1942: Book Publishing

The American book publishing industry closed its first wartime year with one of the most active and profitable periods of its history. Restrictions of various kinds due to war conditions were present in theory, but they weighed very lightly on the industry during 1942 and brought about no major changes in the traditional methods of publishing and selling books (we are speaking of 'trade' book publishing, not textbook, subscription or other types). There were, however, marked changes in the reading public's taste and interests and a decided increase in the number of buyers and users of books.

Many of the materials used in the manufacture of books — type metal, binding materials, chlorine, used for bleaching paper, and other chemicals and so on — were subject to curtailment during the year. But the operation of priorities was not drastic enough to cause any noticeable change in the appearance of books during 1942 and for the most part the reading public was unaware of restrictions. The main difficulties faced by publishers and booksellers arose from the shortage of manpower, both in printing plants and in publishing offices themselves, and the difficulties of wartime transportation. In order to assure themselves of adequate stocks, publishers had to plan more carefully for the printing of their books. And shipping problems made it necessary for bookstores to order early and judge their needs more carefully than under normal conditions. With a few exceptions these problems were solved and there were plenty of books for the holiday season.

Bookselling literally boomed, especially during the second half of the year. Publishers reported the best business in years. Bookstores located in all parts of the country enjoyed definite increases in their retail business. These increases ranged from 2 per cent up to 75 per cent. Probably the average increase for the whole retail book trade was 20 per cent. The reasons for the increased activity in bookselling are obvious: many more people are employed than formerly, restrictions in travel and motoring send more people to books for recreation, books are being used for practical purposes more than ever before.

By far the most striking feature of the publishing year was the great increase in the demand for technical books of all kinds, from practical manuals to theoretical works on science and mathematics. With thousands of Americans going into the armed forces and other thousands entering war and other industries requiring skilled knowledge, the need for technical books was enormous. As an indication: one large chain of bookstores increased its business in technical books by 150 per cent. In fact, technical books now account for 22 per cent of the volume of business in this chain.

Many communities experienced great increases in population, due to the presence of war plants, with their thousands of workers of all kinds, Army and Navy installations and the movement of Government bureaus from Washington. The bookstores in these towns consequently found themselves with many new customers, drawn from among a class of persons to whom books are important. It was of great interest that these new readers bought not only technical books, but books of all types. Having acquired the bookstore habit, they kept coming. As one bookseller expressed it: 'Many books have been bought this year by people who have always wanted to buy them and have never before had the money to do so.'

The other main trend discernible in the reading public's taste was to be seen in the decline of popularity of fiction and a swing toward books dealing with the war, current events and the coming peace. Narratives by war correspondents, for example, were very popular. This trend seems likely to continue in 1943.

At the same time there was a noticeable drift toward 'escape' reading, though here, too, fiction was less popular. Cartoon books, humorous books, particularly those dealing with the Services, children's books — all flourished. Interestingly enough, in this connection, there was apparently a decline in business in rental libraries, which seemed to indicate for one thing, that fiction — the mainstay of rental libraries — was less in demand; and, for another, that people preferred to buy their books.

Though in general fiction lost out in popularity, the two top sellers of the year were both novels, 'The Song of Bernadette,' a story of the founding of the shrine at Lourdes, by Franz Werfel, and 'The Moon Is Down,' by John Steinbeck. Each of these novels sold nearly half a million copies, including book club distribution. The Steinbeck work deals with the war, as does Pearl Buck's novel, 'Dragon Seed,' which sold nearly 400,000, including book club. Other fast-selling novels of the year were divided between historical fiction, like 'Drivin' Woman,' by Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier, and stories of an inspirational nature, like 'The Robe,' by Lloyd Douglas.

Among the ten best-selling non-fiction books, only two were not related to the war and they were both obvious 'escape' reading, 'Past Imperfect,' by Ilka Chase, and 'Cross Creek,' by Marjoric Kinnan Rawlings. Indicative of the times was the fact that the top non-fiction seller was the attractive 'See Here, Private Hargrove,' which sold over 300,000 copies, without the benefit of book club distribution. After it came 'Mission to Moscow,' by Joseph E. Davies; 'The Last Time I Saw Paris,' by Elliot Paul; 'Victory Through Air Power,' by A. P. de Seversky; 'They Were Expendable,' by W. L. White, the story of PT boats in the Philippines; and similar timely books.

