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GEORGE W.CHILDS, PUBLISHER, Nos. 628 & 630 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA.

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SEÑOR DON HENRIQUE LEMMING, 9 Calle de la Paz, Madrid.

Subscriptions or Advertisements for the "Publishers' Circular" will be received by the above Agents, and they will forward to the

Editor any Books or Publications intended for notice.

OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE.

NOV. 2, 1863.

LONDON, Oct. 3, 1863. SIR: If the last two months have been comparatively blanks in our publishing world, the October announcements of the leading houses promise a rich crop in all classes of literature during the autumn months, and let us hope, whatever he may think of our wall-fruit and our English girls, these English productions, though raised in "Our Old Home" and foggy climate, may in part find favor even in the eyes of so acerb a critic as Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose picture of English life and manners is just running the round of the papers, and has been cleverly and elaborately analyzed by Professor Masson in the "Reader" of the 26th ult., and in the number of to-day. Amongst the promises of the future, there is J. E. Doyle's "Illustrated Chronicle of England," the designs drawn on the blocks by the artist himself, and printed in colors by Bradbury & Evans' patented process, a book, if half as beautiful in print as it was in MS., will be one of the handsomest volumes that has ever issued from the press. It will be what Dr. Dibdin would have called "a perfect blaze of light," and so Guy Fawkes' day is very fitly fixed upon for its appearance. His brother, Richard Doyle-Dick Kit-cat of old, and the best of the "Punch" illustrators-has just ready "A Bird's-eye View of Society," consisting of his clever sketches, with the letter-press description, that appeared in the "Cornhill Magazine." An illustrated edition of the "Ingoldsby Legends," with sixty cuts after George Cruikshank, Leach, and Tenniel, is in the press, so that there will be no lack of fun to keep out the blue-devils during the coming November fogs.

"Sir John Eliot," a biography by John Forster, is a book looked forward to with much interest, as is also J. F. Maguire's" Father Mathew, a Biography.' There is to be a "Life of Robert Stephenson," by Mr. Jeaffreson, of the "Athenæum," assisted by Mr. W. Pole, but as joint-stock biographies seldom turn out worth reading, expectations are not of the highest as to the result. A piece of American literary biography, "Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker," by John Weiss, will come out apropos in November, when there are to be two new volumes of Miss Cobbe's edition of the works of that celebrated Unitarian divine. Dr. Andrew Read's sons are writing "Memoirs of the Life and Labors of Dr. Andrew Reed ;" and a kind of autobiography of the late Bishop of Calcutta is announced under the title of "Bishop Wilson's Journal," being letters addressed to his family during the first nine years of his Indian episcopate, edited by his son. This is rather a strong dose of biography, but it is cosey reading for long evenings in an arm-chair by the fireside.

We are to have "Battlefields of the South from Bull's Run to Fredericksburg," by an English combatant, a Lieutenant of Artillery on the Field-Staff; "My Imprisonment; and the First Year of Abolition Rule in Washington," by Rose Greenhow; "The Rebellion in America," by Baptist Noel; and an authentic "Life of General Stonewall Jackson," Professor Dabney, of Richmond.

Discovery on the eve of publication. Professor Henry Youle Hinde has just ready "Explorations in Labrador;" Captain Knight's "Pedestrian Tour in Cashmere and Thibet," which was to have appeared in July, is coming out in a few days; "Coùstantinople during the Crimean War," by Lady Hornby, is copiously illustrated with colored lithographs of the strange scenes and strange sights which made the streets of Stamboul scarcely to be recognized by the Turks themselves; and several other books of real Voyages and Travels, are on the eve of publication, besides a book similar in point of execution to Pennant's "Outlines of the Globe;" "The Gallery of Geography," a pictorial and descriptive tour of the world, by the Rev. Thomas Milner, author of the "Gallery of Nature," of course a paste and scissors book, but prepared for press with all the care that marks the productions of Messrs. Chambers' book-making establishment. Of Poetry and Fiction the next few weeks show great promise. In the first place-seniores priores-Walter Savage Landor, now in his 90th year, promises "Heroic Idylls and other Poems," and Miss Jean Ingelow, the youngest of our real poets, who only cast her callow coating a month or two ago, A Sister's Bye-hours." Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble's volume of Plays is just ready, containing an original tragedy, "Mary Stuart," from Schiller, and "Mademoiselle de Belleisle," from Alexander Dumas. Mr. Trafford has a companion to his "City and Suburb"-" Moors and Fens;" Mrs. Henry Wood, "The Shadow of Ashlydyat;" Lady Georgina Chatterton, "The Heiress and Her Lover;" and Miss Warboise, "Lotty Lonsdale." Besides these there is a whole lot of novels and tales announced, whose fate can only be determined when they appear before the tribunal of criticism.

