UNDESIRABLE FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22717, 1 November 1935, Page 4

UNDESIRABLE FICTION

TO THE EDITOB.

SiK,—lt was with more than passing interest that I noticed in a footnote to a letter by "A Parent". in to-day s issue that the public of Dunedin have a eeliappointed censor in their midst. If this privilege is to be extended to all citizens who enjoy the fiction in the Public Library—and it ought to be if justice is done—the librarian is going to be While I have no desire to pollute "our boye and girls." I consider that the withdrawal of this book at the request of one person is a rather high-handed action. In the first place, the Library is not for " bovs and girls," and in the second the youiiger people of the day are infinitely more capable of judging such literature on its merits than are their elders. Unfortunately, I myself whom possibly 'A Parent" would include in the category of "boys and girls," am unable from pressure of work to indulge in fiction just now. but I do feel that the withdrawal of any book should not be done at the request of one person alone. Perhaps my vocation in life leads me to take a wider view of such hooks than would be the case with many others. Bv all means let "A Parent" have his or. as I suspect, "her" opinion of these matters, but I suggest that, instead ot depriving others of an opportunity to judge, she should choose her literature by "the author's name, not the title of the book.—l am. etc.. A Sox. Dunedin. October 29. [The book in question is temporarily withdrawn from circulation in order that it may be examined. —Ed. O.D.T.]