MAKING GOOD BOOKS KNOWN
"I think it has been rather an interesting experience that over this period of six years we have never been able to tell whether a.choice of ours was going to be really successful or not," writes Mr. Hugh Walpole. "One of the most extraordinary surprises, to give one example, was the success of 'Kristin Lavransdatter,' by Sigrid Undset. One would have thought that, being long,. historical, and foreign, it would be almost impossibly difficult for our readers. Yet, it was one of the half-dozen most successful books. How could we be absolutely certain that it was going to sweep England? I had a feeling after this experience that more advertisement was needed for English literature to save those books that pass into oblivion before meeting the readers for whom they are intended. The number of books published is so great that many readers who would delight in a certain book never get to hear of it; and that is why I have worked for the organisation which exists today—in order, to emphasise that this book or that exists. It means that numbers of books are recognised that would otherwise never have been noticed."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19351228.2.190.6
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1935, Page 20
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197MAKING GOOD BOOKS KNOWN Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 155, 28 December 1935, Page 20
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