Details
SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD. Autograph letter signed ("G. Bernard Shaw") to "Dear Sir," London, 16 July 1889. 3 pages, small 8vo, a trifle soiled. [With:] A copy of Cashel Byron's Profession, a Novel, London: The Modern Press, 1886, 8vo, original printed blue wrappers, restoration to spine and front cover, wrappers soiled, together with the above letter in a brown half morocco pull-off case, FIRST EDITION of Shaw's first full-scale work (preceded by two leaflets), a novel about boxing, Laurence A3a.
"'CASHEL BYRON' FIRST APPEARED A FEW YEARS AGO IN A MAGAZINE"
An early Shaw letter, giving advice on publishing to another author: "I have given up writing fiction for the last six years; and it would require a somewhat heavy consideration to induce me to devote my time to it just now...Will you allow me to say frankly that I am doubtful of the success of your undertaking as far as I can judge it from your letter. Shilling books pay only when the publisher has a huge organization of agents, travellers, and booksellers' connections by which at least two thirds of an edition of ten thousand copies can be got rid of almost mechanically at the first issue. Further, it is difficult to keep up the necessary reputation except by salting a batch of popular books by one or two high class works which will not bring in their cost of production directly, but which will uphold the class of the firm...I may mention that Cashel Byron first appeared a few years ago in a magazine [To-Day, April 1885-March 1886] owned by a couple of friends of mine, who were dependent on such contributions as they could obtain gratuitously. The printer & publisher stereoed the pages and published a shilling edition of the book -- only a thousand copies. In spite of extravagantly favorable reviews in the Pall Mall Gazette, the Saturday Review and other really influential papers, the publisher was unable to make the book move, and three years passed before the last of the thousand dribbled out and the last shilling dribbled in. In the hands of Walter Scott [a London publisher who issued a revised edition in spring 1889] it is virtually a new book. There may be a moral for you in this experience..." Not in Letters, ed. Dan H. Laurence, and presumably unpublished. (2)
"'CASHEL BYRON' FIRST APPEARED A FEW YEARS AGO IN A MAGAZINE"
An early Shaw letter, giving advice on publishing to another author: "I have given up writing fiction for the last six years; and it would require a somewhat heavy consideration to induce me to devote my time to it just now...Will you allow me to say frankly that I am doubtful of the success of your undertaking as far as I can judge it from your letter. Shilling books pay only when the publisher has a huge organization of agents, travellers, and booksellers' connections by which at least two thirds of an edition of ten thousand copies can be got rid of almost mechanically at the first issue. Further, it is difficult to keep up the necessary reputation except by salting a batch of popular books by one or two high class works which will not bring in their cost of production directly, but which will uphold the class of the firm...I may mention that Cashel Byron first appeared a few years ago in a magazine [To-Day, April 1885-March 1886] owned by a couple of friends of mine, who were dependent on such contributions as they could obtain gratuitously. The printer & publisher stereoed the pages and published a shilling edition of the book -- only a thousand copies. In spite of extravagantly favorable reviews in the Pall Mall Gazette, the Saturday Review and other really influential papers, the publisher was unable to make the book move, and three years passed before the last of the thousand dribbled out and the last shilling dribbled in. In the hands of Walter Scott [a London publisher who issued a revised edition in spring 1889] it is virtually a new book. There may be a moral for you in this experience..." Not in Letters, ed. Dan H. Laurence, and presumably unpublished. (2)