“LURID AMERICAN LITERATURE”

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 2

“LURID AMERICAN LITERATURE”

AUSTRALIAN IMPORTS CONDEMNED

BRITISH PUBLISHER’S VIEWS Methods by which “sensational, lurid, shoddy” American literature was being distributed in Australia were described by Mr J. H. Barrett, of London, who arrived in New Zealand this week after a business visit to Australia. Mr Barrett, who is a director of Pan Books, a British publishing firm, was addressing a luncheon meeting in Christchurch. He had been alarmed at the way the American background was “pushing impetuously to get to the surface” in Australia, said Mr Barrett. He had a great admiration for America, but considered the “paper-backed” literature produced in America to be “nothing but trash.” The Australian Consolidated Press had been able to buy cheaply the rights to sqme of these American publications, and was using the huge circulations of its newspapers to push their sales, said Mr Barrett. The news agents were told they had to take these publications if they wanted the same publisher’s weekly papers. Prosecutions had resulted from the sale of these publications in Melbourne and Brisbane, and a reporter in Brisbane had told him that legal action would eventually put a stop to the sale of them. “I couldn’t "care less about legal action—l would like to see public action against them,” Mr Barrett said. World Books —of which Mr Barrett is managing director—had always believed in playing up to the people, and not playing down to them. “You will never go wrong if you follow that rule,” he said. He had been particularly interested to read in “The Press,” on his arrival in Christchurch an article on the sale of comics, which made the point that it was not the children so much as their parents who bought these comics, said Mr Barrett.

Whether or not that was so, it was true that children’s reading tastes were greatly influenced by the type of reading matter they found round the house, he said. It was therefore important for parents to have good books in the house, so that their children would acquire a taste for reading matter superior to comics. This was, in his opinion., the most effective way to combat the influence of comics. The luncheon, attended by about 200 members of World Books, was presided over by the City Librarian (Mr R. N. O’Reilly).