66

I have said little or nothing of books published during the last three weeks, because there is little or nothing to be said for or against them. Mr. Salas' "Breakfast in Bed," is the name given to essays which appeared originally in the "Temple Bar Magazine;" Pedley's "History of Newfoundland" is valuable in many respects; "Good Society," by Mrs. Grey; "Sackville Chase," by C. J. Collins ;" "After Long Years," by Mrs. Mackenzie-"Daniel," the latter the best of the lot, are all three good circulating library novels.

Before this reaches you, you will probably have received copies of Kinglake's fourth edition of his "History of the Invasion of the Crimea," wonderful and most wonderful of books in point of extreme accuracy of facts, dates, and all that the future historian of the War with Russia can desire, furnishing ready to his hand a perfect reply to the attacks upon the work by the "Times," the "Quarterly," and the "Edinburgh Review." Last year Mr. Bentley published "The Pudding Book," and now is issuing its companion: "What to do with the Cold Mutton." It is Saturday, post-time and dinner-time, so I must conclude my letter, post it, and go home and try to solve that most momentous question, unless, out of compassion, cook has already turned it into hashed venison, which is one of the receipts contained in this little book of "approved recipes for the kitchen of a gentleman of limited Your obedient servant,

Everybody is eagerly expecting Captain Speke's account of his and Captain Grant's travels and dis-income." coveries in the Nile regions. The work will be copiously illustrated by Wolff and Zwecker, who will also execute the plates to W. Winwood Reade's "Savage Africa, a Narrative of a Tour in Equatorial, Southwestern, and Northwestern Africa," embracing the regions between Senegal on the north, and Angola on the south. Captain Burton's "Narrative of the Ascent of the Cameroons, and Visit to Abbeokoota," is the third important book of African

N.

OUR CONTINENTAL CORRESPONDENCE. PARIS, Sept. 18, 1863. THERE was a time when America confessedly understood the advantages of advertising, and reaped a more valuable harvest from this mode of publicity than any other, or all other communities. This reputation ended when the financial crisis of 1857

NOV. 2, 1863.

surprised the country. It seems never to have made any attempt to recover the use of the field where those golden harvests had been reaped. It appeared discouraged. The old spirit of adventure and energy seemed to have decayed.

While America has thus been going behindhand, the rest of the world has been pressing forward with a daily increasing energy. England is now pre-eminently the advertising country, and it consequently is the most prosperous country of the earth. I confine my attention to the book trade alone. There is scarcely a publisher in the United Kingdom who is not at the same time the proprietor of some periodical. Messrs. Longmans own the "Edinburgh Review." Mr. John Murray is master of the "Quarterly Review." Messrs. Blackwood possess "Blackwood's Magazine." Messrs. Parkers have the "Old Gentleman's Magazine." Messrs. Bradbury & Evans own "Once a Week." Messrs. Chapman & Hall have " All the Year Round"-and so I might go on to instance publisher after publisher who commands a periodical. Their object is to command the publicity given by this periodical. They use every exertion to make the periodical valuable and interesting, because the wider the circulation it attains, the greater is the publicity given to their issues. Thus they have a double motive to make their periodicals popular. They are, however, very far from resting contented with this channel of publicity. They are constantly on the lookout for every means of bringing their publications to the notice of the world. They fill the advertising pages of their rivals' periodicals; they fill the daily London and periodical newspapers; they fill Guide-Books, and Almanacs, and Diaries -in fine, wherever they can introduce an advertisement, there an advertisement of their issues is sure to be found. I have a 66 Quarterly Review" lying upon my table which has eighty pages of advertisements; a recent number of the "Bookseller" contained two hundred pages of advertisements.