1941: Book Publishing

During past years the American book trade has been mainly agitated by various internal preoccupations — matters of fair trade, questions of discounts, and so on. In 1941 there were comparatively few questions of this sort before the trade. Rather, the main preoccupation was the effects of the war on business. Naturally, since the United States entered the war only in December 1941 there were few consequences discernible from our actual participation in World War II; but the war had a definite bearing, nevertheless.

In the first place, under the National Defense Program, there were threats of shortages in various branches of book manufacturing. The former OPM made it clear that paper was likely to be short. And chlorine, which is used as a whitening agent in the manufacture of paper, was definitely rationed. Further curtailments of chlorine for bleaching paper will be reflected in the appearance of our books. Other shortages were predicted in book cloths, glue, binders' board and other materials used in the making of books. Publishers and printers are already making plans to change the format of books to some extent, if shortages should develop further.

The effects of these threatened shortages were not immediately noticeable, for the totals indicating the production of titles in the United States declined relatively little in 1941 over the totals for 1940. During the year, 11,112 different books were published in the United States, as compared to 11,328 for the year 1940, a difference of 216 or a decline of less than 2 per cent. And it is particularly interesting that the figure for 1940 was the highest recorded for more than 25 years.

There were 263 publishers who issued more than 5 titles during the calendar year. They brought out, in all, 7,986 titles. (These figures refer, of course, to regular 'trade' titles, not to textbooks, subscription books, or other types of publications; if they did, the number would be much higher.) The 263 publishers issuing 5 or more books produced almost 72 per cent of the total number of titles produced in America during 1941. Among them, 17 firms issued 100 or more titles each. The 25 top publishers, including the 17 first mentioned, put out 3,632 titles, or 31 per cent of all the trade books published. The leading publisher, from the standpoint of number of titles issued, was the Macmillan Company, with 434 titles. The reprint house of Grosset & Dunlap was next, with 305 titles. Harper & Brothers came third, with 275 titles.

What kind of books sold best during 1941? Looking down the list of best sellers, 10 of fiction and 10 of non-fiction, compiled by the Publishers' Weekly, the American book trade journal, the effect of the war on American reading tastes becomes evident. Interest in the war was reflected in the 20 top books of fiction and non-fiction. Among the non-fiction, seven titles were directly or indirectly connected with the war or with conditions that led up to it. These were: Berlin Dairy, by William L. Shirer; The White Cliffs, by Alice Duer Miller; Out of the Night, by 'Jan Valtin'; Inside Latin America, by John Gunther; Blood, Sweat and Tears, by the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; You Can't Do Business with Hitler, by Douglas Miller; and My Sister and I, by a 12-year-old Dutch boy who signed himself 'Dirk van der Heide,' an obvious pseudonym. Two novels among the best sellers, This Above All, by Eric Knight, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway (also a best seller in 1940), were also connected with the war, though the Hemingway book dealt with the curtain-raiser, the Spanish Civil War. Random Harvest, by James Hilton, is on a subject drawn from World War I. Other best sellers fell mainly into the escape or purely literary classes, including the leading fiction seller, The Keys of the Kingdom, by A. J. Cronin.

Sales of the leading books were high for 1941. Berlin Diary had sold, by the end of the year, 586,532 copies, one of the few books of recent years to reach the half million bracket. The Keys of the Kingdom, in first place among fiction, almost reached the same figure, with sales of over 470,000 copies.

The sale of books through the retail bookstores and book departments fluctuated, in a general way, with the news of war. Large outlets, like the R. H. Macy book department, reported that every new thrust by the Axis powers brought an immediate decline in business, a decrease that, in most cases, was gradually wiped out. The retail booksellers ended up the year with an increase in business of about 16 per cent over business done in 1940. Interestingly enough, shops in New York fared less well than those in other parts of the country. The reports from the largest chain of bookstores are significant in this respect. This chain operates stores in New York and in many other cities. The New York branches showed an increase in business of 11 per cent, while the yearly figure for the stores in other cities reached about 22 per cent.

