THAT "DESERT-ISLAND-LIBRARY" GAME?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 222, 24 September 1943, Page 6

THAT "DESERT-ISLAND-LIBRARY" GAME?

Seven Reading Lists For Troops On Isolated Duty

THANKS to the Army Library Service, most soldiers in New Zealand camps who really want to read have, or can secure, access to a wide range of books. But all cannot. And in any case, those who have books enjoy talking about the books they would like to have, and arguing about those read by other people. We have, therefore, asked a small group ot bookish people to draw _up a list of 20 books suitable for an isolated group of servicemen or servicewomen who wil! get no other books for six months. Two are Professors of English, two Lecturers, one a Naval Officer, one a Librarian, and one a Sergeant in a training camp. In each case, a few notes have been added by way of explanation. It is not exactly what one of our contributors calls "that Desert-Island-Library game," but it is a game of the same kind. Here are the answers:

PROFESSOR F. SINCLAIRE (Chair of English, Canterbury University College) : YES Mr. Editor, I know that Desert-Island-Library game. I first met it Many years ago, not as a game, but as a form of torment devised by examiners. Nowadays I keep it by me as a very serviceable piece of defence mechanism, to be used while my outward ear is engaged by Dr. X’s remarks on Reconstruction After the War, or Professor Y’s lecture on Food Values, or the tea-table confidences of Mrs. Z. But so far it has been my own list for myself. That is easy enough; one gets to know one’s own limitations and prejudices. And there is always in reserve the consolation that the Desert Island is purely hypothetical. The- task you have’ imposed is much harder than that.- to make a list for other people, of whose tastes and frontal attitude (high, middle or low) or cultural index-is that what one calls it now-adays?-one knows nothing. Of course it can’t be done, But you have left me no room for explanations and excuses. So here goes! I assume that the list I am presenting is for an average adult male group, who have no books at all at the moment. 1. The Bible. 2. Shakespeare. 3.Shaw (one volume edition of plays, complete to date of 4. The Oxford Book of English Verse. 5. Fielding: "‘Tom Jones." 6. Jane Austen (one volume edition, complete). 7. "Pickwick Papers." 8. Great Short Stories of the World. 9.H. G. Wells: A Quartet of Comedies. 10. Tolst "War and Peace." 11. The ssey (Butcher and Lang). 12; Boswell’s Johnson. 13. Chesterton (the Everyman Volume), 14. Trevelyan: "‘Garibaldi" (3 volumes in one). 15. John Gunther: "Inside Asia." 16. coon ‘S. Haldane: "Science and Everyday, 17. "Mathematics for the Million" (Hogben). Z book 3, abr ; 19. ’s Shilling ¢ ia. : 20.A book of Crossword Puzzles.

DR. J. C. BEAGLEHOLE (Lecturer in History, Victoria University College) : ; 1. The Bible. 2. Shakespeare. 3. Oxford Book of English Verse. 4. Boswell’s Johnson. 5. Shaw’s Pretaces or Plays (collected editions). 6.H. R. Crossman: "Plato To-day." 7. Laski: "Liberty in the Modern State." 8. Bertrand Russell: "‘Sceptical Essays."’ F 4 Huxley & Haddon: "We Europeans." 10. Joyce: ‘‘Ulysses."" 11. T. S. Eliot: "Collected Poems." 12. T. E. Lawrence: "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." 13. ‘Faber Book of Modern Verse." 14. Dos Passos: "U.S.A 15. Wodehouse: "Jeeves" (or other) Omnibus. 16. Saroyan: "Lady Here Is My Hat." 17. Congreve’s "Comedies." 18. Michael Fielding: "Parenthood." 19. Morison and Commager: "Growth of the American Republic." 20. Tawney: "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism." DON’T put in group A purely as a concession to convention. If they are India paper editions, they will be found extremely useful in a shortage of cigarette papers. They are also very good reading matter, as most people have found by personal experience who have been driven to look into them through the absence of other printed matter. Group B is for discussion; group C for relaxation (or inspiration); group D for information. I have included a number of long books on the assumption that some people at least will have time for them. -* * * DR. HELEN SIMPSON (who chooses especially for Service women) : 1.The Return of the Native" (Thomas Hardy). 2." and His Brethren" (H. W. Free3. "Bredon and Sons" (Neil Bell). 4. "Pride and. Prejt (Jane Austen). 5. "Evenfield" ( Ferguson).

