VOL. XXXI.

No. 3.

To start a book department will mean quite
an expense to us. We will have to depend
entirely on the interest in your book, if we pub-
lish it, for we will have to send each copy on
approval. That means the entire financing of
the work before a penny of sales' income. I
have the data on your book and figured closely
as to all costs. We can allow you 50 per cent..
on the first 500 copies, after that 20 per cent.
All that will be required on your part will be
the purchase of 200 copies at 40c, the wholesale
price, but any or all of these may be distributed
in stores so that you may receive back about
what you paid for them when sold. All sales
on our part will net you a profit. We require
this first purchase, otherwise we could not
handle your book.

Will you not think over this matter, and let
me hear at once if you can take it up? You
could pay for the books in monthly installments
if you prefer. Just let me know if I can count
on your book as one of the first twelve, and if
so send me the MS., so I can have one of our
editors get it in readiness; then knowing the
exact nature of your production I can arrange
the contracts intelligently for your signature.

I would like to include your book in the
first dozen we get out. We have the advantage
of the use of our own columns for advertising,
and we could carry your book for several years.
The royalty on it ought to bring you an in-
come year after year for many years. Besides
this, it ought to be a source of pride and joy
to see the product of your imagination actually
published and before the public.

-

Sincerely yours,

H. D. Hitchcock,

President.

[How could an author fail to be gratified
by the suggestion that the royalty on his
book a 42-line poem published, illustrated,
"in volume form" - ought to bring him an
income year after year for many years? -
Editor THE WRITER.]

I had lost interest in the matter, did not
have eighty dollars to invest as suggested,
and did not reply to this letter at all. Yet

Caledonia, N. Y.

Dear Miss McCorkendale:

In some late correspondence with a Baltimore book publishing company we made inquiry regarding the publication of your book and was informed "it was returned, author unable

to accept our publishing offer."

We could probably use your book as a premium if it were published. It is our plan, however, to publish sooner or later Our Own premium books so that we will not have to be continually splitting the profits with other book publishers. To do this we propose to run advance announcements of these new books in our Book Review Department and publish each new book just as soon as we receive sufficient advance orders to cover the initial expense of the production. From the data to hand on your book we would be pleased to arrange for its publication under this plan.

We propose to devote considerable space to the description of the plan and of the books in our Book Department and urge our readers to send in advance orders for these new volumes. of course adding some attractive combination or subscription inducement. As we figure our circulation will reach about 75,000 copies monthly in the course of a few months our book an nouncement ought to pull thousands of advance orders. Your book announced under this plan will receive its share and when the proper number come in we will put it out at no cost to you whatever and pay you a 20 per cent. royalty on all copies sold.

Under this arrangement you get three months' publicity in our magazine, at much less than regular advertising space cost for similar matter. Our regular rate to publishers is $20 for three months. As we may handle your book through this plan we are willing to insert the review for only $10 for three months. We will send you five copies of each issue so you can distribute them among your friends or as you wish.

A coupon will be provided on the Book Review page so that our readers can easily sign this, tear it out and mail to us. The title of your book is certainly attractive and with the proper description (which you may write on back of order blank) we think this review will show up attractively.

We are going to run our first book announce ments in the next issue. Many well known books will be included, and your review will be placed in the same list with the works by

Please sign the order blank, write a brief review for our guidance on the reverse side, and send to us with your remittance of $10 so that we can be sure of getting your review in the next issue which will go to press in about ten days. Very truly yours,

WOMAN'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
A. V. Hitchcock
Associate Editor.

["Ought to," again, is the phrase used by Mr. Hitchcock, who declares that the announcement in the Woman's National Magazine which he figures will reach a circulation of about 75,000 copies in the course of a few months ought to pull thousands of advance orders. The Woman's National Magazine is a sixteen-page paper, 10X14 inches in size, printed on ordinary news print paper, subscription price fifty cents a year. Page 15 of "Vol. II., No. 3" is largely devoted to "Reviews of New Books," in style similar to this: ·

JIM GOODMAN, THE ORPHAN,* by MRS. EMILY SHAW.

Wherein is depicted the life of a good man, in his struggle for the higher things. Net $.50 (3) Some fifty books are noticed in this way. On the page is printed an Order Blank, which reads: "Send me, when ready, copies of .

for which I agree to pay $

when

notified of shipment," with this note at the top: "Readers are asked to fill out the coupon below when ordering any book described on this page. Those marked (*) are not yet published, and it is advisable to send your order in at once so you will receive the book soon after publication. Send no money with your order. When we mail you the book we will send the bill for amount due." If the publishers of the Woman's National Magazine get ten dollars for each of these notices, their profits are likely to compare favorably with those the authors of the books mentioned in the "Reviews" will get from the resulting sale.

