POPULAR TASTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 26

POPULAR TASTE

WHAT LONDONERS READ • ■yTHe aijiiual report of the St. Pan■cras" Bo'rbugh Librarian, recently given some' publicity in the London Press, shows some interesting trends in popu-lar-taste. The Camden Town borrowers'lean towards fiction; those that use the Highgate library prefer nonfiction.,;'At Highgate, which is a more pronouncedly "residential" area than Camden Town, non-fiction falls into the. following order, of preference:"— Drama, poetry, essays; geography and travel; useful arts and applied science; economics, political science, etc.; his-, tory; and fine arts. The fluctuating popularity of individual authors is shown in the following ' lists of those whose books have maintained, or gained favour and those who are in declining . demand. Those rising in favour include G. K. Chesterton, Galsworthy, Walpole,Maugham, Eden .Philpotts, Vachell, and Ctimptoh Mackenzie; .while amongst those declining in! favour: are Kipling, Barrie, Masefield, Conrad, Michael Arlen, H: G. Wells, and'Pett Ridge. • Chesterton is much- more popular in Camden Town 'than in- Highgate. Wells's decline does not affect his early "character"-novels .nor his sociologicalworks. Dickens, maintains a popularity which he .now shares, with Jane Austen. ■ ..:.■■:.;■.' ■.: : ■ Boys ha,ve -forgotten Ballantyne and Henry. They read Dickens, Kipling, Stevenson, and.'.Conan'Doyle. Kipling and Dickens are equally popular with Angela Brazil among the girls. Broadcasts cause an immediate demand for books on the subjects dealt within the talks and for the works of authors who broadcast, which troubles St. Pancras. The, libLibrary 'censorship is. not a problem rarian reports-that "the reading public exercise a censorship of their own." A book is withdrawn from general circulation ,af ter;'-it has been .objected to '■'thrfee''times! ,'■ ..-' ..-, ''■ - -•••■■ ■;•' . PROTECTION OF AUTHORS Criticism of the law, of .libel affecting as;distinct from-;'joUrnal-:i's'ts-r^wasr'.made;;by Mr.-;,A.- P.; Ilerbert, IM.P., at the'"Sunday Times" Book Fair :in:Englarid|recentlyi;ff^ >x Actions .which arose through the innocentiuse of a living person's name, in a work of fiction, he said, proceeded from, the .existence;of.-a "wrong principle of law." The remedy was simple. The writer should not be held responsible for libel if it could be shown that he neither intended to do harm, nor did harm negligently. A second edition of last year's unsuccessful Libel Amendment Bill is now being prepared to protect fiction writers on these lines. ,