May, 19 09 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



213 



THE- TALK- OF • THE - OFFICE 



PRIZES FOR THINKING 



First of all we want to thank the hundreds of 

 people who wrote to us and sent suggestions, in 

 answer to our prize offer, for ideas to help sell 

 books and magazines. The number of letters 

 was vastly in excess of what we expected, and 

 they showed marked originality and merit. 

 A very large number of the writers ruled them- 

 selves out of the competition by suggesting 

 schemes which would prove to be quite illegal 

 under the lottery law, others could not be con- 

 sidered because of the stringent rulings which 

 govern what is called "second class matter," 

 under which classification our magazines are 

 entered at the Post Office. We greatly regret 

 the loss of time and effort by our contributors 

 who suggested plans which fell under these 

 difficulties, but we thank them and applaud their 

 ingenuity. Then comes a great class of letters 

 beginning: "Get a good reliable representative 

 in every town, divide the country into sections, 

 ete." If we could "get" all the good representa- 

 tives we wanted, our fortunes would be made. 

 A very few suggested how we were to secure 

 representatives, and these have had our- most 

 respectful consideration. 



A considerable number of readers suggested 

 schemes which we had tried to work out during 

 the past ten years without success. We were 

 obliged to discard these, not because, perhaps, 

 the schemes were not good, but because we were 

 not clever enough to make them work. 



Finally, we have selected from the letters, the 

 plans from these persons which we propose to 

 try, and we have sent checks to these good 

 people, with our gratitude for their work in our 

 behalf. 



THE WORLD'S WORK 



Charles H. Albert, State Normal 1 $ioo. 

 School, Bloomsburg, Pa. f Half 



Clarence Green, Tacoma High C to 

 School, Tacoma, Wash. J each. 



II. M. V. O'Shea, Dept. of Education, University 

 of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., $25. 



III. U. F. Reise, 1027 Green Street, San Francisco, 

 Cal., $15. 



III. Miss J. Reed, McMinnville, Ore., $15. 



Both suggestions so good we awarded two third 

 prizes. 



IV. Willam Harris Guyer, Alverton, Pa, $ro. 



IV. Dr. Charles O'Connor, Fitchburg Board of 

 Trade, Fitchburg, Mass., $10. 

 Two fourth prizes awarded. 



COUNTRY LIFE IN AMERICA 



No suggestion good enough for prize award. 



"To business that we love we rise betime 

 And go to 'twith delight." — Antony and Cleopatra 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



No first or second prizes. 



III. John F. Ballard, Box 503, Lexington, Mass., 

 S15. 



IV. Mac H. Wayne, School of Agriculture, St. Paul, 

 Minn., $10. 



BOOKS 



I. No first prize awarded. 

 II. Mrs. John Doughty, 57 Prospect Street, Win- 

 sted, Conn., $25. 



III. Miss Amy Whitney, Thompsonville, Conn., $15. 



IV. Benjamin F. Havens, Box 113, Trenton, N. J., 

 $10. 



We still hold ourselves in readiness to read and 

 consider any plan suggested. This competition 

 need never close. We stand ready to pay for 

 ideas always — and we shall be glad to get them. 



IN THE MATTER OF BOOK REVIEWS — CAN YOU 

 WRITE A GOOD ONE? 



Time was, so old-fashioned people say, when 

 book reviewing held its place as a sort of 

 learned profession; reviews were read and re- 

 spected. Now, these old-fashioned people assert 

 that books are reviewed by the baseball editor or 

 the man on the telegraph desk. Also, they say, 

 that these hard-worked Knights of the Pen are 

 called upon to dash off perhaps twenty book 

 reviews in an afternoon. As to these state- 

 ments, we dare not express an opinion. Some- 

 times we have ventured to think that the base- 

 ball enthusiasts would hardly stand for the lack 

 of real knowledge displayed in a report of the 

 national game, that the authors and publishers 

 must submit to in the way of a book review; but 

 that is another story, and, besides, there are 

 more baseball votaries than book worms. 



All this tiresome preliminary leads up to this: 



We are convinced that the people who express 

 the best analytical opinion are the readers who 

 enjoy books, and tell of their impressions to their 

 friends, people who buy books and read them 

 for the pleasure they get out of them, not the 

 people who get books free, and are paid for 

 telling about them. It is this personal recom- 

 mendation from one intelligent reader to another 

 that gives good books their sale. 



We ask such unprofessional critics who read 

 because they enjoy reading, and not as a part 

 of the daily grind, to write a review of Mr. 

 E. F. Benson's "The Climber." We think that 

 this book offers a particularly good opportunity 

 to try out the wholesome critical faculty as com- 

 pared with the piece-work job of book reviewing. 



# 



We offer modest prizes of $50, $30, $20, and so 

 on for the best reviews of not more than 1,000 

 words — see announcement elsewhere in this 

 magazine. We hope our readers will try their 

 hands at book reviewing, and we shall tell of the 

 results in the August issues. 



READABLE BOOK TYPE 



We think that there will very soon be a strong 

 manifestation of public opinion about the use 

 of readable type. As competition grows keener, 

 type seems to grow smaller and poorer, until 

 our oculists say that children will soon need to 

 be born with glasses. In our own books, 

 we are planning to use larger type, and the 

 faces known as Caslon and Scotch, both full 

 strong letters, restful to the long-suffering eye. 

 We made a bad mistake in setting up Mr. 

 Benson's novel "The Climber," referred to in 

 the last paragraph, the type was too small. We 

 have thrown these plates into the melting pot, 

 and have set the 500 pages over again in type two 

 sizes larger, and all the editions hereafter printed 

 will be in this larger type, which we hope will be 

 found comfortable to read. 



MRS. HUMPHRY WARD'S NEW BOOK 



On May 20th, or thereabouts, we expect to 

 publish Mrs. Ward's new novel, "Marriage a la 

 Mode," which has been running as a serial in 

 McClure's Magazine. It is the first book in 

 which Mrs. Ward has laid even part of the scene 

 in the United States, and to this degree reflects 

 the influence of her visit last spring. The book 

 will be sold at the fixed price of $1.20, or $1.30 

 when sent by mail. It is abundantly illustrated, 

 and the story has been largely re-written. 



THE LIBRARY SALES ROOM 



has been moved down to the second floor of 

 our building 133-137 East 16th Street, for the 

 convenience of our friends. Here all our books, 

 pictures, and magazines are shown, and a com- 

 fortable place provided to read them. 



THE GARDEN AND FARM ALMANAC 



It may seem late to talk about almanacs, 

 which usually find their only sale at the begin- 

 ning of the year — not so "The Garden and 

 Farm Almanac." This is the time when the 

 book sells well and is most used. The price is 

 25 cents postpaid, and the volume will not be 

 reprinted. 



