Mr. Barnes of New York
Mr. Barnes of New York is a novel published in 1887 by American author Archibald Clavering Gunter, quite popular in its day, which was also adapted into a play in 1888, and later two silent film versions. Novel Although he already had success as a playwright, Gunter was unable to find a publisher for his first novel, which he had completed in 1885. He "submitted it to nearly every publisher in New York, and again and again it came back to him." He then tried a Boston publisher and more publishers in New York, and met another round of rejections. After shelving the manuscript for a time, he read a current popular novel, and decided that although his book "might be rubbish, it was surely as good as this book that seemed to have taken the fancy of the public." Gunter proceeded to publish the book himself, starting with 1,000 copies that bookstores would only take on consignment. Within a few weeks, sales grew brisk and the book became quite popular. Scholar James D. Hart has written that although the book may not have sold a million copies as has been claimed, it and many of Gunter's successive novels were