twenty-five thousand dollars for the masterpiece of a minor poet
now? The book, except in very rare instances, makes nothing like
the return to the author that the magazine makes, and there are
but two or three authors who find their account in that form of
publication. Those who do, those who sell the most widely in
book form, are often not at all desired by editors; with
difficulty they get a serial accepted by any principal magazine.
On the other hand, there are authors whose books, compared with
those of the popular favorites, do not sell, and yet they are
eagerly sought for by editors; they are paid the highest prices,
and nothing that they offer is refused. These are literary
artists; and it ought to be plain from what I am saying that in
belles-lettres, at least, most of the best literature now first
sees the light in the magazines, and most of the second best
appears first in book form. The old-fashioned people who flatter
themselves upon their distinction in not reading magazine
fiction, or magazine poetry, make a great mistake, and simply
class themselves with the public whose taste is so crude that
they cannot enjoy the best. Of course this is true mainly, if
not merely, of belles-lettres; history, science, politics,
metaphysics, in spite of the many excellent articles and papers
in these sorts upon what used to be called various emergent
occasions, are still to be found at their best in books. The
most monumental example of literature, at once light and good,
which has first reached the public in book form is in the
different publications of Mark Twain; but Mr. Clemens has of late
turned to the magazines too, and now takes their mint mark before
he passes into general circulation. All this may change again,
but at present the magazines--we have no longer any reviews--form
the most direct approach to that part of our reading public which