Mr. Booker

of the "Literary Chronicle"

Chapter I
"Mr. Booker was a hard-working professor of literature, by no means without talent, by no means without influence, and by no means without a conscience. But, from the nature of the struggles in which he had been engaged, by compromises which had gradually been driven upon him by the encroachment of brother authors on the one side and by the demands on the other of employers who looked only to their profits, he had fallen into a routine of work which it was very difficult to be scrupulous, and almost impossible to maintain the delicacies of a literary conscience. He was now a bald-headed old man of sixty with a large family of daughters, one of whom was a widow dependent on him with two little children. He had five hundred a year for editing the 'Literary Chronicle,' which, through his energy, had become a valuable property. He wrote for magazines, and brought out some book of his own almost annually." (10-11) #Writing as Business

"But he was quite alive to tha fact that a fabourable notice in the 'Breakfast Table' of his very thoughtful work, called the 'New Tale of a Tub,' would serve him, even though written by the hand of a female literary charlatan [ Lady Carbury ], and he would have no compunction as to repaying the service by fulsome praise in the 'Literary Chronicle'" (12). #Writing as Business

"He was an adept at this sort of work, and knew well how to review such a book as Lady Carbury's 'Criminal Queens,' without bestowing much trouble on the reading. He could almost do it without cutting the book, so that its value for purposes of after sale might not be injured. And yet Mr. Booker was an honest man, and had set his face persistently against many literary malpractices. Stretched-out type, insufficient lines, and the French habit of meandering with a few words over an entire page, had been rebuked by him with conscientious strenght. He was supposed to be rather an Aristides among reviewers. But circumstanced as he was he could not oppose himself altogether to the usages of the time. 'Bad; of course it is bad,' he said to a young friend who was working with him on his periodical. 'Who doubts that? How many very bad things are there that we do! But if we were to attempt to reform all our bad ways at once, we should never do any good thing. I am not strong enough to put the world straight, and I doubt if you are'" (12). #Writing as Business #Dishonesty

Chapter XI
Lady Carbury reviews Mr. Booker ’s book in the “Breakfast Table,” by convincing Mr. Broune to allow her with flirtation. Mr. Booker is dissatisfied with the review Lady Carbury writes because it is rubbish, but Mr. Booker also knows that his article about the “Criminal Queens” in the “Literary Chronicle” “would also be rubbish” (90). Mr. Booker made no attempt to read the book and only spent “perhaps an hour” on both the reading and writing required for the review. “He could have reviewed such a book when he was three parts asleep” (90). #Press #Writing as Business

Mr. Booker is disappointed that he should have “to descend so low in literature,” without realizing that he is making a choice, and that he could choose “to starve, honestly, if no other honest mode of carrying on his career was open to him” (90-91). However, he pacifies himself by saying that someone else would do what he was doing if he wasn’t doing it (91). #Press #Writing as Business #Dishonesty