FUTURE OF BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 27

FUTURE OF BOOKS

PESSIMISTIC FRENCHMAN

M. Georges ' Duhamel, the famous French author, who is a member of the Academic Francaise, is perturbed about the future of books. Although books are still essential to the elect, "various, indications lead us to suppose that they are going to play an ever-diminishing role in the enlightenment and entertainment of the multitude," he states in the preface to his book, "In Defence of Letters."

"Even though the statisticians try to prove, with the aid of figures, that the output of books is going ahead nominally, I am still unable to suppress my anxiety," continues M. Duhamel. "People who follow the march of events "know that the book trade is in distress. More and more books are being published—l know that well enough. They are the somersaults and convulsions of an industry which is playing all its cards to give itself an illusion of vitality. The decadence of the book, the greatest instrument for the diffusion of knowledge, may be delayed a little longer; on the other hand, it may be precipitated by! social upheavals."

M. Duhamel regards wireless, the pictures, and the newspapers as the chief enemies of books, because they satisfy the intellectual requirements of the man in the street. "Some observers think that the bookv:can-af-ford to wait, and that when this tragic disorder —i.e., depression, heavy taxation, and political troubles—is past and forgotteft, the benevolent influences will be all re-established," he continues. "I do not think so for a moment. If the public get out of the habit of reading they will not come back to it. We shall enter a new phase of our history from which there is no turning back. If the book during the next ten or fifteen years loses the doubtful favour it still enjoys, then it is definitely beaten."