FOR THE CASTAWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 26

FOR THE CASTAWAY

In a letter to the "Saturday Review of Literature," an American citizen closes a long controversy about the ten best books for a castaway. He writes:—"Ever since I can remember people anxious to advertise their culture have been making lists of ten books to be taken when wrecked on a desert island In every instance that I can recall, the selection was on a neurotic basis. The latest illustration is furnished by three western college professors, each of whom starts off dutifully with 'The Bible and Shakespeare.' In the first place, if they are the men they ought to be, they would know the Bible >and Shakespeare so well that it would be needless to encumber their luggage with the volumes. In the second place, what possible benefit could a castaway derive from these old standbys? Perhaps a man feels virtuous to think that the rescue party will discover him dead on the beach, the Bible clasped in one hand and Shakespeare in the other. Anyway, he'll be dead. Any list of the best 10 books for a castaway must, if it is made up realistically, contain: (1) A book on camping and woodcraft; (2) a book on building and managing small boats; (3) the best atlas possible; (4) a popular book on astronomy;- (5) a treatise on human anatomy; (6) a treatise on human physiology; (7) a popular handbook on medicine and hygiene; (8) a book on gardening and horticulture; (9) J. C. Willis's 'Manual and Dictionary of Flowering Plants and Ferns' (for identification of useful flora); and (10) the 'Columbia Encyclopaedia.'"