BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 17312, 27 March 1920, Page 5

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

POPULAR BOOKS. BRITISH READERS' TASTES. A PUBLISHER'S VIEWS. Sir Ernest Hodder Williams, the head of the firm of Messrs Hoddor and Stoughton, and vice-president of the George Ft. Doran Co., New York, is visiting America. Here are a few extracts from an interview given to the ' New York Times's Book Review.' .Sir Ernest gives aa optimistic view of tho growth of., the reading public in England. "I think," he said - , " the war has multiplied the number of readers in England by at least Ave times, and, of course, the war Snd war time conditions have had a great effect upon the reading of the period upon which we are entering. I should sum up, however, by saying that I do. not so much feel any one predominant" tendency in literature and_ reading as I do the enormous increase in the numbers and the advance in the taste of the reading public as a whole." The first effect of the war upon reading he traces directly to the dark nights whicli closed down every social diversion. "When a man had crept home from work in the darkness of those early winter evenings ha didn't go put again. He. discovered that the only he could do was to read. There was immense reading, too, among the men in hospital and the boys in the trenches. People >also read fiction during the dark and terrible years of the war to get away from all that was hard and terrible in their own lives and in the world about them. —American Novels in England.— ' Sir Ernest dwelt on the tremendous interest to bo found in England in American books. It was not easy for the British public to "get" 0. Henry at first. They, had to try. But they've got him now, and all over England now he ia quoted. The war has given the British public a new interest in America and in American literature. —Serious Books.— " There is a very great demand for serious books in England now. Books on Spiritualism, popular educational books, technical books—many of which come from America —all have wide sales. With many people fiction is the introduction to reacting, and they naturally follow a line of evolution toward more solid !j-or!c. With a large clas3 there is a deliberate effort toward eelf-improvement."

—The Two Types of Popular Fiction.— Sir Ernest went on to say that there are two types of popular fiction which seemed to him to stand out. One is the openair story, such as the work of Zane Grev and Peter Kyne, that takes city clerks and other busy indoor workers into a broad, open, outdoor life. The other is the domestic- novel of the Berta Buck type, which is very popular because, while it is fresh and amusing, it deals with j'oung people in a bright and pleasant way ,and places the young people, who read it in the kind of fife they would like to enjoy. Of course, the detective storv and the novel of sheer adventure are al-way-B popular." But, according to Sir Ernest, the war novel has gone. Whei<e a war novel is popular now, it is in spite of _ its war interest. The theoretical disquisitions novel has also gone. People want facts. They don't want novels dealing with the social problems of reconstruction. The tremendous flood of sex novels was inevitable, and might be a very dangerous thing. There were the experiences of the' war and direct contact with bare humanity and suffering. Then there was the tremendous trouble of the woman worker who did a man's work during the war. What is she go.ing to do now? —Bound to Succeed.— "Another thing I want to say about taste and reading at the present time." Sir Ernest went on, "is that it is my firm conviction that any book that deals sincerely with real life—that is, a firstrate book—is bound to succeed. Of course, success is comparative; one. book will be more' successful than another. But the day when a good book—a really good book—faced failure is gone. The last five years—the last two years—has seen a change; the novel that "is a good novel is sure of a. wider selling success now. _ The public is far more appreciative. •Life 13 so tremendously' worth livin<r. A book that reflects real life can't fail." —Continental Sales.— Sir Ernest also pointed out <the extent to which _ English books have replaced German editions on the Continent. "We are selling tremendous numbers of art books' abroad," he said. " Books in Er.rrli6h, published in England, are in great demand on the Continent. They have replaced both the G-ermani art books and the Tauchnitz editions." A LITERARY AWARD. The "Feihina" "Vie Heureuse" English prize is awarded annually by a committee of women only, although it may be won by a writer of either ecx. It is international in character, and on three grounds—the adjudicators are two committees of literary women, one French, meeting in the other British, meeting in Londpn; the voting is strictly international; the winner of the prize is

.guaranteed the translation of his or her bonk into French and its publication in France. The amount of the prize is £4O, in addition to the sum paid for the translation rights. Its object is not merely to reward literary merit and to encourage first-rats literary production, but to make tile beat English literature known in France, and to encourage intercourse between the women writers of the two countries The prize takes its name from its founders, two French women's newspapers Femina' and 'La Vie Heureuse.' lnese journals are instituting similar rewards for literary merit in other countries allied with France during the war; there are to be 10 in all. In the parent country trie Femina -' Vie Heureuse' pme has already been awarded for some 15 years. Resenting their exclusion from all the literary academies of their country the women of France determined to hare an academy of their own, the ' Femina '.' Vie Heureuse" Committee, and to show that this was no narrowly feminist institution they threw open their prize to men as well as to women. This enabled them to achieve one of their most brilliant triumphs and to crown that great masterpiece, Eomain Holland's 'Jean Christophe.'

M. Paderewski has declined to write an autobiography, in spite of tempting oilers, but his wife has agreed to write the Lifo, with his full sanction. _ New York papers make mild fun of the tinge of insularity and even junkerism in the attitude- of certain persons who have written their own biographies. The book under review is Colonel Repington's .Memories,' in which the author relates the history of his people, a distinguished county _ family. Colonel Repington savs : "Looking back now, I understand a little better that the history and the glories of England, enshrined in the traditions of countless families, sank unconsciously and without schooling into our youthful minds, and remained there imperis'hably engraved upon the tablets of our hearts. We learned to believe that the English were the salt of the earth, and England the first and greatest country in the world. Thua England beeame the one and true love of our lives." The original manuscript of Charles Lamb's famous essay, ' A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig,' was sold at auction by Mr Stan V. Henkels, 1,304 Walnut street, Philadelphia, for 12,600d0l (nominally £2,520), and was purchased by the Rosenbach Company, of Philadelphia, who recently bought tho JMarsden J. Perrv library. The MS. came from the collection of the late Horace Howard Furness, the Shakespearean scholar, who died recently, and the price paid is the highest recorded for a 'Lamb item.