December was, as usual, the best month for retail sales of books. It was followed by November, July, August, and October, in that order.

Significant of the times was a definite trend toward a greatly increased demand for books on technical subjects, particularly those in any way related to defense industries and military matters. Together with war books and works dealing with recent history and international affairs, these led a move to greater interest in non-fiction, reversing a trend of several years' standing. Children's books, oddly enough, continued to have a big place in retail sales. Another interesting trend was a general decline in circulating libraries, attributed by many booksellers to the fact that rental library customers are, in many cases, too busy with various kinds of defense work to spend as much time reading as formerly. See also LITERATURE, AMERICAN.

1940: Book Publishing

The most interesting fact about the American book trade during the past year was the lack of startling developments of any kind. Despite the war in Europe and despite the American presidential election, an event in itself likely to upset business, the book trade had what can only be described as an entirely normal year. Business was as usual, with definite, if not huge, increases in both publishing and retail bookselling branches of the trade.

Several developments which had been predicted as inevitable results of the war failed to materialize to any appreciable extent. For one thing, the public showed no greater interest than during the preceding year in books of specifically topical interest — works analyzing and interpreting the war and current events. Such books found a market, but there was no pronounced trend toward this type of publication. And anticipated increases in the cost of paper and other materials used in the manufacture of books proved not to be serious.

It has been said the war in Europe had little effect on the book trade; and this is largely true. Although there was a good deal of discouragement among retail booksellers in May, following the invasion of the Low Countries, actual reports from both publishers and retail booksellers revealed that this trend, if indeed there was an adverse trend, did not last long. The sales manager of one of the largest trade book publishers in the country expressed the opinion that booksellers presenting a black picture of business were consulting their own ideas of what the reactions of business should be, rather than examining their own sales records. Reports from the dealers bore him out, for it was almost amusing to hear from one retailer after the other. 'If I didn't look at the record of sales for May, I would say that the war had eliminated to a large extent people's interest in books. Our records, however, show an increase for May of almost 10 per cent. I don't understand it.' Whatever pessimism existed, however, was dissipated by the time the fall season came around.

There is a deplorable lack of accurate sales statistics for the book trade, but it is possible to formulate fairly significant guesses, which indicate that in general both publishers and booksellers wound up the year with substantial, if not spectacular increases, in business.

Statistics.

American trade book publishers during 1940 issued a total of 11,328 new books, exclusive of pamphlets. The largest previous figure for any year since 1900 was 13,770 titles published in 1910, but that figure includes an unspecified number of pamphlets. Consequently the figure for 1940 may very well be the largest number of titles ever recorded in this country. Production for 1940 indicates an increase of about 6½ per cent over the figure for 1930. The largest increases were in technical books, which rose 5½ per cent, poetry and drama, which advanced 13 per cent, and fiction, which was up by 12 per cent. Children's books picked up, too, after a drop during 1939, though the production of children's books was still below the high point of 1938 when there were 1,041 titles. The main losses were in the classifications of science, domestic economy, games and sports, geography and travel and general literature, the last being a division covering many kinds of books not otherwise easily classified.

'Best Sellers.'

