BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A WONDERFUL OUTPUT

(By

C.E.)

If some British industries languished last year that of book publishing certainly was not among them. The year is described by the Publishers’ Circular and Booksellers’ Record as the most prolific in the history of British publishing. The total of 14,086 books issued in Britain in 19’29 was considered remarkably large, but last year the really wonderful output of 15,303 books was reached.

As would be expected, fiction formed the largest class among the new issues, 302’2 works of this character being published, an increase of 198 over the previous year's total. The next largest class comprised the books for juveniles, which were, curiously enough, less numerous last year, the difference being 27. Figures are apt to be wearisome, but now they, become exceedingly interesting. The next largest class—a good many people probably could not guess it —contains the books on religious subjects, which last year numbered 1074, or 99 more than in 19'29. It would seem that these figures belie the frequent statements as to the present age's lack of interest in religion, suggesting rather that readers are keener than before to be informed regarding religious topics. That there must be a great many serious readers among British people is also to be deduced from other features of the past year’s record. As compared with the 1929 totals books on technological subjects increased by 137, on history by 112, on description and travel by 110, on biography by 104, on science by 100, on poetry and. drama by 73, on sociology by 71 and on fine arts by 64. There were also smaller increases in the output of books relating to business, military and naval subjects, literature, games, philosophy, agriculture, geography, law, domestic welfare and education. In a year marked by profound economic depression in Britain both the magnitude and the character of the output of books must be regarded as extraordinary. The Publishers’. Record accepts it as proof of the vitality ana enterprise of the book trade. The ill wind of financial stringency,” it observes, “has a stimulating effect upon reading, as a.n be proved from the statistics of our public libraries. When money is scarce for the theatre or talkies, then the joys of the arm-chair and the book are discovered.” Still the scarcity of money must have its effect upon readers, though it will be recognised that reading is? cheaper than many other pleasures. The Morning Post, which comments on the publishing figures, takes the yiew that “a greater demand for something to read was promptly met by an increased supply.’’ It is, of course, a sound deduction that the demand existed, for publishers are not different from .other folk. They are in business for profit and are not likely to undertake big. programmes unless they have reason to suppose that there is a need to be satisfied. Ibmay be supposed that they found it just as hard to make profits last year as other businesses did, though they certainly were not lacking in enterprise. A great deal of very attractive Work was put out at exceedingly moderate prices; indeed, the publishers must have conveyed to everyone who has had much to do with books the impression that they have studied their public very closely and have been keen to please. But to get back to the magnitude of the year’s publishing, one may perhaps wonder just what its value is. There are always people —they cannot be great readers —who deplore the huge annual output of books, but one would like t<» think that' these constitute the minority. I suppose a certain proportion of each year’s books would not be missed if they were never published. These are the “books that are not' books and those that would never have been printed if their authors had not been as well-to-do as they were vain. Publication does not mean in every case that the publisher’s reader has been so favourably impressed with a manuscript, or rather nowadays a typescript, that he ■has felt it to be his duty to share his pleasure with the public. It is impossible to believe that all the 3922 novels which were published last year were really worth publication. All of us who read a fair number of booke have probably dipped into some that have been hopelessly disappointing, if not even repellent. In my little experience during the past twelve months I came across several novels that would not even have helped me to kill time or have performed the function of a sleeping draught, and I presume there must have been a good many more of no greater merit. All that does not mean, however, that writers of fiction are a poor lot and do the English-speaking race a disservice. On the contrary, a great many of them perform a very useful work in telling contemporary history in a very pleasant fashion and putting it into a form that is easy to assimilate. The mass of new diction has been described as 4 a sort of social historiography,, in which all • the activities of modern man are recorded and analysed.” It is a clever definition, though I fancy modern woman occupies the more prominent place. And to the extent that fiction conveys pictures of life it serves a very valuable purpose. Fiction, however, comprised only onefourth of last year’s output of British literature. That leaves a tremendous quantity of more serious volumes on a great variety of subjects, the bulk of them being the special works constituting what Matthew Arnold called '“the literature of knowledge.” The technological works are, of course, the particular province of the specialists, and it is remarkable how they continue to crease in number year by year. Ihe reason for their being is simply that man is still at school and requires new text-books. Though there is a demand, many of the authors who provide these works get little remuneration, but that is another story. What remains to be said is that these authors and the others in general are benefactors of the race. Together authors and publishers contrive to give us a great deal of pleasure. We may regard them as a national intelligence department—a department that is indispensable to the spiritual and mental progress of what is to-day a curiously complex community. It has been said that a great library of books is a national brain, and if the brain ceased to grow the nation's life would not be worth much.