Why Books are Dear In a letter recently received from a friend who owns a large -publishing house in America, the writer commented upon the upward trend of prices for books, and rather whunsically remarked that it was essential to raise the prices as long as one had to pay $125 for a case of whisky.'fo a recent issue of the "Atlantic," however, George P. Brett contributed an article on the price of books and the cost of making them, which takes up the subject in a more serious vein. In commenting' upon this article the New York 'Evening Post'? says that it was Arnold Bennett who once said that most publishers of his acquaintance had limousines and fur coats, while very few of his author friends had. Yet Mr, Brett shows the figures connected with the publication of a typical volume, of the kind which makes up the average of a publisher's list. The edition consists of 2,500 copies, the total cost per copy is $1.51, and the we rage price received by the publisher is $1.53. In other words, 2 cents a copy, or $50 in all, is the return on gross sales of more than $3,750. A further statistical table indicates the factors which are chiefly responsible for the rise in the price of books since 1914. The heaviest item is paper, next comes cloth, then boards and transportation. The increases here are between 300 and 400 per cent, inclusive. Wages follow with increases of 164 to 210 per cent, At is apparent from all the details given that the high price of all the materials employed in book-making is the most serious factor. Nevertheless, Mr, Brett emphasizes chiefly the wage advances and the paper shortage as the causes of soaring costs. It is true the prices of thread, glue, cloth, boards, type, and paper are also affected by the wages paid in those industries. But the triple and quadruple cost of paper is the element in the case upon which Mr. Brett mostly insists. He blames the popular magazines, with their huge adver-fisement. display and enormous circulation, for their wasteful con sumption of a scarce and valuable commodity—paper. No doubt the magazines will dispute this, and so" long as the publishers issue numerous books whose literary value is below that of the magazine standard, books..which defy amy effort to explain their existence, the pub-can have little interest in the controversy between them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.