Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/94

68 68 THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES. fell dead, and he begged the author to think nothing further of the loss, which they had agreed to share. In gratitude Cowper sent him the Task as a pre- sent; it was a wonderful success, and altogether John- son is said to have made ; 10,000 out of Cowper's poems. He assisted in the publication of the Homer without any compensation at all. The most impor- tant " Chapter books " were Johnson's EnglisJi Poets, including his Lives of the English Poets, for which latter he received two hundred guineas, and a present of another hundred, and, on their re-publi- cation in a separate edition, a fourth hundred. " Sir," observed the Doctor to a friend, " I have always said the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor in the present instance have I reason to complain. The fact is, not that they paid me too little, but that I have written too much." Of course when the booksellers met, the literary men were not far absent. "I am quite familiar" (writes poor Chatterton in his sad, boastful letters, meant to cheer up the hearts of the dear ones at home, while his own heart was breaking in London) "at the Chapter Coffee House, and know all the geniuses there. A character is now quite unnecessary ; an author carries his character in his pen." Later on, the Chapter Coffee House became the place of call for poor parsons, who stood there ready for hire, on Sunday mornings, at sums varying from five shillings to a guinea. Sermons, too, were kept in stock here for purchase, or could be written, there and then, to order. At the very close of the last century a fresh band of " Associated Booksellers " was formed, consisting of the following : Thomas Hood (father of the poet),