both shall be alike good The speculative element in the publishing business is notoriously on the let us face the is a bit of a gamble and this element of the situation is one of the sad indications of the decay of When an author writes for money or for of making a sensation his doom as a writer is we comf within view of one of the real reasons for the boom in The speculative element is strong in the public and anything that begins to draw attention is by that very fact assured of something like People go for a book that is read with the same thirst for excitement as leads so many to plunge on the Stock Exchange and others to rush off to the gold diggings in the hope of making a like like to have a hand in anything that is and a popular author receives the same kind cf adulation as does a jockey who has won the Derby or a millionaire who has cheated the unwary widow of her Let the spark of curiosity be once lit and the
