250,000, it must already have reached $125,000. If now to this we
add the quarto, at only a dollar a copy, we shall have a sum approaching
to, and perhaps exceeding, $180,000; more, probably, than has been paid
for all the dictionaries of Europe in the same period of time. What have
been the prices paid to Messrs. Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis,
Curtis, and numerous others, I cannot say; but it is well known that they
have been very large. It is not, however, only the few who are liberally
paid; all are so who manifest any ability, and here it is that we find the
effect of the decentralizing system of this country as compared with the
centralizing one of Great Britain. There Mr. Macaulay is largely paid for
his Essays, while men of almost equal ability can scarcely obtain the
means of support. Dickens is a literary Croesus, and Tom Hood dies leaving
his family in hopeless poverty. Such is not here the case. Any
manifestation of ability is sure to produce claimants for the publication
of books. No sooner had the story of "Hot Corn" appeared in "The Tribune,"
than a dozen booksellers were applicants to the author for a book. The
competition is here for the _purchase_ of the privilege of printing, and
this competition is not confined to the publishers of a single city, as is
the case in Britain. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Auburn and
Cincinnati, present numerous publishers, all anxious to secure the works
of writers of ability, in any department of literature; and were it
possible to present a complete list of our well-paid authors, its extent
could not fail to surprise you greatly, as the very few facts that have
come to my knowledge in reference to some of the lesser stars of the
literary world have done by me. You will observe that I have confined
myself to the question of demand for books and compensation to their
authors, without reference to that of the ability displayed in their
preparation. That we may have good books, all that is required is that we
make a large market for them, which is done here to an extent elsewhere
unknown.

Forty years since, the question was asked by the "Edinburgh Review," Who
reads an American book? Judging from the facts here given, may we not
reasonably suppose that the time is fast approaching, when the question
will be asked, Who does not read American books?

Forty years since, had we asked where were the _homes of American
authors_, we should generally have been