6. "Wuthering Heights’ (Emily Bronte). 7."My Brother Jonathan’ (Francis Brett Young). 8. ‘‘The Unforgotten Prisoner’ (R. C. Hutchinson). 9. "Three Comrades" (Erich Maria Remarque). 10. "Little Man, What Now?" (Hans Fallada). 11.‘‘Under Moscow Skies’? (Maurice Hindus). 12. "The Family’? (Nina Fedorova). 13. ‘‘The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism’’ (G. B. Shaw). 14. "Tory M.P." (Simon Haxey). 15.‘‘A Tramp Abroad" (Mark Twain). 16. "Native Son" (Richard Wright). 17. ‘Mr. Beamish" (Hugh Richmond). 18. "Pilgrims of the Wild’ (Grey Owl). 19.‘‘While Rome Burns’ (Alexander Woollcott). 20. Oxford Book of English Verse. ] AM asked to explain why I choose "these books and no others." With the first part of the request it is comparatively easy to comply — with the second so difficult that except with regard to one book I refuse to make the attempt. That one book, omitted from my list, is the Bible; my reason is that if it is unsafe to assume that it is already in the servicewoman’s baggage it is useless to recommend it. If I had space I might explain why, if I had included it, I should probably have considered it unnecessary to add any other books. I haven’t space. I won’t. For the books I have chosen-let me freely admit that the names of many were written down more or less at ran*»dom and without much thought. And having admitted that, I hasten to add that, upon taking thought, I found nc reason to alter the list, tinged as it istinged but I hope not tainted-with personal predilection and prejudice. For what does our postulated servicewoman want? Relaxation? instruction? amusement? delight? She will find all here, often in a single work. The books are not in order of merit; but they are grouped roughly according to a plan which will be obvious to anyone who has read them. Impossible to comment on all; so I end with a warning-the last two are not to be swallowed whole, they are to be kept handy and dipped into at intervals over the six months. x ue a PROFESSOR |. A. GORDON (Chair of English, Victoria University College) : HIS is an old game and a good onebut not» many New Zealanders imagined that the "desert island" would

become a reality. First, then, my conditions. I include only properly bound books, no pocket editions, no Penguins, no digests. This is a boxload to be sent to a group in an isolated post. It is not the contents of the individual’s haversack, First, the two conventional "musts," the Bible and Shakespeare. Do we include them? I think yes. But let the Bible be a decently-printed Cambridge edition, and for the Shakespeare I demand not the unreadable complete one-volume edition, but one of the several volumes which contain only a dozen of his most popular plays. Next, fiction: I choose five great novels, all of them on the long side, Tom Jones and Pickwick Papers, since we are English, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, since we are Australasians, and War and Peace with For Whom the Bell Tolls, since we are not in this affair alone. Two great volumes of exploration come next, Scott’s Last Expedition and a climbing book, possibly one of the Everest expeditions, but my own preference is for Shipton’s Nanda Devi. Poetry will occupy two volumes, The Golden Treasury for those who want to remember what they once knew, and for the more adventurous Untermeyer’s Contemporary British and American Poetry. A volume of short stories for the odd moments-and who better than Guy de Maupassant? For a "bedside" book a complete Rabelais. We will be arguing often on our own country and its politics, so in goes the latest New Zealand Year Book. We will be talking about the future and a good start is Colin Clark’s The Economics of 1960. We will be quietly remembering the land we have left . . . I pick Guthrie-Smith’s Tutira as the best remembrancer. We will get tired of purely male company, so a volume of nudes, one of John Everard’s for preference. That leaves space in the box for three more. I’ve been pretty mean with the drama, so we'll put in the onevolume Shaw. Then we'll need a volume of good maps, preferably one with a bias towards the Pacific with plenty of maps of the smaller islands (and, of course ours particularly), that is if such a volume exists. Iteshould. And finally we will find ourselves with a new interest in the Pacific, so we'll need a book on the peoples and problems of the area. I can’t decide which of two volumes (both by New Zealanders) to include, but it'll be (Continued on next page)

CHOOSING 20 BOOKS FOR SIX MONTHS |

(Continued from previous page) either Peter Buck’s Vikings of the Sunrise or Keesing’s The South Seas 1m the Modern World. A bit highbrow? Not a bit of it if you aren’t scared of names. There isn’t a book in the above list which the average man, once he had made a beginning, would willingly put down. * * * DR. G. H. SCHOLEFIELD (Librarian, General Assembly Library) : [Tt is usual to offer Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to a man going in a schooner to the North Pole or any other solo reader; but this is something quite different. I have assumed that these men are isolated and won't get a change of books for six months. They are New Zealanders, a cross-section of society, of average intelligence and with a fair amount of time for’ reading. Any of them could read through these books in a few weeks unless he deliberately rationed himself and before the end of the period almost all of them will be using the reference books from time to time. Since ail quotations come from the Bible or Shakespeare, they will thank the genius who included these and despised the fathead who forgot to put in a good dictionary. My comment is that all three of these should be part of the permanent furniture of the unit and not changed each period with the rest. Discussion hours can be arranged to eke out the collection and make it ever so much more valuable to individual men, who will soon be found after each discussion asking for the major reference books-Whitaker’s, the Cyclopedia, the dictionary which isn’t there, and the New Zealand Biography. The shorts and detective stories and even the New Zealand classics could easily be read aloud. Perhaps for the first time in their lives many of the units will be able to study their New Zealand surroundings and will appreciate the books on_our natural history and also the slight incursion into the story of the New Zealanders themselves afforded by Marsden, Cowan, and the two big biographical volumes. The Bible (with concordance). Complete Shakespeare. Whitaker’s Almanack. Columbia Encyclopedia. O. Henry’s Short Stories. Hundred Best Short Stories. Dorothy Sayers: "Mystery, Detection and Horror." C. M. Martin: Fifty One Act Plays, 1940. . Tolstoy: ‘War and Peace" (Book Society’s single volume). A. Berriedale Keith: "The Domihiéns as Sovereign States." + C. A, Cotton: ‘‘Geomorphology of, New Zealand. 12. Laing and Blackwell: "Plants of. New Zealand."’ 13.W. R. B. Oliver: ‘‘New Zealand Birds." 14. Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden. 15.Shrimpton and Mulgan: "Maori and Pakeha." 16. i: B. Condliffe: ""New Zealand in the Mak17. Elsdon Best: "The Maori." 18. James Cowan: "New Zealand Wars." 19. Scholefield: Dictionary of New Zéaland Bioaphy. 20. fy" Satchell: "The Greenstone Door." % * Be AN OFFICER IN THE NAVY: 1. Great Short Stories of the World (Heinemann). 2. Collected Short Stories of H. G. Wells. 3. Collected Short Stories of O. Henry. 3 . 4. The Faber Book of Modern Stories (edit. Elizabeth Bowen). 5.Great Russian Short Stories (Benn). NAMALEM yn & ~