It was interesting that sales of fiction led sales of all other kinds of books during 1940, the first year in some time in which this situation has obtained. It is true that in 1939 the fastest selling book was a novel, John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath,' but in general non-fiction has held the top place in sales for several years. The novels of 1940, however, outsold the non-fiction best sellers. This is true although some of the leading novels of the year came out late. The two most spectacular novels, from the standpoint of quick sales, that the book trade has seen in some time, were Ernest Hemingway's story of the Spanish civil war, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' which came out on Oct. 21, and Kenneth Roberts' historical novel of the American Revolution, 'Oliver Wiswell,' published on Nov. 22, or just about a month before Christmas. Of the Hemingway book, 440,000, including book club copies, were printed before the end of the year. More than 300,000 copies of the Roberts novel were printed, and this book did not have the benefit of book club distribution. Other successful novels included Richard Llewellyn's 'escape' Welsh story, 'How Green Was My Valley,' sales of which totaled 176,280 copies; Jan Struther's novel of an average English woman, 'Mrs. Miniver,' which sold through bookstores 92,000 copies, plus about 150,000 copies distributed by the Book-of-the-Month Club; 'The Family,' by a newcomer, a White Russian pseudonymously named Nina Fedorova; 'Stars on the Sea,' an historical novel, also of early America, by Van Wyck Mason; 'Night in Bombay,' by Louis Bromfield; Christopher Morley's 'Kitty Foyle'; 'The Nazarene,' by Sholem Asch; and Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath.' The latter three were also best sellers during 1939.

The non-fiction list was headed by Osa Johnson's 'I Married Adventure,' a book of straight, romantic adventure, which sold over 200,000, including a large number of book club copies. The range of American reading interests is somewhat indicated by the other non-fiction best sellers. Only three of them had much to do with current events, 'Days of Our Years,' by Pierre van Paassen, carried over from the previous year; 'Country Squire in the White House,' by John T. Flynn, a little volume brought into being by the presidential campaign; and 'American White Paper,' by Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner, which was typical of a marked tendency to issue timely material in large pamphlet form. Otherwise Americans were reading, in the non-fiction field: 'How To Read a Book,' by Mortimer Adler; 'A Smattering of Ignorance,' by the radio favorite, Oscar Levant; 'Land Below the Wind,' a book about Borneo, by Agnes Newton Keith; and others, including 'Bet It's a Boy,' an obstetrical novelty told entirely in pictures, by Betty Bacon Blunt.

The trade as a whole was more interested than usual in various plans whose purpose was to enlarge the general market for books in the United States. The one which attracted most attention called for the formation of an American Book Council, similar to the organization which has been prominent in the British book trade, and for a cooperative campaign of publicity for books in general, the campaign to be financed by all branches of the book business. None of these plans came to anything during 1940. See also LITERARURE, AMERICAN.

1939: Book Publishing

The outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, caused a momentary flurry in the American book trade. Many publishers examined their lists, wondering if new and unpredictable conditions might endanger their considerable investments. Activity in the retail bookstores early in September was scarcely reassuring, with many big buyers cutting down their orders, particularly of expensive items. From Boston, New York, Philadelphia and other cities in the East, and especially from Chicago, publishers' sales managers received discouraging reports. But the period of pessimism was of short duration. Before September was over booksellers all through the country were feeling confident of excellent fall business; and few publishers felt that conditions necessitated any changes in publishing plans.

The confidence was apparently justified. By the end of December all reports indicated that the trade had enjoyed excellent business during the fall and holiday season, the months of heaviest volume in the book business. At no time during the year was there evidence of a serious slump comparable to that which was so noticeable in 1938. It is symptomatic of the state of the business that the two most expensive trade books designed for wide distribution reached extraordinarily good sales. 'A Treasury of Art Masterpieces,' edited by Thomas Craven and published by Simon & Schuster at $10 (offered prior to publication at $8.50) was issued in late September and sold a total of 71,000 copies in 1939. On Dec. 1, Harcourt, Brace published Carl Sandburg's 'Abraham Lincoln: the War Years' in four volumes, at $20 for the set; within one month 18,000 sets were sold. Other expensive books fared proportionately well.

'Best Sellers.'

But if the war had, up to the end of 1939, little general effect on the book trade, the interest in international affairs did widen the market for books dealing with related subjects. The top nonfiction seller of the year was 'Days of Our Years,' by the international journalist, Pierre Van Paassen, a book of contemporary historical material which found a sale of some 230,000 copies, including a book club edition. Other books dealing with the international scene which reached the best seller class included Nora Waln's study of Germany and the Germans, 'Reaching for the Stars,' John Gunther's 'Inside Asia,' and Vincent Sheean's 'Not Peace But a Sword.' It is interesting in this respect that Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' published for the first time in a complete English translation, sold over 95,000 copies through the bookstores. And Hermann Rauschning's 'The Revolution of Nihilism,' a serious condemnation of Nazi policies and a work by no means easy to read, reached a wide public.

