The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's WorkPenny, Virginia
General
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
Penny, Virginia
Women -- Employment
The Abbotts, Emerson, and numerous other
authors engaged in the preparation of books for young persons and
schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, has
received more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French series
of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upward of $20,000. The school geography of
Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to its author. A
single medical book, of one octavo volume, is understood to have
produced its authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given
its author probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books must
have been very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already
yielded her from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps as much more. Mr.
Headley is stated to have received about $40,000; and the few books of
Ik Marvel have yielded him about $20,000. A single one, 'The Reveries of
a Bachelor,' produced $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has
been very largely paid. Miss Leslie's cookery and recipe books have paid
her $12,000. Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for
the copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received
not less than $6,000 for the duodecimo volume published but six months
since. Mr. Prescott was stated, several years since, to have received
$90,000 from his books, and I have never seen it contradicted. According
to the rate of compensation generally understood to be received by Mr.
Bancroft, the present sale of each volume yields him more than $15,000,
and he has the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge
Story died, as has been stated, in the annual receipt of more than
$8,000, and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. Mr.
Webster's works in three years can scarcely have paid less than $25,000.
Kent's 'Commentaries' are understood to have yielded to their author and
his heirs more than $120,000; and if we add to this, for the remainder
of the period, only one half of this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or
$45,000 as the compensation for a single octavo volume--a reward for
literary labor unexampled in history." It is necessary that the reader,
in considering the figures given, remember that the reputation of an
author has much to do with the price paid by a publisher for
manuscripts. The number of women authors is much greater than one
unacquainted with the statistics in regard to the subject would suppose.
"In 1847 Count Leopold Feni died at Padua, leaving a library entirely
composed of works written by women in various languages, the number of
volumes amounting to nearly thirty-two thousand. Whether the English and
American lady writers were included in his list we do not know, but we
wish some woman of taste and fortune, in our country, would make a
similar collection." It is said that two thirds of the writers in
_Chambers' Edinburgh Journal_ are women. Some of the writers of our best
periodicals are women. The success of women in works of fiction is
unquestioned.
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