Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/137

Authors' Earnings 549 of belles-lettres was living by his pen in New York. The lives of Richard Dabney, Percival/ and Halleck throw a strong light upon the rewards of authorship during the first four decades of the century. The first two men, though pos- sessed of a thin strain of genius, were constantly in desperate straits on Grub Street. Halleck, in spite of some aspects of popularity, received for the entire labours of a literary lifetime but $17,500, or approximately $364 a year. Irving^ and Cooper had other financial resources than authorship, but according to Longfellow, Professor Ingraham's bad novels' were rewarding him richly in the thirties. Simms affirms that up to the year 1 834 American literature was with a few exceptions the diversion of the amateur but that about that time it began to assume the aspect of a busi- ness; while as late as 1842 Channing* ventured the (mis- taken) opinion that Hawthorne^ was the only American who supported himself by authorship . Yet the remark of such a man shows how few were our temerarious professional authors. By 1842 a man of great ability, unless divided against himself like Foe, * could find support in literature in most fields of prose, for one must always remember Bryant's remark implying that poetry and a full stomach did not go together. In a large measure both Longfellow' and Whittier"must have felt like- wise, for the latter, who had little to fall back upon, was in straitened circumstances until the publication of Snow-Bound. Lowell " had to superintend his own publications for a time, but in 1870 he was able to say that he had lately declined I4000 a year to write four pages monthly for a magazine. One striking exception to poor pay for poetry is, however, found in Willis, " but even his magazine receipts of $4800 a year about 1842 were largely from prose. The magazines were indeed a saving influence in the life of the hard-pressed American author. "The burst on author- land of Graham's and Godey's liberal prices," WiUis said, "was like a sunrise without a dawn." Graham's Magazine, ^^ ' See Book II, Chap. v. ' Ibid. 3 See Book II, Chap. iv. 4 See Book II, Chap. vi. = See Book III, Chap. xi. « See Book II, Chap. vill. ' See Book II, Chap. xi. 8 See Book II, Chap. xiv. » See Book II, Chap. xii. "See Book II, Chap. xiii. " See Book II, Chap. xxiv. " See Book II, Chap. iii. "' See Book II, Chap. xx.