sales in
England of the original ninth edition were less than ten thousand
sets. In America, where subscription methods were adopted from the
first, and in England, after some enterprising American
subscription-book men took it in hand, the sales may be fairly
estimated at something like one hundred and fifty thousand sets.

Twenty or thirty years ago, by far the most common form of
subscription book was the variety labelled "Manual of Business," or
the "Complete Farm Cyclopedia," or the "Road to Heaven." The publisher
did not advertise for customers but for agents. The books were sold
directly to the agent, and he in turn delivered them to his customers
and collected the money. Anybody out of employment could take up the
business. The aim was to get as many agents as possible and sell them
the books. The agent canvassed with a "prospectus" after committing to
memory his little story. The subscribers signed their names in the
back of the prospectus. Sometimes the young and inexperienced agent
ordered as many copies as he had signatures or more. Woe unto him if
he did, for oftentimes they would not "deliver." Many years ago I
remember calling at a modest little home in the Middle West. While
waiting in the parlor, I noticed how peculiarly it was furnished.
Every corner of the little square room contained a monument of
symmetrical design, all different, but each some three or four feet
high, and all built of books, as a child might build a fairy castle
out of his wooden blocks. A closer inspection showed that all the
volumes were copies of the same book bound in "half morocco"! The
explanation came later when I was incidentally informed that "Willie
had tried canvassing, but most of 'em backed out."

This reminds one of the remark of Thoreau when, four years after the
publication of his first book (at the author's expense), the publisher
compelled him to remove 706 unsold copies out of the edition of 1000,
and he had them all carted to his home. "I now have," he said, "a
library of nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I wrote myself." It
is an interesting fact in this connection that the successors of that
publisher are to-day, fifty years later, successfully selling by
subscription an edition of Thoreau's writings in 20 volumes, the set
in the cheapest style of binding costing $100.

Among the famous books sold by this method have been Blaine's "Twenty
Years in Congress," Stanley's "In Darkest Africa," and Grant's