August, 1909 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



THE- TALK- OF- THE - OFFICE 



REALLY GOOD BOOK REVIEWS 



A few months ago — in the May issue of 

 this magazine, to be exact — we printed an 

 announcement, offering some modest prizes for 

 reviews of Mr. Benson's book "The Climber." 

 The response has been remarkable, both in 

 the number of reviews received, and in the 

 exceptionally high standard of the articles them- 

 selves. It has, naturally, been extremely 

 difficult to decide which were the best. Some 

 we thought, excelled in one respect, and some 

 in others, and fifty might have been added to 

 the prize winners if we had had so many prizes. 

 Our selection has been as follows: 



ist prize. Miss Louise Shelton, Stratford, Conn. 

 2nd prize. John J. a Becket, 44 East 21st Street, 



New York • 

 3rd prize. Miss Rene Mansfield, 1773 Magnolia Ave., 



Chicago, 111. 

 4th prize. George T. Marsh, 31 Market Square, 



Providence, R. I. 

 5th prize. Ruth Allen Benedict, 11 Haviland Street, 



Boston, Mass. 

 6th prize. George Herbert Clarke, Peabody College, 



Nashville, Tenn. 

 7th prize. Miss Anstiss Church, 1040 Judson Ave., 



Evanston, 111. 



We hope that we may say, without giving 

 offense to our newspaper friends, that the aver- 

 age contribution was, to our thinking, better 

 than the average review which is printed in the 

 newspapers — more spontaneous and less con- 

 ventional — and if any of our editor friends are 

 looking for persons who can appreciate and 

 analyze and write intelligently, we can supply 

 a full score of names of people competent to do 

 these things. What, perhaps, pleased us most 

 was the fact that, whether the book was approved 

 of or not, the quality of Mr. Benson's work was 

 fully comprehended and described, also that the 

 book had been read by discriminating people, 

 and to all the contributors we beg to present 

 our best thanks and appreciations. We 

 have published the prize winning reviews in a 

 pamphlet, which we will be glad to send to any 

 one interested. 



ANOTHER OFFER 



We are glad to make the same offer of prizes, 

 for reviews of Mrs. Humphry Ward's Mar- 

 riage a la Mode, which are as follows: 



ftlOO FOR GOOD REVIEWS 



Readers are familiar with the statement so frequently 

 made that the day of the adequate critical and ana- 

 lytical review is past. For ourselves, we believe that 

 the best analyses of books are now made by intelligent 

 readers who do not write for publication. 



With the idea of testing the whole subject, we offer 

 the following prizes for the best reviews of Mrs. Hum- 

 phry Ward's new novel,. "Marriage a la Mode," 

 which is now being so widely discussed. These rules 

 must be followed: 



1. Copy to be written only on one side of sheet, 

 typewritten preferable. 



2. The review to be not more than 1,000 words. 

 750 would be better. 



3. The manuscript to be submitted not later than 

 September 15th. 



4. The prizes to be awarded and announced in the 

 November numbers of Doubleday, Page & Com- 

 pany's magazines, Country Life in America, 

 The World's Work, and The Garden Magazine, 

 the successful reviews to be printed at that time. 



The First Prize is $50. The Second Prize is $30. 

 The Third Prize is $20. The Fourth Prize, books from 

 our book catalogue to the amount of $7.50. The Fifth 

 Prize, books to the amount of $5.00. The Sixth 

 Prize, a subscription to Country Life in America. 

 The Seventh Prize, a subscription to The World's 

 Work. 



Address Review Contest, 



Doubleday, Page & Company, 



133 E. 1 6th St., New York. 



Mrs. Ward's position in England and Amer- 

 ica makes this novel a particularly good one for 

 the reviewer to try his hand upon. It has 

 already received long notices in the newspapers, 

 and is much discussed where people are taking 

 a serious view of the workings of our American 

 divorce laws. We await the analyses of our 

 readers with interest. 



SOME REMARKS ABOUT ADVERTISING ' 



Last month we printed on this page a para- 

 graph about the relations between the reader 

 and the advertising matter. Some comments 

 and experiences aroused by these paragraphs 

 have suggested another point of view — the 

 position of the publisher toward the adver- 

 tiser. Let us say in strict confidence (we know 

 of no better way to make news travel fastest) 

 that some people who advertise do not invari- 

 ably receive all the replies they think they 

 should, or sell all the goods they plan to dis- 

 pose of from their announcements. 



Leaving aside the publisher who gives all 

 the circulation in quality and amount he is 

 able to give, and prints the advertisement, 

 we hope and assume, as well as he can, we then 

 come to the question: Does the advertiser 

 take advantage of his opportunities, does he 

 follow up his inquiries, and develop his market 

 efficiently? We believe that in a large pro- 

 portion of cases he does not. 



It would be easy to quote a score of examples, 

 but here are two. There appeared in one 

 of the magazines which we study somewhat 

 each month, a very excellent advertisement of a 

 good automobile. An acquaintance of ours 

 became interested and wrote for a catalogue 

 to the Western manufacturer, who sent the 

 usual advertising pamphlet (a good piece of 

 work, by the way), and wrote that his New 

 York agent would communicate with him 

 about particulars. He did not give the name 

 and address of the New York representative. 

 Nothing further ever happened, and the person 

 who was in the market for an article costing 

 between $4,000 and $5,000, felt neglected 

 naturally. 



Another case: For many months a firm had 

 been advertising a somewhat expensive house- 

 hold appliance. A man who was at the time 

 making some important alterations in his home, 

 wrote for a description of this appliance. The 

 catalogue failed to answer his question, and 

 he was disgusted with the cheaply printed 

 form letter, headed up by poor typewriting — ■ 

 a reply obviously unsuited to meet his inquiry. 

 He then dropped the matter. The next month 

 his attention was attracted by the advertise- 

 ment again, and he sat down and explained his 

 conditions, and asked for information. No 

 reply whatever this time, except another copy 

 of the uninstructive catalogue! 



There is a well-defined class of advertisers 

 who are as keen to trace the source of their 

 inquiries as they are lax in following up the 

 advantages gained by upholding the interest 

 procured, and we see this daily in our Readers' 

 Service Department, where we are obliged to 

 give, in thousands of letters, information which 

 should come from the manufacturers and 

 dealers, in reply to inquiries for printed matter. 

 But of this more later. 



