larger publishers have one or more periodicals of their own, of large circulation, in which a part of their advertising is done, but all pay heavy tribute to the great dailies and weeklies also. The leading publications have what are called "standing orders" from their correspondents all over the Union, for so many copies of every 16mo or 12mo book, or a smaller quantity of every 8vo volume which they publish, immediately on its publication. These standing orders are, in many cases, sufficient to insure them against loss in whatever they publish, and thus make all further sales largely profitable. A few years ago books were sent out on commission, to be returned if not sold, but this was attended with so much loss, that it has now been given up except in a few instances, in school books.

not usually found there. It is generally an octavo volume, largely illustrated and selling at from two and a half to five or six dollars, cheaper books not proving so successful. It is well known by those familiar with the business, that this is the only way by which large and expensively illustrated books can be made to pay. The most valuable works in this country and England are sold in this way; while the expense of selling is greater, the sales are so much larger, that not more than a tenth part as much for original outlay has to be added to the price-the publisher selling so many more, receives a much less percentage. This explains why books can be, and are delivered at the homes of the purchasers, all over the country, cheaper than over the counters of book stores. The net profit per volume to subscription pubThe school book trade, though sometimes lishers is very small. On most books a sale carried on by publishers who are also in the of 10,000 copies would not pay for the general trade, is becoming more and more trouble and expense, the cost of engravdistinctive in its character every year. The ing being enormous-one of 50,000 even method of publication and of putting the is but moderate, while sales of a hundred books on the market differs materially from thousand or more, which are not uncommon, that of miscellaneous books. They are pay very handsomely. We might give many usually published in series, of Readers, Arith-instances of enormous sales of these books. metics, Geographies, and other text-books, Goodrich's Universal Traveller, one of the the authors receiving but a small percentage earliest of this class, sold largely. The Coton each book, but their immense sales mak-tage Bible in two volumes, over 200,000 ing this very profitable. They are intro- sets. Of the histories of the late war, four duced into schools, or approved and ordered considerably exceeded one hundred thousand by Boards of Education, or School Superin- copies each-one reaching 175,000—Kitto's tendents, on the urgent solicitation of agents, History of the Bible, 200,000; Richardson's and often after a long and exciting contest," Field, Dungeon and Escape," 80,000, and are furnished usually at first at a very and his "Beyond the Mississippi," 100,000; low price for introduction. The sales are Stephens' "War Between the States, enormous, constituting fully one-half the ag- 62,000; "Life and Death in Rebel Prisgregate sales of books in the United States. ons," 95,000; "Smith's Bible Dictionary," Another distinct branch of the publishing 1 vol., Royal 8vo, 150,000; Matthew Hale trade is the "subscription book business." Smith's "Sunshine and Shadow," 100,000; Books are not now subscribed for, to insure Raymond's Life of Lincoln, 70,000; Rev. the publisher against loss in their manufac- Dr. March's "Night Scenes of the Bible.” ture, as they were fifty or sixty years ago, over 100,000; one edition of Fleetwood's but the business of publishing books, to be "Life of Christ," (there are five or six in sold only by subscription, has attained a the market) 150,000; "Bunyan's Pilgrim's great magnitude. A book published for sale Progress," one edition, 110,000; Mark by booksellers, is duly announced, advertised Twain's "Innocents Abroad," 100,000; and exposed upon the counters of the book-"Roughing It," 100,000. sellers, usually has its run of six months or so, sells to the extent of 2,000, 3,000, or 5,000 copies, rarely more, and sometimes not over 1,000 or 1,500, and then usually becomes an old book not often inquired for. The subscription book, on the other hand, is not intended for the book stores, and is

Subscription book publishers have been. accused of foisting worthless books upon the market, but a fair examination will show that, in proportion to the number of different books published, the percentage of worthless ones is far less than of those published by the regular trade; and very many

of their books are really of the highest the second-hand booksellers. Of these there character.

