From these one hundred and four editions,
not to name others known to have
been printed, it seems safe to conclude
that few works of fiction have ever appeared
in so many and such diverse
forms, or in forms so perishable. "Charlotte
Temple," in this sense, rises almost
to a place with "The Vicar of Wakefield"
or "Robinson Crusoe."
While the popularity of the book down
to the present day cannot be questioned,
and gives no evidence of declining, it is
a popularity which has not brought its
name into the lists, either of best selling
books or of books most called for in
libraries. During the period covered by
these researches, many well-read men
and women were asked if they had ever
read "Charlotte Temple." Nearly all
knew about the tombstone in Trinity
churchyard, and in general they had some
notion of Charlotte's story, but that was
all. On a Sixth Avenue surface car, how
ever, and on a railway train bound for
Chicago, during the same period were
observed two young women reading
paper editions with close attention.
Again and again have small dealers,
with stalls in front areas and on side-walks,
assured me that "Charlotte
Temple" was one of their most active
books. "Ten sales a week," said a man
in Harlem. "My order is always for a
hundred copies," said another in lower
Sixth Avenue. "I am always selling
that book," said a third on the East Side,
"and its a shame there has never been
decent edition of it."
Obviously the readers who have been
patronizing these small dealers are not
responsible for those questions-and-answers
which regularly and at frequent
intervals for many years have appeared
in the newspapers and periodicals in regard
to "Charlotte Temple." These
questions have rather come from the ill-informed
among people really bookish,
to whom, at least in the present generation,
has been denied all knowledge of a
book which, if it has not shared in the
greatest literary fame, has at least participated
in the greatest literary notoriety,
of the past one hundred and fifteen years.
