HUMBLE “HIGH-BROWS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 426, 7 August 1928, Page 13

HUMBLE “HIGH-BROWS”

READERS OF CLASSICS LABOURERS AND WAITRESSES It is not the so-called intellectuals hut the salesmen, trunk-makers, stenographers and beauty-parlour managers who are reading the classics, according to the results of recent inquiries in the St. Louis (U.S.A.) Public Library. Charles H. Compton, assistant librarian, made the investigation in the interest of adult education. “X took the records of approximately 100 readers of William James, 100 readers of Carl Sandburg, and 100 readers of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides translations,” he said. “The people that I found had been reading them, strange to say, represented much the same classes of society. First of all, there were very few, if any, from among our so-called intellectuals. Not a lawyer on the list of James or Sandburg or the Greek classics; a few doctors, a few ministers; but the bulk came from what we consider the uncultured and certainly the humble occupations. “Readers of James included a trunkmaker, a machinist, stenographers, a saleswoman, a laundry worker, a common labourer, a maintenance man in a soap factory and a coloured salesman. That these readers, in part at least, really appreciated Jmes, and read him not because they are consciously striving to improve themselves, but because he has captured their hearts and minds, is indicated by letters I received from a number of them in answer to a letter sent to them inquiring how they happened to become interested in James. “Readers of Sandburg included stenographers, typists, a waitress, a beauty parlour manager, labourers, white and black; a department store salesman, a book agent, a musician, a shoe salesman and an advertising man. “It may be noted that a number of the readers said in their letters to me that they had become interested in Sandburg's poetry through university extension or night courses.”