BOOK CONSUMPTION IN MASS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1247, 2 October 1911, Page 3

BOOK CONSUMPTION IN MASS.

The history of the publishing trade during the last_ten years has shown clearly that, when it comes to solid reading, it is oasier to sell ten volumes than one, and thirty volumes than ten. It has been a period of "libraries," collections, series, and monumental editions. The consumption of largo encyclopaedias and manyvolume dictionaries nas been enormous. The tendency to expansion has manifested itself even in special fields. Where tho beok-agent of twenty years ago was content to sell a Business Man's Compendium and Guide in one fat bcok, them are now cyclopacdias of business in half a dozen volumes. There are cyclopaedias for the teacher, the lawyer, the" physician, and tho farmer. Thero,is an elaborate cyclopaedia for children exclusively. If we are sometimes tempted to bclievo that there are few people nowadays who care | tor a good hook, wo must take account of the tact that there are a great many people who will buy a hundred good books when these aro brought together in uniform tending and under an attractive general title. The latest experiment in wholesale publication comprises a>n elaborate series of popular handbooks in science, art, literature, and history, given to the world under a joint LngJish <ind American editor- , P|'» 1 111 t' lo "first one hundred volumes are already planned; and of these some twenty volumes have been published. The present series differs from most aggregations of the kind ,in that it consists of books written for the special purpose; and it may bo observed ill passing that the men chosen for the task are notably competent and that their output, so far. has been satisfactory. Students are familiar with this method as applied to biography, as in our own American Statesmen series or the English Men of Letters scries. Now the appeal is directed tn the general reading public, and since the publishers presumablv know what they are about, it will be directed with success. A great manj- people who would never think of buying a book on mathematics by Mr. Whitehead, or a book on economics by Mr. ,T. A. Hobson, will buy both these books if brought into conjunction with ninety-eight other books on subjects in which, individually, they may take only tho slightest interest. Tho anomaly is not a very puzzling one. Our growing appetite for literature in bulk has its reasons, and some of them arc but remotely connected with literature. Books have always constituted a favourite article of furniture, whother decorative or useful. They aro useful in the case of the young lawyer, the young physician, and the ambitious young minister whom they simultaneously servo as tools and as a means for creating atmosphere in office or study, Tlwy are decor-

ativo in many a homo where monev lias outdistanced eulturo. For the highly desirable purposo of filling shelf-space, it is axiomatic that where a modest Dickens in fifteoa volumes would not do, ft jjjrgeoiis Dickens in red and gold and hfty-fivo volumes will eminently .do. This is not a vico peculiar to our own times. Since books were invented there havo been people' who have appreciated only tho outside of hooks. And, after all, the tribute to the power of the printed word is not wholly unimpressive because a man feels bound to yie'.d worship without having pMetrate.il into the soul of tho mystery. Tho "nouvoau riche" who buys his books by the yard mid the colour may find no interest in them, but ho rarely fails to respect tlicr.i. To sjuvik of hooks as furniture is only to say that they havo entered into tho business of our everyday life. But when all is said and done, there aro very many people who buy Ixioks in order to read them or in order lo have their children read them, which is alnioso as well. If they buy in bulk it is very often because tho sploadid t nrrny of volumes promises almost n lifetime of pKasuro and instruction. This may bo rather a na.ivo way of estimating tho benefits of literature, but at iKittom there is no harm in it. Admit that t.horo is in this attitudo something ot tho American trait which wants not only the uest that's to bo had, but all that is to bo had, and still there is™ harm in it. Ihe fact remains that wc o.ro always in to gor of underestimating tho desire tor pood reading, and the appreciation of it. It is easy 'enough to sneer at rending circles and Browning clubs. But nhilo our intimacv with the classics is probabiv not so close as our book pui'c' ia - i , cs would indicate, it is also true that tho American reading public, is not quito so vulgarised as its apparent predilection for the yellow Sunday supplements would in, dicate. The appetite for good literature and very poor literature may often do found in the same public. As a -people wo do not discriminate. And, anyhow, as a people of ninety millions wc are not a safo subject for sweeping generalisations. The fact remains that sound literature enjoys a largo market among ua. New York "Nation."