The public's increased awareness of social problems was at least partially responsible for the great success of John Steinbeck's novel. 'The Grapes of Wrath,' which was the year's top seller in all classifications. It was issued in April and by the end of 1939 had sold over 300,000 copies. Popular, too, was Ethel Vance's 'Escape,' a novel of Nazi Germany, of which over 225,000 copies were printed during the year. An interesting general development was the tendency of certain popular books to hold over from previous seasons. Rachel Field's 'All This and Heaven Too,' Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca,' Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' 'The Yearling,' all best sellers in 1938, continued to be popular in 1939.

Statistics.

Trade book titles issued in 1939, as reported to Publishers' Weekly, totaled 10,640 as against 11,067 for 1938, a decline of 427 or about 3.85 per cent (it must be emphasized that these figures refer to different titles, not to the total number of books printed in the United States). The decrease in titles occurred mainly among religious books, fiction — though the decrease in fiction was less than in 1938 — poetry and drama and juvenile books. The 10,640 titles were issued by a large number of publishing houses, though a majority of titles, 7,993, were issued by 247 firms publishing 5 or more books each. Of these, 17 firms published 100 or more titles each, 3, 314 for this group, while 39 houses issuing 50 or more books each accounted for 4,820 titles. Probably the slight decrease for the year was due to accidental factors and was not indicative of a general trend.

Success of Economy-priced Reprints.

The success achieved by certain expensive books during the year was noted above, but perhaps of much greater significance was the increased interest in the publication of very inexpensive books planned for mass sales. In recent years, especially in 1937 and 1938 the book trade has seen considerable growth in the publication of reprints (cheaper editions of already published books made possible by the use of the original plates and the acceptance by the author of a reduced royalty). In June 1939, Robert F. de Graff, a publisher with much experience in reprint publishing startled the trade and the general public with the establishment of a new line of reprints priced at 25 cents a volume, of small format but attractively printed and bound in colorful paper covers. This line, called Pocket Books, like other ventures before it, was designed to appeal to the great mass of magazine readers who have not previously been book buyers. Issued experimentally at first in New York alone, the books aroused a great deal of interest in the press and were soon released for national distribution. It can be said that Pocket Books represent one of the most considerable attempts yet made to capture a new public (the publisher has reported that the largest volume of sales has been secured through other than regular bookstores); but it is still too early to assess their ultimate place in the American book trade. Another important development in this field was the establishment of an American branch of Penguin Books, a series of paper-bound books, including new titles and reprints, which in recent years has been enormously successful in England. The volumes are priced at 6d. in England and 25 cents in America. Still another line of 25-cent paper-bound fiction, Red Arrow Books, was established during the year; and there was a marked increase in activity in established pamphlet lines. On the other hand, Modern Age Books, which experimented in published new books bound in paper and priced at less than $1, curtailed this part of its business and announced that in the future its main activity would be the publication of cloth-bound books at regular trade prices. The established reprint lines of cloth-bound books were extremely active during the year.

Litigation over Department Store Book Clubs.

Other developments in the book trade during 1939 were not spectacular. Outstanding in 1938, it will be remembered, were problems arising from the establishment of department store book clubs and the opposition of retail booksellers and publishers to these clubs. In the review of 1938 it appeared that the problems were not all solved, and this proved to be the case. In order to test whether or not the granting of discounts and rebates to customers by department store book clubs violated the Fair Trade Law of New York, certain publishers and retail booksellers brought suit against R. H. Macy & Co., alleging that the store's Red Star Book Club did violate the Fair Trade Laws. In its answer, the store contended that the Fair Trade Law does not apply to copyrighted books and that its method of doing business does not violate existing price maintenance agreements. In addition, Macy's set up a counter suit against the plaintiffs and against the Book Publishers' Bureau and the American Booksellers' Association and their officers, alleging a conspiracy, directed against Macy's, between publishers and booksellers in violation of Federal and State Anti-Trust Acts. There, for the moment, the matter has rested, as neither the suit nor counter-suit came up for trial during 1939. The outcome will be important for the book trade.

