The morning call., 1890-05-26
POPULAR BOOKS.
Tastes of a People Gagged by
Their Literature.
Novels Reach 70 Per Cent-Zola and Ouida.
Great Falling OFF in Juvenile Books.
Poets in the Cold.

What person reads is, as rule, pretty
accur ate idea of what he thinks and feels.
The tastes and tendencies of a people are
more closely gagged by their choice of
literature than by their dress or converse
ton. One may mislead. the other cannot.
An ing uiry among the libraries and book
sellers of San Francisco as to what class of
books are just now the reigning favorites of
the hour brings out the fact, old to most
readers, that about 10 per cent of the books
bought and borrowed are works of fiction.
But it may come as welcome surprise to
large number to learn that the morbidly
sensational stamp are by no means in favor
and generally regarded as poor stock"
lola and Ouida, for example, are not run
after-quite the reverse. Meantime the old
standard works Of our bOyh00d. except as
necessities for a well-appointed library, or
as handsomely bound school and social
presents, such as Dickens, Thackeray and
Scott, have had to make way for the more
modern school Of thought in the persons of
Crawford, Warner and Haggard. Then,
too, San Francscans are marvellously I'M
appreciative in the matter of poetry, the
Inquiry for anything in this direction being
dun and spasmodic.
No." said Mr.. Whitaker. the Secretary
OF the Mercantile Library, yesterday.
"Zola Is scarcely ever asked for, and yet
our figures show that over 60 per cent of
our books read are novels. Ouida, too, is
falling into disrepute, and is not nearly as
much III request us formerly. | should say
that the cltys taste in fiction is pretty
evenly divided between Crawford and Rider
Haggard.
NOT IN DEMAND.
The day of Dickens and Thackeray is
practically over for CalifornianS. AS for
Walter Scott, well, his works are dead
letter. They are read, yes, of course, but
just as the Bible is read. Poetry, somehow,
has few enthusiastic disciples. Longfellow
Is read steadily, but nothing like as much
as he was before his death. Tennyson is
wanted with rush just as soop as he
brings out anything new; then it all dies
away. Bret Harte Is great favorite at all
times, but nobody nowadays goes crazy
over the Poet Of the Sierras.' There is
tremendous run on wOmens novels just
now. The reason? Well, imagine be-
cause the men are writing such wTetched
trash. OF English authoresses Edna Lyall
Is the favorite, and of American L. w.
Kirk. Ingersoll, when he comes out of his
shell OF magazlne-wrltlng, is always
snapped up.
''It is strange, though, to notice the very
heavy falling off in the demand for juvenile
books. We have no less children amOngus,
goodness knows. What is then the reason2
L trace IL to the high-pressure work in our
scheme of education. The rising genera
ton are so crammed and jammed with book
stun IN school that they turn sick at the
sight of any sort Of book outside, and take
refuge in getting as much play as they can
In out-ef-SchOol hours. That's my expla-
nation
VIEWS OF DEALERS.
Leading book-dealerS notice the same
thing in regard to lola and similarly
highly spiced works of fictiOn-very little
demand. Our biggest trade" says a
dealer, sis in Howell, Crawford and War
ner's works. Bellamy's Looking Back
ward had and has still tremendous sale.
You see, it's the Nationalist Bible now.
The old standard authors, such as Emerson,
Hawthorne, Dickens and Carlyle are not
much called for except as glt-edged pres
ents. Mark Twain is always excellent
stock, every country order always includes
him. In poets, Longfellow, of course, leads
easily, though we sell quite number of
Tennyson enc way and another. Joaquin
Miller has g fair following, but poets are
all rather in the cold all the time. Neither
with him nor with Bret Harte do we do near
as much as with Mark Twain. So it is
with William Blacks and Blackmore's
works. They sell all the time, but with no
rush.
II think we do not do the business in
juvenile books we did; that is of a certain
class. 1t is surprising the number of
Bibles we still are called on to supply, in
the majority of instances handsome editions
Tor presents.