THE REPRINT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 110, 1 February 1908, Page 13

THE REPRINT.

The subject of cheip reprints is, in the air at present, and a voico which must needs have been sooner or later heard has at last ,mado itself audible, complaining of u" effect to the eyo of tho / library ~or "aeries"/-form- of publication; J.he complaint has • probably been prompted by, the Library,"' not only because, of the vast number of books included in that issuo, but because its volumes are admirably Tli'o [books, of, somo of_tho' preceding series were too small or . too thin, or both,; to be fitly accommodated elsethan in those rotating bookcases Which somowhat cumber a library floor. Wlion a largo number of "Everyman's" books are ranged along shelves-tho effect is of . a monotony greater even tlmn that produced: by those faddists who insist upon every hook 111 their collection being bound in oxactly the, same style. In the' latter .case the uniformity in the binding does not extinguish the variety of height, thickness, and shape, even if it does not do something to emphasise- it.; Now in tho "Everyman's " as indeed m most series, tho height, thickness,, and shape are as nearly as possiblo identical, -arid the attempt to lend varioty to tho bindings by altering the colour of the jacket according to the department ot literature to which the book belongs only aggravates the evil— By' those who 'buy "the books in "quantities" this objection lias to bo faced. Tho ordinary reader, however, buys only a selection, and can easily stand, if need, be, twenty identical volume's in his -library. Moreover, for him tho fault will come in time to cure itself if that happens to "Everyman's Library," which happened to the "Camelot Classics," which were "enoored" and reappeared in a new bindinc.

A writer in one of the weeklies, discussing tho "Philosophy of tho Reprint," finds a chief cause of its popularity in the abundance of tho supply creating a demand. ' here can ,bo 110 doubt, at any rate, that tho roprint is popular and-is carrying into tho homo of tho artisan and factory worker literary matter of a quality much superior to that which from what Sir Anthony Absolute whimsically called "thoso evergreen trees of diabolical knowledge" tho circulating libraries. And 0110 of tho causes is the supply. Dozens of men of a not too studious habit, who woukl not have thought even of borrowing certain of tho volumes from a library, buy |them when tliey arc in a way thrust on their attpntipn. And the manner of publication of certain of tho reprints is. admirably calculated to advertise them. When a batch of fifty or a hundred books piping hot from tho printer's press is put upon the counter,* tho casual passerby notices' the altered aspect of the bookseller's'window; through the newspapers the fact appeals to tho sluggish fancy of those who are only half interested in literature, \vhi]o in the ears of those who hate not learning' "more ..than, toad or asp" it is as a cry of. "roast, moat"; thp.v know 'that in so large a number of books there will bo pickings for' tliem. A still more potent reason, however, must;, bo reckoned a pre:exjstept demand.: Howeycr: one may -.account'-for it-; that, demand must havo existed; and perhaps the best way of . accounting for' it is tho simplo theory that, the-Education Act of 1870 has ati last created a -jiew' reading public. That it would do so was long foreseen, It was one of tho points ,»on ' which Sir Walter Bosant used to insist.. But generally they who predicted it did. so witludread.: They argued that a reading' public vast enough in, numbers..tof dictate to ;its .writers what they; should- produce would ensure a deterioration in all' the provinces ;of letters by demanding niattir' suited to its imporfect education and unexercised intelligence. Tho opposite ■ seems'to ' have • happened. -Tho young democracy,' of readers nrp apparently keen after 'what is best,: and finxious ■ to know what has. been thought and said.by thp wisest of those who' have gone before thorn. —"Manchester Guardian;" , .