1938: Book Publishing

The year which has just closed will probably go down in the history of American book publishing as the 'Year of the Great Book Club War.' For the knottiest problem that faced both publishing and retail selling branches of the book trade arose early in 1938 from the attempt of certain department stores legitimately to cut book prices.

In August 1937 President Roosevelt signed the Tydings-Miller National Fair Trade Enabling Act. The new law made legal in interstate commerce contracts signed in accordance with the Fair Trade Laws passed by 43 states. These laws permitted the manufacturers of branded merchandise to sign contracts with retailers stipulating minimum resale prices of their products; and all retailers were bound to maintain prices stipulated in any contract.

Price-cutting Wars.

Whatever the merits of price maintenance in other industries, a majority of the book trade considered the Fair Trade laws of great value to publishing and bookselling. Books have normally been sold at uniform prices for the last 35 or 40 years, in America, after unrestricted price-cutting had nearly wrecked the industry at the turn of the century. Other kinds of reading matter, notably newspapers and magazines, are always sold at uniform prices. The experience of European countries, where uniform book prices are the rule, indicates that efficient book distribution is best furthered by the absence of price-cutting. The use of popular books as loss leaders was practiced mainly by a few large department stores in New York. Yet the devastating price wars which flared up occasionally, particularly when 'Gone with the Wind' was widely used as a loss leader by department stores, chain drug stores, and cigar stores, pointed the way to chaos.

In deciding to operate under price maintenance contracts, the publishers made one important exception in favor of book clubs, which were exempt from the price clauses of most contracts. Undoubtedly the publishers intended to protect the two major book clubs, the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club which, with their large number of subscribers, are important book outlets, but which, in effect, sell books at lower prices than bookstores. A book club was loosely defined as an organization whose members agreed in writing to purchase at least 4 monthly selections a year. The definition left a hole wide open for the price-cutting department stores.

The fun started in March 1938, when R. H. Macy & Co. ran large ads inviting the reading public to join 'Macy's Red Star Book Club' and thereby receive a premium of 25 per cent of the retail price of each book 'selected' by each member from a list of some 2,500 titles (including the currently popular, price-protected books). When the member had bought 4 books, he could apply his accumulated premiums toward the purchase of any book in stock. The store thus adhered to the publishers' definition of a book club and violated no contracts, but at the same time cut under competing bookstores. In New York, Bloomingdale's and Gimbel's countered with their own book clubs, raising the premium rate to 30 per cent, which Macy's met the following week. Department stores in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities followed suit, and there were rumors of new store book clubs every day.

The bookstores raised energetic protests. The publishers were in an uncomfortable position. They wished to cooperate with the two major established clubs, important to them and to their authors, and yet were anxious to protect the equally important retail booksellers. A solution was shortly found in revised contracts which made no exceptions in favor of book clubs. The publishers simply did not protect the prices of books selected for distribution by the established clubs. This method left comparatively few titles unprotected, did not interfere with the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild, but made it virtually impossible for department store clubs to operate without violating contracts. In fact, most of the store clubs quietly folded up. But at the end of the year there were rumors throughout the trade which gave rise to the suspicion that the last word has not yet been spoken on Fair Trade contracts.

Low-priced Books.

In other respects 1938 was not a very eventful year in book publishing, though there were interesting attempts to find new markets for inexpensive books. The established reprint lines flourished. Triangle Books was started as a series of fiction reprints at 39 cents. Modern Age Books continued on a reduced scale its efforts to sell new books of social importance bound in paper and priced at less than a dollar. The coming year will see still further experiments in the low priced book field.

Book Output and Sales.

