ABSTRACT
The commercial revolution of the nineteenth century turned all things beneath its touch into glittering commodities, including some which might at first sight seem unlikely candidates. In W.D.Howells’ essay on ‘’The art of the adsmith,” the imaginary dialogue contains the following passage:
The sacred Word has become an object manufactured and sold like anything else. And far from there being any distinction between the commercial manufacturer of persuasive words and the immortal creator of artistic ones, Howells’ conversation implies that the difference, if it exists, is the other way around. Fiction writers have priority in the field in terms of their inflated verbal earnings; adsmiths can only “put their art…on a level with fiction pecuniarily.” As regards the issue of quality versus quantity, the last paragraph makes it clear that there is another unexpected reversal. Quality, in the effective “succinctness” of single words and phrases, is the adsmith’s department, while the writer of “wofs” must simply keep up as rapid and substantial a production of “verbosity” as he is able.