are numbers in those parts of the city freThe practice of selling subscription books quented most by strangers. They are the by numbers, once greatly in vogue, is now same as the "book-stalls," so familiar a confined to a few houses, mostly English. feature in the literature of England and the Some of these have been very successful, countries of western Europe, as they are in but the greater part have abandoned it in fact a necessity everywhere. In New York, consequence of the dissatisfaction which it the stall-keeper generally procures, for a occasioned. The numbers will sometimes rent of $50 to $150 per annum, according far exceed what was announced, to complete to circumstances, the privilege of putting up the work; they are delivered at uncertain a set of shelves against the outside of some times, and when completed the cost is usu-store corner. These shelves shut up at ally much greater than the subscriber had night, like a large window, and the shutters expected. If they are all preserved they are fastened by iron bars that have padlocks. have still to be bound at a heavy expense. It These shelves contain a small stock, from not unfrequently happens that the subscribers $300 to $400 value, of the most saleable drop off so fast from disappointment and books that can be picked up cheap at the dissatisfaction that the publisher is compelled auctions of books, or of household furniture to abandon the work unfinished. of families breaking up, or purchased of There are other subdivisions of the book-needy persons who offer them. It follows trade, such as publishers of Medical books, Law books, Military and Scientific books, Masonic books, and Religious books, which are again divided into Sunday School books, and Theological works.

About 1830, a system of semi-annual trade sales was inaugurated, for the purpose of diffusing more widely the publications of the publishing houses and bringing buyers and sellers into more frequent contact. These sales, though greatly modified from their first plan, are still maintained, but with the abundant facilities for transportation and transmitting orders, have mostly outlived their usefulness, and many of the leading publishers do not now contribute to them. The number of publishers in the United States is nearly four hundred, but of those extensively engaged in the business the number is less than one hundred.

that the stalls, or stands, become the receptacles of all old books, and sometimes very rare and valuable ones that have gone out of print, and can be found nowhere else. A great many valuable foreign books are found here, having been disposed of by immigrants who become necessitous. A large number of books are sold from these stalls, which also keep much of the current new literature. The keepers-some of them

soon become possessed of sufficient capital to open whole stores; and there are now in New York, and most cities some very large stores that have rare collections of old books. This business has also extended across the water, so that persons of more scholarly tastes have, through these agencies, access to the reservoirs of old books to be found in the cities of Europe.

In the period from 1848 to 1857, works of The sale of old or second-hand books is fiction, both from known and unknown aualso a very extensive branch of business in thors, had an immense sale. Mrs. H. B. the great cities. It is obvious, that where Stowe led the way in this matter, her "Uncle book-buying and book-reading are so preva- Tom's Cabin" selling to the extent of lent, as is the case among almost all classes 310,000 copies here, and nearly a million and of the people in the United States, there a half copies in England; of "The Lampmust exist a large number both of public and lighter," by Miss Cummings, 90,000 copies private libraries, and that these, through were sold; of "Fern Leaves," 70,000; death, and the continual vicissitudes that "Alone,” by “Marion Harland," over 50,000; attend families, are being constantly broken" Fashion and Famine," by Mrs. Ann S. Steup. If every family has a library of greater phens, 30,000; "Wide, Wide World," and or less magnitude, sooner or later there is a "Queechy," by Miss Warner, nearly 100,000 sale, and it generally comes to the hammer each, etc., etc. in one or more of the large book auctions The circulation attained at times by sterthat are held almost nightly. These auctions | ling and standard works is very large, as are attended by the public, but mostly by follows:

98,000

1,100,000 copies.man Series, 500,000 copies; Spencerian Penmanship, 1,750,000; Swinton's History, 30,000 copies in six months.

43,000

50,000 "6

157,000

New Am. Cyclopædia, Dana & Ripley, 16 vols., 45,000 sets.
Benton's Thirty Years' View, 2 vols., 8vo,
Kane's Arctic Voyages, 2 vols., 8vo...
Harper's Pictorial Bible, $20,.
Goodrich's History of all Nations, $7,..
Dana's Household Book of Poetry,.............

