Abstract

Essays and Asides on Not a Best-Seller

It is not often that certain problems and paradoxes connected with literary popularity are presented in quite so dramatic a form, but those sellers who are either worst sellers or at least not best are troubled by them a good deal. The author has always envied writers who profess to consider their failure to find many readers a source of satisfaction, but he has not been able to follow them. A writer ought to be-and really of course he always is-pleased to win the largest number of readers he can get. Obviously the author does not mean that he should be willing to write down or even that lie should be willing to write for popularity. But when one has done one's best and done it sincerely, when one has conic as close as one can to saying exactly what one wants to say, it is nonsense not to hope that many will find it worth while.