cisco as they are to the shop's most habitual frequenter. He might pack up all of his books in a transparent case, and exhibit them in every literary house from the Atlantic to the Pacific sea, confiding them to a commercial "traveller" who cannot be repulsed by rudeness, who cannot be kept out by a denial, who, if dismissed in a moment of preoccupation, thrusts himself forward at the first leisure hour: who tells title after title, form after form, bulk after bulk, and price after price with a deliberation and pertinacity no commercial "traveller" in mere flesh and blood could pretend to assume. He might make it matter of complete indifference whether his shop were in Chestnut Street, in Broadway, in Washington Street, or in Cornhill, since every bookbuyer in the country would know where he lived, what he had, and what price he asked. He might acquaint literary people with the existence of books which would throw a flood of light upon their favorite pursuits, books whose titles are to be found on the pages of no bibliographical manual. All these things he might do through advertisements.

His European brethren manage these things well. Some of them divide their stock into fifty-two sections, and-fearing the public impatience is unable to bear a long catalogue-publish a short list regularly every week. Thus he brings his name frequently before the public, and, in the course of a twelvemonth, the public has closely inspected every shelf in his shop. Others make their catalogue into six divisions, and publish the whole of it three or four times a year; in this way they bring their names and stock constantly before the public, they impress both on the public mind, they become actors, contemporary historical characters; for fame, after all, is nothing more than the constant repetition of the same name in men's ears. Large publishers imitate these booksellers' example; conscious how fleeting is the impression made on the public mind by advertisements and reviews, they keep constantly before the public eye the catalogue of all the unexhausted editions of their publications. They use some art in making this display. All their treasures are not exhibited at once; they divide their catalogue into small divisions, and into divisions according to subjects. One of the former appears weekly, the latter (which are larger) appear at the commencement of the appropriate season. Winter ushers in the severer works of history, or science, or speculation; spring calls up works on botany, or on horti

Then there is a class of advertisers in the English book trade who, in America, never appear in print. I mean the booksellers, the dealers in second-hand books, and the book importers. The address, and the books on sale of this class of the trade are secrets which, to all, except a handful of initiated old gentlemen, are a great deal better kept than half the state secrets of the world. No Blue Book ever blurts out indiscreetly what treasures their shelves contain, and at what rates their gems are to be sold. I never think of this class in America with-culture, or on agriculture, or on travelling; summer out being reminded of the white eunuch who guards introduces novels, poetry, tales, works on the rod, from all profane touch the thousand and odd ladies or the horse, or the boat, or swimming; while of the Padishah's harem. The reviews, and the autumn brings forward the school-books, and works magazines, and the critical column of newspapers, on the gun, the dog, and game. The great art is to might, upon a pinch, enable publishers to dispense let in as much light and to vary so much as may with advertisements. But the bookseller cannot be its play upon their publications. And they all get along without these helps to publicity. Nobody know that the light of trade is advertisement. knows the works he has on his shelves. Their I am led into these foregoing remarks by the titles have faded away from men's minds. Seven appearance of the "French Publishers' Annual out of ten of them were never heard of. Besides, Catalogue of School Books," which has just come how is the student who lives in St. Louis to discover out. It is a large octavo of one hundred and seven the existence of a bookshop in Chestnut Street, pages, double columns. It contains the catalogue unless he be as docile as Mahomet and go to the of school books issued by forty-eight publishers; no mountain of books which rises to the ceiling of the less than eighteen hundred and seventy-one titles Chestnut Street shop; and let him be ever so docile of books are given. It is distributed throughout he must become aware of the existence of the shop France to every person connected with education. before he can turn his face towards it. Few people No publisher feels himself above resorting to this lag so far behind the rest of the world as the Ameri-channel of communication, master though he may be can bookseller.

As far as he is concerned, the carriage of books by the mails, and the establishment of lines of expresses, are conveniences which have no existence. He might make the volumes on his shelves as familiar to the citizen of St. Paul and San Fran

of others. They advertise in it from a sort of esprit de corps; there is not a publisher here who would not disdain even appearing to regard himself as raised by affluence of fortune above his brethren. They advertise in it because it is profitable; for publishers are like the sower, whose grain fell some

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