65,000
25,000
80,000
75,000

Kane's Voyages paid $65,000 copyright. The sale of Prescott's Histories was very large, giving, it is said, 50 cts. copyright. The sales of school books surpasses in quantity those of all other books.

Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., also largely 98,500 copies. engaged in the school-book trade, have sold in the aggregate of Davies' Mathematical works about 7,000,000 volumes, and are now selling about 350,000 of them per annum. Of Mrs. Willard's Histories their total sale has been about 350,000; of Clark's Grammars, 800,000; of Parker & Watson's Series of Readers (completed 1859) a total of about 7,500,000, and an annual sale of about 700,000; Monteith & McNally's Geographies, total about 4,750,000; annual sales about 400,000. Steele's Fourteen Weeks Series in Sciences, annual sale of about 50,000. Of Cleveland's Compendiums and Wood's Botanies, each a total sale of about 150,000. Their Teachers Library has sold about 100,000 volumes. Their total annual sales of the "National Series" of text-books are about 4,000,000 volumes.

We have referred to the very large sales of Webster's Spelling-Books and Dictionaries. The aggregate of these to the close of 1871 exceeds sixty millions of volumes. For several years before Messrs. Cooledge & Brother relinquished the business (in 1857), their sales of Webster's Speller were very nearly one million copies per annum. Messrs. Appleton became the publishers in 1857, and though for several reasons their sales have, a portion of the time, been smaller than Cooledge's, yet their aggregate sales, to the close of 1871, were 13,390,000 copies, and their present rate of issue is about 1,030,000 per annum. This house have also sold about two and a half millions of Cornell's Geographies, and more than 1,000,000 copies of Quackenbos' Series of Text books. They are also the publishers of the "New American," and the "Annual Cyclopædia" of which about 1,200,000 Super Royal 8vo volumes have been sold. They publish five or six periodicals, most of them of very large circulation, and a Miscellaneous list second in extent only to Messrs. Harper & Bros.

Messrs. Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, of Cincinnati, the publishers of McGuffey's Readers and the Eclectic Educational Series, sell annually about 3,500,000 volumes of these books.

Messrs. Sheldon & Co., publish Stoddard's Mathematical series of which over 6,000,000 copies have been sold; Colton's Geographies, over 2,000,000; Comstock's text-books in Philosophy, Chemistry, etc., 2,000,000; Bullion's Series of Grammars and Classics, whose sale has been very large, and Lossing's School Histories, also very popular.

Messrs. Harper & Brothers have combined Messrs. E. H. Butler & Co., of Phila- with the largest list of Miscellaneous pubdelphia, the present publishers of Mitchell's lications in the country a very extensive issue Geographies, sell about 350,000 copies an- of school text-books, of all kinds, to which nually, and the aggregate sale in the thirty- they are constantly making additions. They two years since their first publication has also publish three of the most widely-circubeen about 9,500,000 copies. Smith's Gram-lating periodicals in the United States. mar, also published by this house, sells at the rate of 100,000 copies a year. Over three millions of copies of it have been sold. Messrs. Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., one of the largest houses in the school-book trade, sell annually of their Sanders' Readers and Spellers over 1,000,000 copies, and of their other text-books about 4,000,000 more. The Sanders' Spellers and Readers had been sold up to the close of 1871 to the extent of more than 26,000,000 of copies; Robinson's Mathematics, 4,000,000 of copies; Fasquelle's French, and Woodbury's Ger

They employ an active capital of about two million dollars in stock and machinery, expending more than $800,000 per annum for paper alone. They run over fifty power presses, thirty-five of them Adams' presses, and many of them night and day. They have published 2,600 works, in over thirtyfive hundred volumes, about equally divided between original works and reprints. Their issues of bound books amount to more than three and a half millions of volumes per annum.

Messrs. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia,