Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3
Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950., Ed.

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[550] established in 1841, was especially liberal in its payments, particularly to Cooper and Hawthorne. It must have been largely of the aid of the magazines that Goodrich was thinking when he said in 1856 that nothing was more remarkable than good writing, though he truly adds that authorship does not rank financially with other professions.

History of good quality has apparently always paid. Before Mrs. Stowe's great success in Uncle Tom's cabin,¹ Prescott² was probably the best rewarded of our classic writers. As early as 1846 he says that his copyrights were considered by his publishers as worth $25,000 each, and that on his two histories he had already received about $30,000; and even better things could be reported of the next two histories. Against this must be balanced the fact that the proceeds of Emerson's³ literary life were little more than $30,000.

Since 1891 both the playwright and the novelist have flourished. While there are striking instances of financial success for both before that period, the former was especially hard hit by the constant stream of plays flowing in, copyright free, from Europe. Kotzebue and Scribe especially figured constantly in this retarding of the American playwright. But as a class the novelists have won the most spectacular monetary rewards of our time. Just what these returns are, it is not possible to ascertain nor perhaps advisable to reveal if it were. In attempting to find them out, one becomes hopelessly involved in guesses and in interested gossip. However, one prominent publisher of our century has committed himself to the assertion that Mary Johnston must have made from $60,000 to $70,000 on To have and to hold, which statement may be taken as some fair gauge of the returns of a modern best seller.

But as we go backwards to our classic novelists, it becomes strikingly apparent that, save in one or two instances, they got no such rewards. The reason lies in the unending flow of European fiction reproduced in the mammoth weekly for five cents, and by the best publishers, usually, in Cooper's time for $1.50, while American novels were $2. Then, to catch all classes of buyers, between these two came the cheap series so popular even a generation ago. Harper's Library of Select