"Our first page to-day is entirely devoted to a remarkable
advertisement, which tells the story of rare business enterprise, and
is filled to overflowing with attractive announcements. But it is
for characteristics other than these that it will command attention
and really deserve study. Within a year and a half, Hunt, Parry, &
Co. have given to the public works from the pens of two score of
authors, American and English, almost all of them living and of widest
popularity. To represent in print a half-dozen of the most prominent on
the list might be the making of any firm; to take care of the whole of
them would seem to be an embarrassment of riches. But the establishment
has done and is doing this, with unremitting energy and in good style.
We need not take room to run over the long and brilliant catalogue;
a glance at the eight columns will reveal a galaxy of shining names.
Observe the poets,--T., B., L., and L., W., and the rest; count up the
novelists--S., T., D., R., G., H., and others of the tribe; consider
the array of essayists, travellers, and naturalists, men and women of
mark; and then ask whether Hunt, Parry, & Co. are surpassed by any
of their contemporaries in their numerous issues, taking quantity,
quality, and variety into the account. In offering this broadside
programme of their performances, as bookmakers and booksellers, to the
crowds of Jubilee week, they put forth a statement of indisputable
facts; give a transcript of the record of the volumes they have issued,
and their relations to eminent writers.
"Their achievements imply something more than an immediate and
exclusive eye to the main chance. It is evident that the honorable
pursuit of profit is not with them the sole consideration. [O that
it were!] They desire to connect their names with good literature,
advanced thought, and the intellectual progress of the age. They
would be known for their taste and liberal policy as well as for
their mercantile success; acting upon the principle that character as
well as money is worth earning in the pursuits of trade and commerce.
Without entering into comparisons, thus much is fairly to be inferred
from their extended advertisement. It tells of results which imply the
existence of the qualities we have attributed to them; for without
such qualities such results could not have been attained. The evidence
of culture, judgment, sagacity, energy, boldness, tact, skill, and
whatever else goes to the building up of a publishing house known at
home and abroad for its magnitude and the extent and variety of its
ventures, is literally such that he who runs may read and see that
it is beyond controversy. This is not extravagant praise or mere
compliment; but simply the statement of the truth as made manifest by
the facts.
"In this general reference to Messrs. Hunt, Parry, & Co., we must not,
in passing, omit an allusion to their periodicals. To them the public
are indebted for the maintenance of the oldest Greek Quarterly, the
agreeable and fresh weekly selections of 'Every Tuesday,' the wide
circulation and high character for ability, diversity, and independence
of the 'Adriatic Monthly,' and that leading magazine of its class, 'The
Buddhist.'
"In thus calling attention to a publishing house whose imprint is
known wherever the Greek language is spoken or read, we are pointing
to what is one of the leading concerns in a most important branch of
the business of the city, of which others besides its proprietors
may well be proud. Not only has it grown with the growing culture of
the country, but it has encouraged home authors, and spread far and
wide the best productions of the best writers on the other side of
the Atlantic; thus giving it a claim to honorable consideration as
holding a high place among the beneficent agencies of the advancing
civilization of the world."