6. "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" -Edgar Allen Poe (Everyman). 7."The New Arabian Nights’-R. L. Stevenson (Chatto & Windus). Plenty of short stories are included because service routine favours spasmodic rather than continuous reading. 8."Moby Dick" (Herman Melville). 9. "Humphrey Clinker’? (Tobias Smollett). 10. "Peregrine Pickle" (Tobias Smollett). 11. "Moll Flanders’ and "The Fortunate Mis-tress’"-Daniel Defoe (Peter Davies’ 1 vol. edition). 12."War and Peace’’-Tolstoy, translation Constance Garrett-(Heinemann). If the reading public can accept the long-drawn-out dialogue in Eric Knight’s This Above All, Tolstoy’s great novel, thought by many to be the greatest novel ever written, should present no difficulties. Though Smollett and Defoe are "classics," their pornographic interest will ensure their being read. 13."The Week-end Book’ (Nonesuch). 14. "Science for the Citizen’ (Lancelot Hogben). 15. "America’s Cook Book" (Scribner’s) or any 00d cookery book. 16."The Long White Cloud’ (Wm. Pember Reeves). 17. New Zealand Official Year Book, latest edition. % Reeves’ history of New Zealand is still the best popular summary; the Year Book is a neglected classic and will be useful to start or settle arguments. 18.A g00d povular, authoritative objective study of modern Russia. 19. A compendium on simple carpentry. and metalwork for a limited set of tools; plenty of diagrams. 20. "Hints to Travellers’ (Royal Geographic Society, in 2 volumes). Numbers 18 and 19 may be asking our librarians for the moon, but it is more than likely that they will be able to hand it to us as a plate. I have assumed that people with. specialised interests will have their own books, and also that a few Western and detective novels will have found their way into most kitbags. ba ne x A SERGEANT IN THE ARMY: | "TWENTY works is a pretty tall order, even for a six months’ spell without dust," said one soldier when cornered in the Company orderly room. by a Listener representative. "I could make it a tall order even for the platoon truck, what with the works of Edgar Wallace yand the works of Balzac and . . . but perhaps that’s taking plurality a bit too far. Twenty volumes should provide scope for the most omnivorous bookworm. At any rate, here’s my first 20, not necessarily in*order of precedence, but as they come to mind: The New Testament and the Apocrypha — there’s bound to be a Bible wherever I’m stationed so’s they can get me to reaffirm my loyalty if necessary, but I’ve.

never had, or made time yet to read the books they left out of the Old Testament. Then I’d take King Lear, which I haven’t read (mea maxima culpa!) and Shakespeare’s Poems (most of which I have), the Poems of Tennyson and the Oxford Book of Modern English Poetry. These are all works which I feel I ought to take, and which I have no doubt I will enjoy once I get my teeth into them. But I suppose what you really are interested in are old favourites that one would be willing to re-read. Anyway these would be better than making a blind date with an unknown author. So I’d take The Arabian Nights; John McNab, and The Three Hostages (Buchan), The Vanished Pomps (Hamilton), San Michele (Munthe), Mathematics for the Million (Hogben), Father Malachy’s Miracle (Bruce Marshall), Ripeness Is All (Linklater), The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), A Fisherman’s Creel (Wm. Caine-out of print now, I think, but a delightful blend of good prose and humour), More Than Somewhat (Runyon), The Cream of Thurber (Thurber), The Black Girl (G.B.S.) and Under Fire (Barbusse). "On the whole, like Figaro, je me presse de rire du tout de peur d’étre obligé d’en pleurer — or words to that effect."