196 REVIEWS THE BOOKSELLER. 



gratulatJBg tliemselves, as authors, ou the completion of their task, 

 " Alas, our difficulties, so far from being surmounted, seemed only to 

 be beginning. Strangers to the arcana of the bookseller's trade, and 

 unacquainted with their almost invincible objection to single volumes 

 of low price, especially when tendered by writers who have acquired 

 no previous name, we little anticipated that they would refuse to 

 publish our Rejected Addresses, even although we asked nothing for 

 the copyright. Such, however, proved to be the case. Our manu- 

 script was perused and returned to us by several of the most eminent 

 publishers. Well do we remember betaking ourselves to one of the 

 craft in Bond Street, whom we found in a back parlor, with his gouty 

 leg propped upon a cushion, in spite of which warning he diluted his 

 luncheon with frequent glasses of Madeira. ' What have you already 

 written ?' was his first question, an interrogatory to which we had 

 been subjected in almost every instance. * Nothing by which we can 

 be known.' ' Then I am afraid to undertake the publication.' We 

 presumed timidly to suggest that every writer must have a beginning, 

 and that to refuse to publish for him until he had acquired a name, 

 was to imitate the sapient mother who cautioned her son against 

 going into the water until he could swim. ' An old joke — a regular 

 Joe !' exclaimed our companion, tossing off another bumper. ' Still 

 older than Joe Miller,' was our reply ; ' for, if we mistake not, it is 

 the very first anecdote inihefacetiai of Hierocles.' 'Ha, sirs !' re- 

 sumed the bibliopolist, ' Tou are learned, are you ? so, soh ! Well, 

 leave your manuscript with me ; I will look it over to-night and give 

 you an answer to-morrow.' Punctual as the clock we presented our- 

 selves at his door on the following morning, when our papers were 

 returned to us with the observation, — ' These trifles are really not 

 "deficient in smartness ; they are well, vastly well for beginners ; but 

 they will never do — never. They would not pay for advertising, and 

 without it I should not sell fifty copies.' " A publisher, however, 

 was found at length, to whom, when success had established the 

 merits of their clever satire, they effected a sale of their collected 

 Imitations of Horace, and their half-share in the joint copyright for 

 one thousand pounds ! 



The rogueries of book-puffing, preparatory announcements, "Just 

 published " notices of books still unborn ; " Nearly ready s " of books 

 not yet in the compositors' hands, &c. New editions, second, third, 

 and fourth, all effected by mere reprints of title-page ; advertised 



