D. Appleton & Co. in Receivership
The old publishing house of D. Appleton & Co., established by Daniel Appleton in 1825, went into the hands of a receiver on March 21. Some two or three years ago the firm went into the business of selling books on the instalment plan. This plan as practised by them is to deliver an entire set of books to a person on the payment of the price of a single volume, and then pay for the rest at the rate of a volume a month. Many sets of their books contain from one to two dozen volumes, and hence from twelve to twenty-four months would be required to get their capital returned to them. They were successful in selling so many books in this way that they used up their surplus capital and had to borrow heavily to meet the expense. Their creditors were not willing to extend their loans, and as large sums of borrowed capital are now coming due, the only thing left for them is to go into the hands of a receiver. But the heaviest creditors think that the firm can be reorganized, and more capital put into it, and the business still be made to pay well. This failure, coming so soon after the failure of the great Harper publishing house, is very much regretted in book circles.