It appears from the printed letterheads that the Cosmos Magazine has offices in New

York, London, and Washington; that the McLean Company has offices in New York, Baltimore, and Washington; that the Saulsbury Publishing Company has a New York office at 305 Broadway, telephone Worth 2130, and a Cleveland office in the Schofield Building, telephone, Main, 5268. The superintendent of the Cleveland Telephone Company reports that he is unable to find any listing of the Saulsbury Publishing Company in the Directory issues covering the period between October, 1917, and February, 1918. The manager of the New York Telephone Company says that the subscriber for telephone service at 305 Broadway, telephone Worth, 2130, is the Davenport Development Company, which has had the service for a number of years. The manager of the Baltimore Telephone Company says that the addresses Rippel Building and 7 Clay Street are both the same location. WRITER.]

Editor THE

With this letter was enclosed the following order blank (a printed form, with the date August 2, 1918," the title of my poem,

"A Jewel-Decked Castle," the figures "200," before "advance orders," and the prices "50 cents" and " 40 cents" written in) :

BOOK REVIEW DEPARTMENT. Date, August 2, 1918, WOMAN'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE, Washington, D. C.

Gentlemen:

I enclose $10 to pay for publishing review of A Jewel-Decked Castle," in your pubmy book lication for the term of three months, beginning with next issue, it being understood that the Woman's National Magazine will use its best judgment in the arrangement and wording of this review So as to attract advance orders. When 200 advance orders are received you are to publish the book and pay me 75 per cent. of proceeds. Book to retail at $.50; wholesale at $.40 per copy. Five copies of each issue of your magazine containing this review are to be sent on publication (Author please suggest review desired and write same on back of this order ).

to me

environment is manifest at the very beginning of "The Scarlet Letter."

The women who were now standing about the prison-door stood within less than half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the not altogether__ unsuitable representative of the sex. They were her countrywomen; and the beef and ale of their native land, with a moral diet not a whit more refined, entered largely into their composition. The bright morning sun, therefore, shone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts, and on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in the far-off island, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England.

The Forest in "The Scarlet Letter." However deeply our sympathies may be stirred by the recital of Hester's punishment and Arthur Dimmesdale's secret agony, we never for a moment lose sight of that dense forest background that throws its gloom over every page of the novel, and affects alike the minds of the characters and the trend of events.

Chillingworth and the Forest. Roger Chillingworth appears almost magically "out of the vast and dismal forest" bringing with him the "knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots" which he has acquired in its midst.

Hester recognizes Chillingworth's affinity with that weird and sombre background, and at the conclusion of their interview in the prison inquires: "Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul ?"

The

Hester Prynne and the Forest. meeting of Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale occurs in the forest. Hester accompanied by Pearl has set out along the woodland path to intercept the minister on his return from a visit to the Apostle Eliot. The effect of her immediate surroundings on Hester's thought and spirits is shown in the following paragraph:

The road, after the two wayfarers had crossed from the peninsula to the mainland, was no other than a footpath. It straggled onward into the mystery of the primeval forest. This hemmed it in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above, that, to Hester's mind, it imaged not amiss the

-

Pearl and the Forest. Unlike her mother, Pearl is influenced by the sunlight, not the gloom, of the forest.

Pearl set forth, at a great pace, and, as Hester smiled to perceive, did actually catch the sunshine, and stood laughing. in the midst of it, all brightened by its splendor, and scintillating with the vivacity excited by rapid motion. The light lingered about the lonely child, as if glad of such a playmate, until her mother had drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic circle too.

Arthur Dimmesdale and the Forest. To Arthur Dimmesdale the forest is a place of refuge and relaxation. Its effect upon him is apparent to Hester as she watches his approach.

She beheld the minister advancing along the path, entirely alone, and leaning. on a staff which he had cut by the wayside. He looked haggard and feeble, and betrayed a nerveless despondency in his air, which had never so remarkably characterized him in his walks about the settlement, nor in any other situation where he deemed himself liable to notice. Here it was wofully visible, in this intense seclusion of the forest, which of itself would have been a heavy trial to the spirits. There was a listlessness in his gait; as if he saw no reason for taking one step farther, nor felt any desire to do so, but would have been glad, could he be glad of anything, to fling himself down at the root of the nearest tree, and lie there passive, forevermore. The leaves might bestrew him, and the soil gradually accumulate and form a little hillock over his frame, no matter whether there were life in it or no. Death was too definite an object to be wished for, or avoided.

Characters Interpreted by a Setting They. Have Created. Conversely, a character may be pictured as himself affecting the setting in