38-2-388 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1912 



'To business that we love we rise betime 

 And go to 't with delight." — Antony and Cleopatra 



LETTERS 



We wonder if so many interesting letters 

 come to men in other sorts of business ? Per- 

 haps publishers are especially favored by 

 the confidences of people whom they have 

 never seen? 



It has very often been said that almost any- 

 body can edit a periodical better than the 

 editor, and make a fire better than the 

 fire-maker. That this is a true statement is 

 proved by thousands of letters which come 

 to us intimating 'that the writer is better 

 able to judge of the literary value of some 

 things than Doubleday, Page and Company. 



For instance: 



I see that you are publishing with success a novel 

 by . . . which you say is in a new field of fiction, 

 etc., etc. . . . All this indicates how narrow is 

 your viewpoint. Simply because this author has be- 

 come one of the "inner circle" she could write the 

 poorest stuff and you would publish it with avidity and 

 throw away dozens of other books in every way its 

 superior. ... I am sending to you by express the 

 manuscript of a book which some people in our town 

 have told me is in every way vastly superior to any 

 book . written by . . . whose praise you sing so 

 long and loud. 



The question is will you be able to recognize ability 

 when you see it or are you blind to the merit of an author 

 just because he is unknown? 



This form of letter is duplicated a hundred 

 times, and we could stand it better were it 

 not for the fact that with them come manu- 

 scripts of sometimes a iooo pages and an 

 average, we should say, of from 400 to 500 

 pages of typewriting, representing months 

 and often years of work on the part of their 

 authors. 



Of book manuscripts alone, Doubleday, 

 Page & Company return from ten to a dozen a 

 day representing for the most part, we regret 

 to say, a pathetic spectacle of time wasted. 



Here is a manuscript reader's letter to show 

 the other side of this difficult question: 



I have been thinking, and referring again to my 

 report on No. ... a novel by . . . which I 

 faint-heartedly recommended for acceptance; and 

 which recommendation I now wish to withdraw. De- 

 liberate reflection has caused me to realize that no real 

 good can come from publishing this book, and 

 I am frank to admit that I recommended it because in 

 execution it is better than hundreds I have been so 

 laboriously reading. This deadly average of medioc- 



rity I am convinced has almost upset my judgment 

 as to the standard which I am perfectly aware should 

 be moderately high. Not so high that a newcomer 

 should be held up to an impossible standard but not 

 so low that a book should not show in some way — in 

 sincerity, imagination or literary power — that it may 

 take some part in the world's affairs if published. The 

 Mss. No. . . . is simply commonplace; only a little 

 less commonplace than the general run, and that is all 

 that can truthfully be said of it. 



This office memorandum is printed here not 

 because it is in itself of interest but to show 

 how the first instinct is toward acceptance until 

 most publishing houses accept more books 

 than they can properly and effectively handle. 



To complete the circle of this correspondence 

 concerning manuscripts and book publishing 

 we add two paragraphs from a bookseller's 

 letter: 



I understand from a talk I had with one of your 

 travelers — that you propose to publish a fewer number 

 of books and push more vigorously those that you do 

 issue. Your new resolution pleases me because all 

 publishers in the last ten years have increased the 

 number of books — especially mediocre fiction — ex- 

 traordinarily, apparently in the hope of getting a "best 

 seller." Do you realize that this has gone on to such a 

 degree that even salesmen often tell us that they cannot 

 be sure of such and such a volume and show no enthus- 

 iasm in selling it? 



In my opinion publishers should not accept any 

 book which they cannot earnestly and honestly back 

 as worth while; poor books when sold injure the buying 

 activities of readers — you "kill the goose," etc. You 

 will make enough mistakes even when you feel confident 

 that you have the real thing and I hope you'll stick 

 to your guns and bring up the quality. 



But all letters are not pessimistic. As we 

 write we have before us a sheaf of twenty-three 

 letters which have accumulated in a few days; 

 all of them about Mrs. Corra Harris's book 

 "The Recording Angel." 



Three of these refer to George Eliot. 



For instance: 



Not since the days of George Eliot has there been any- 

 thing so good. Perhaps you recall the words she puts 

 into the mouth of one of her radical speakers in Felix 

 Holt. After all, though, does it not go to prove that 

 if we are to have preaching, that preachers should be 

 removed from their present status of dependents and 

 made economically free of their environment? 



Here is another: 



I have just finished reading "The Recording 

 Angel," and I cannot resist the temptation to write 



you how much I enjoyed it, as well as your other stories. 

 No doubt you wish that I were gifted with a will strong 

 enough to say, "Get thee behind me," to a temptation 

 fraught with such terrible consequences to an unfor- 

 tunate and helpless victim. 



Now that the preliminary apologies are out of the 

 way, let me say what immense pleasure I have obtained 

 from all your work, from "The Circuit Rider's Wife" 

 down to (or up to?) "The Recording Angel." The 

 stories themselves have been interesting, vastly so! 

 But it is your "asides," your observations upon human, 

 and Divine, nature, and things in general that have 

 delighted me most. The very audacity of some of these, 

 the originality of all of them, leave me almost gasping 

 with surprise and pleasure. 



A dozen pages of this magazine could be 

 filled by letters about Mrs. Gene Stratton- 

 Porter's books whose fame extends in an ever 

 widening circle. In the month of May we 

 printed and sold over 100,000 of the new 

 edition of "The Girl of the Limberlost," and 

 that these books touch the hearts of a great 

 multitude, brightening and helping, is made 

 clear by the dozens of letters which come like 

 this one: 



It is difficult to speak of the work of Gene Stratton- 

 Porter and not to call upon all the superlatives of 

 praise in the language. "The Girl of the Limberlost" 

 is a delightful book: the kind of book that brings a 

 pleasant mistiness to your eyes and a lump in your 

 throat which makes you feel deliciously sobby while 

 you are laughing; and if you don't know and value that 

 sensation you miss much 



"Freckles," by the way, has gone on the 

 stage, and will get into the big cities this fall. 



Another class of letters come to the service 

 department which answers, after close study, 

 letters about "How to buy a farm," "How to 

 select investments," and the thousand and 

 one queries about the "Garden." We hope 

 these answers do some good in the world. The 

 letters are carefully read, and information 

 sought by experts, but often they ask questions 

 beyond us, like this one: 



I am about to get into trouble and I am going to 

 ask you to help me out. Some of my neighbors differ 

 in the time to plant and how to plant. They say the 

 time to plant potatoes is in the "dark of the moon," 

 when the beginning is; some say in "arms"; some in 

 "feet"; some one place and some another. And other 

 garden seeds the same — also setting out trees? Some 

 say the "dark of the moon" from the new to the full; so 

 please give me your ideas in regard to the moon and 

 its signs and what effect it has on planting. 