The year's output of books was little changed. As in 1937, American publishers brought out, roughly, 10,000 books. Of these about half were textbooks, technical and other special titles. The rest were 'trade books' (fiction, biography, travel, etc.). Between 250 and 300 publishers issued 5 or more titles; but about 85 firms publishing 25 or more were responsible for most of the new publications.

When it came to selling these new books, the trend of business in publishing followed what appears to have been the tendency of business in general. The spring publishing season, which begins late in January, got off to a good start, with general optimism in the trade. Several titles — in fiction, A. J. Cronin's 'The Citadel,' Kenneth Roberts's 'Northwest Passage,' and Louis Bromfield's 'The Rains Came'; in non-fiction, 'Madame Curie,' 'How to Win Friends,' Van Loon's 'The Arts,' and others — carried over from the preceding season and were to keep cash registers ringing for months. Soon Lin Yutang's 'The Importance of Living' began to sell; and two novels, Sinclair Lewis's 'Prodigal Parents' and Pearl S. Buck's 'This Proud Heart,' were successful despite unenthusiastic reviews by New York critics. (Pearl Buck, it will be remembered, was awarded in November the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature.)

Sales of books started falling off in March, however, and continued to drop during April and May; the seriousness of the slump may be gauged from the fact that one of New York's largest bookstores, according to reliable reports, asked the publishers to take back half of all books ordered in January.

The summer months saw some improvement in business, due partially to the success of a number of books published during the late spring and summer, including Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's 'The Yearling'; Howard Spring's 'My Son, My Son!' Laura Krey's 'And Tell of Time'; Margaret Armstrong's 'Fanny Kemble'; Arthur Hertzler's 'The Horse and Buggy Doctor'; and Margaret Halsey's 'With Malice toward Some,' which by December looked like the top best-seller of the year, with over 400,000 copies printed.

By September there was a noticeable upturn, and sales of books rose very considerably during the remainder of the fall. Most of the best-sellers mentioned above continued to do well, and new ones came into the lists. Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca' came from England and immediately was extremely popular. Rachel Field's 'All This and Heaven, Too' got off to a very rapid start, requiring printings of 100,000 copies within one week after publication. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's 'Listen! the Wind' also began to sell swiftly, and immediately went near the top of the best-seller lists.

Statistics.

For a number of reasons exact statistics are well-nigh unobtainable for the publishing business as a whole. Nobody knows, for example, how many books were sold during 1938, or any other year; and few would be rash enough to guess. But the sales manager of one of the largest publishing houses in the country reported early in December that his firm was having its best fall season in several years. Sales for November 1938, were 58 per cent ahead of sales for November 1937. Another sales manager estimated that the volume of his firm's business for the first 9 months of 1938 was 30 per cent ahead of the volume for the same period of 1937; and an even higher percentage was expected for the last quarter. The owner of an important bookstore in the Middle West reported that his business for September, October, and November was somewhat better than for the previous year, and December promised a decided gain, with his business for the whole year about 20 per cent ahead of 1937. It must be borne in mind that about one fifth of all books sold during the year are normally sold in December. The figures given above may not be entirely typical (at least one important publisher's picture of the fall business would not look pretty in print), but they probably give a reasonably accurate notion of the state of publishing as a whole.

Best Sellers.

There were no single books published during 1938 which achieved the large sales of 'Gone with the Wind' or 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' but the book trade usually considers the situation more healthy when sales are spread over a number of books. 'Gone with the Wind,' by the way, was issued in an inexpensive edition and within a few weeks had sold in the neighborhood of 400,000 copies; its total sale in all editions has reached more than 1,788,000 copies. In view of the troubled political situation of the world, it is surprising that more books on economics, politics, and international affairs do not sell in large quantities. Some few achieved considerable, though not startling, sales during 1938, among them Edgar Snow's 'Red Star over China,' Ferdinand Lundberg's 'America's 60 Families,' Thurman W. Arnold's 'The Folklore of Capitalism,' and Eugene Lyons's anti-Soviet book, 'Assignment in Utopia.' Social considerations probably contributed, too, to the success of Phyllis Bottome's anti-Nazi novel, 'The Mortal Storm.'