DEAR BOOKS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14039, 23 April 1920, Page 6

DEAR BOOKS.

(By Philip Gibhs.)

At a time when we were all expecting a literary renaissance (not. ai the moment, perhaps, with any' sign of. new-born genius) ,it is a blow to. one's hopes to learn from English publishers , that-the increased cost of book production will prevent , the arrival of adventurous youth and limit the output to the works of "established reputations." That, to- my mind, is a serious setback to the''prospects of the Younger Generation^/which has a. right to claim the liberty of self-expression, now to be denied it by a comrnercial boycott. The reading public h:|s 'had enough of those "establishe'd deputations,'' and would be glad, I fancy, to see them put on the, top shelf, not without honor according to their\merit, to make way for new comers with new tales'to tell or new ways of telling old tales, or new ideas about a new.world.

•Those "established reputations" belong to the past. They are Rip Van • Winkles, whose presentygarrulity is as tedious as the. reininiscenes of toothless senility; Some of them were great in their time, and their best work will live as an inspiration, with the undying freshness of wisdom and beauty, long after their "latest work" has appeared hi the publishers' catalogues. Some :of them are sensible enough to know that they are already dead, as far as the power of creation goes, and do not produce feeble imitations of their early achievements. They are. wise in their silence.

Even reputations "established" only a few years before the war are as oldfashioned in'their way of looking at life as Charlotte Bronte would be now if she came back 'to write about the relations between. the sexes. Something has happened in the world which has destroyed air their '"values." The romanticism of some of them was withered up under the white light of ghastly realities. The "realism" o! others has been made -is false as London stucco unpainted during five years of war.

Those, popular authors of . ours, to some of whom we owe a deep gratitude in the past., for interest, amusement, and philosophy, are apt to go; on writing as though nothing had happened between 1914 and 1920, or, in a fearful way, try to adjust themselves to altered conditions by bringing t}ieir6tories "up-to-date" by a. little of the trenches, or allusions to the courage of their heroes when they won their V.G'.'s in France or-Flanders before the old plot begins to spin again. It really won't, do, and publishers will find that there will he a fruitful slump in "established reputations" whom they now regard as their only source of safety.

There: is growing up—ib is here al- | ready—-a- reading public hungry for new 1 authors, with new methods of tecliI pique, a knowledge of : the new world of ideas, and a new outlook upon the. problems of life. It is quite likely that the}* will iiot arrive in the form of fiction, as-it has been written-in the past. Personally I am inclined to believe that the novel will change its form radically, and that the old conventions of novelwriting Will disappear.- .The "plot" will be for sharp.er and more intimate" revelations of life: The life stor.vof. a inan or wonian'G "mind will take the placej of accidents artfully arranged to produde interesting "situations." . The excitement of the new fiction will be aroused by what is thought ratherthan by what happens, and by spirituality rather than by material circumstances. jit will -be "written, if not by those young men w'ho during live frightful years!thought. and suffered intensely, at least by the youtl) which, in a lew years; will inherit the things, both good and; evil, which-will result from that liistorv.

Anyhow-, whatever form it takes, it is certain that we need and expect a. new era ot English literature, and, ; therefore, it is; a serious • menace -.to the intellectual jlife- of the, world that publishers should proclaim their inability to product'" the ■ work of unknown writers. 1 -

It is perfectly .true: that books cost i more to owing to printers' wagesj price 7 of paper and binding, and i.ofiice .• expenses; v'-The' publishers make, a small margin of profit 6n any boolv published,^in- present style, a£ ps or-7s 6d, and tne aiithor,; even of "established reputation,'? makes so'much less that his income is gravely reduced. - j ■u -It seemsto me there is only one possible : remedy for-, a misfortune which 'threatens ti> bar out new- talentj -at a

period when it- is urgfh to abandon the libriuy with paper covers," bought directby the p of getting books tlii'QU bad system for the aut er, and the public. It system is any country In' the United States a book he buys it. : nil dollar for it. In Frail mendous sale for piijiei which form not. only fi all philosophy. Theft alone wonld reducft'tl so that the author ar get a profit on il medf .the public were to I) borrow, new writers chance which is now t It is, above 'all, tlii public,, who will 6[k freely on any hixury 8 which will be tlui flea England, unless tljey a living wage to.those world's knowledge ,aiii