TITLE-HUNTING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 9

TITLE-HUNTING.

Tho announcement that tho author of "The Heart of a Child" ha 3 written— and published—a new novel, fills one's mind with pleasing suggestions of tho lwino of the new book. Will tho new story bo christened "Tho Soul of a Boy," or "The Maiden's Dream"?. Perhaps it will bo "When Tommy Was 111," or "The. Thoughts of Youth,!' or "Inside the Child Mind." Whatever names occur, tho sentimental mood is rudely broken by. tho discovery that the actual title is "Let the Itoof Fall In." In tho first moment of shock one docs not see that there may bo a. thoroughly logical connection between'the names of the earlier and tho later book. One feels only as if some 0110 had dashed very cold water in his face as ho was. repeating, in his most elevated manner, some particularly lino line. Will one, 'then, wisli to read the new book, with its threatening name? What will bo .tho result of the struggle between dis-" gust and curiosity? llow much does the titlo of a book have to do with attracting readers to find out what may ■lie behind tho title? .

Whatever may be the reply, it cannot bo denied, that a vast amount of ingenuity goes' into title-making. There was a time, and a long time, when titles were not,, when'readers and hearers spoko simply of a certain story which was common property to all singers, or called tho epics and dramas of their day by the names of the heroes in them. But such looseness of identification could not last. As tho story-stock withered and tho individual stamp grew more aii.d more, ititles became necessary, first for distinguishing among tho growing number of things to read, and, later, for obvious com-, niercial purposes. Even in those spacious days when tho newest successes at tho "Curtain" and tho "Theatre" wore shamelessly pirated, titles had evidently become valuable, whilo no ofl'cctivo copyright law could exist without tliem.

But it is a. distinctly modern inventiveness that contrives titles now. Literature, has waked up to tho need of aMnding its own trumpet, in which graceful task its admirers have no occasion • for fearing the result of tho sternest competition. It is a mediocre, title indeed that will not conic out triumphantly from comparison with tho most successful advertisement. That

thoy are in themselves so startling and so complcto as to give one's brain a turn, and thus send liim oil lib way under the impression that lie lias performed tho equivalent, in kind and _in amount, of reading the pages to which tho title is a more or less enigmatic clue, is rather, in their favour than otherwise. As wo are continually told, wo read too much and think, too little, and if 'the result of a writer's bestowal of bis best- caro upon, his title is to draw his readers' eyes away from the story to the naino'ot the hook in which it is bound, they get, inevitably, the cream of his thinking; It is for this reason that glib -talkers who roll under their tongues more new titles every week than they could read, even in their way of books in a month, are to be defended from tho envious innuendoes of their less intellectually showy companions. They.-have, as by instinct, gon'o_ straight to the book's best.

It is passing strange, .that in a time of such mental ferment and originality, so few authors havo thought of tho ingenious device of putting their best within the covers and giving to tho labelling of tho product only so much ingenuity as was left over. Wo cannot believe that they have not thought of it. But it lias seemed,, to their naturally conservative spirits', too daringly revolutionary. Their public, they havo reasoned, would not "stand for" it: Wo honestly wisli wo could stiy something that would lead them to attempt it a few times—just enough, to test the idea. Imagine yourself picking up a novel with a title so quiet that you doubt the writer's choice of a voca-' tion. ; Imagino yourself, from motives of filling a vacant hour, beginning it, and finding it, to your incredulous astonishment, better than its title. You read it to the last word. Wouldn't it bo pecuniarily more profitable for that author, to havo adopted that surprising procedure than to have followed the more , usual , method? Might bo not, indeed, ■ conceivably come to havo a largo audience,? Whether his art Would suffer in the , process wo leave aside. His ingenuity in concocting meaningful titles would probably become blunted, but wo must. keep the, question ' -upon the high ground of salesmanship. And upon that ground we risk tho assertion that his books would be. sold and read long after the titles of contemporary Hovels had followed their stories and their inventors into oblivion. ■

One great reason for tho .matter-of-fact ■-way .-in-'which we take even tho most sensational titles , is, of course, their coimnonuoss. The first man who devised f. startling nam? for his book 'did make tho reading public sit up. But noiv. the poorest story has at least an interesting name. Few, even yet, can write great books, but everybody can.doviso great-titles. . Tho.result is a du]l universality of oxcollenco that defeats the effort of each individual title for conspicuousness. In their repeated flashings, as in tlioso of- electric signs, ono won loso consciousness of any meaning, and longs to exchange brilliance for light. That the .titlo is a success, nevertheless, in what it is nowadays me'.lit to bo, ; a more signboard'of another collection of printed leaves, must- .bo granted. When ono sees the word,. "Tho Haunted Typewriter," he. does not think of a real machine, however closely tho phrase may .seem to fit his.own. Ho is simply in possession of the information that another book hiis appeared, and lie may occupy his leisure moments in devising' other titles of tho same sort, as "Tho Enchanted Golf Ball," or "The Magic Toothbrush." Similarly,. "The Lame Englishwoman" makes ono think of "The Blind Frenchwoman" .and "The Halt Germanwoman." , In this way t-lio title' has done more than its artificer intended. Instead of causing tho reador to. turn tho pages in a too frequentlyvain.,.effort, to, discover the- reason for tlio name, what was devised as a mero catchword has actually done more than the book, could, ever have..achieved: -it has. stimulated a neglected imagination. —New York" "Nation." '