January, 191 



THE GARDE N M A G A Z I N E 



Doubleday, Page & Company are twelve 

 years old this month, having begun to harass 

 an indulgent public on the eternal question 

 of buying books on the first day of the new 

 century, a little more than a busy decade 

 ago. We began with no books, no maga- 

 zines, and a conviction that the country 

 needed a new publishing house, and 

 that we were the people to build it. 

 In these twelve years Ave have issued 

 some thirteen hundred different vol- 

 umes. They have not, every one of 

 them, done as well as we had hoped, 

 but the great majority have been 

 extremely successful. We have 

 printed and sold of these books 

 something like 7,000,000 copies, be- 

 ginning in 1900 with a few hundred 

 thousand, and ending in 191 1 with 

 nearly two million volumes for the 

 year ; and during the same period we 

 have made many million magazines. 



During these years we have had 

 pleasant relations with a majority of 

 the most popular authors of our day, 

 the alphabet being well represented 

 all the way from George Ade to 

 Emile Zola. Many of these books 

 are known and read all over the 

 world. Twelve years is not a long 

 time to bring together a representa- 

 tive list of books and authors; older 

 houses have had the great advantage of friend- 

 ly connections with many famous writers 

 before we began business. We have not 

 planned nor tried to break the relations 

 which existed before we came into existence, 

 yet through the favorable consideration of 

 our author friends, we have, we think, a 

 list which stands a fair comparison with the 

 majority of publishing houses, and solely 

 because so many writers have been found 

 who were glad to encourage a young house. 



In October, 1910, we moved from New 

 York to Garden City, and began to make 

 books and magazines in a forty acre garden. 

 Xext to deciding, against the advice of almost 

 all of our friends, to go into the publishing busi- 

 ness at all, this move to the country was the 

 best thing we ever did, and we received the 

 same Punch's advice that we did about going 



into business — Don't. We are glad we did 

 both things, even against the fears of friends. 

 In January, 191 1, we actually began to 

 bind a few books at Garden City, and in the 

 whole month we averaged a few hundred a 

 day. At the end of the year we were making 

 10,000 a day and twice as many magazines. 



The Country Life Press from an aeroplane 700 feet above the ground, taken by one 

 of our friends, Philip Wilcox, from a Wright biplane 



Gradually every part of book and magazine 

 making has been developed in this building 

 at Garden City. We set the type by that 

 wonderful machine, the Monotype (we can 

 set a book every day in the year) ; our pho- 

 tographers make many of the pictures, 

 and our photo-engraving department makes 

 the black and white plates for printing them, as 

 well as the magazine covers and book illustra- 

 tions in color. It is a difficult art to develop, 

 but one which we think the covers of the 

 magazines show that we have fairly well 

 mastered. We even make the brass dies for 

 the book bindings in the shop. 



Some of the books are compiled and pre- 

 pared in the building, and the newest depart- 

 ment is devoted to binding books in leather. 

 We hope that the Country Life Press bindings 

 may yet become favorably known. 



Early in the new year the temporary station 

 will make way for a permanent one on our own 

 grounds. It will appear on the time-tables 

 as "Country Life," and will be about half 

 way between Garden City and Hempstead. 



The year has brought about 750 people 

 together at the Country Life Press; we have 

 received and mailed something like 

 7,000,000 pieces of mail matter, and 

 paid into the Garden City Postoffice 

 more than $70,000 in the twelve 

 months for postage. The Govern- 

 ment has established its own postal 

 station in the building, so that letters 

 and magazines go each night into our 

 own mail car, filled during the day as 

 it stands on our track at the door; 

 and, like the rest of the Hempstead 

 branch, this track of the Long Island 

 Railroad is electrified by the third 

 rail all the way to the Pennsylvania 

 Station at 33d Street, New York. We 

 have our own Western Union Tele- 

 graph office, direct trunk telephone 

 wires to the New York office, a sys- 

 tem of over fifty branch telephone 

 stations in New York and Garden 

 City. 



In the big station at 33d Street, by 

 the way, we have the little Book 

 Shop, where our magazines, and the 

 books of all publishers, are sold. 

 So many people have asked us how the 

 plan of moving into the country has worked, 

 that we have bored our readers with 

 these particulars, yet the interest shown 

 by many thousand visitors has led us to write 

 and print a little book about it, a very- 

 imperfect affair, which we will some day re- 

 make for a more effective description; but we 

 shall be glad to send the present pamphlet 

 to any interested friends for the asking. 



In New York at 11 West 33d Street, two 

 blocks from the Pennsylvania Station, we 

 have the city trade book department, and the 

 advertising departments for our magazines, 

 and we have advertising department offices 

 in Boston, Cleveland and Chicago. 



A happy and prosperous New Year to all 

 the patient readers of The Talk of the Office. 

 — Doubleday, Page & Co. 



