The San Francisco call., 1897-06-20

Its way, bu as Literature a thing for q season
/ only. 1t sold on its gorgeous binding and lis
pictures and these were often so unwieldy
and commonplace that the wonder ever since
has been that taste existed which could Iol-
crate, not to say admire, them.
The change which has transformed our sum-
mer reading is of another sort, though none
III e less admirable. Back in The seventies the
summer book was in the main a book OF nc
ton, printed usually in small type, with two
columns TO the page. and bound in tasteless
paper coyers-a book TO read anG then roll UP
for mailing TO distant friends or throw in to
the wastebssket. 1t had a long and, for the
pu blisher, profitable reign, and more than
one famous writer's books were thus brought
to the knowledge OF readers. 1t had its sue
cessors in other paper-eovered books, many OF
them yellow in covers, and not few might
have been described as yellow as to their con-
tents-unwholeso some, Improbable things
more fit TO be read and forgotten than read
and remembered.
Newer times have brought US newer and
, better books. The book in paper covers has
almost entirely disappe ared, and it is an exit
not TO be regretted. In France its sway
still prevails, for in France customs
change less readily than here. 1t is buckram
that has emanclpated US. 1t is a great debt
we owe to buckram. With its coming into
dominance the covers OF our least expensive
L
artistic appearances. Indeed, the art of de-
signing book covers has grown into one of the
most familiar arts OF the day, though it is one
OF the latest The splendid proportions it
has reached were well set forth at the recent
Aldine Club exhibition. 1t cannot be
/ untrue that thousands of books have
been sold in late years because their covers
were pleasing. 1t has been q delight to see
them and to hold them. new charm has
come into the life of the literary editor, who
now meets the small boy with his daily load
OF newly arrived books with an expectancy OF
pleasure that formerly had become rare; the
burdensome prospect of a new accumulation
OF books TO be reviewed has been Sc much
hghtened by the sense of pleasure the new
covers viii give. In the present seasons list
of summer books beautiful covers In buckram
and cloth, each the product Of al artists in
vention. shine in their number and variety.
But it is not alone in covers that change has
come. In the contents of the summer books
there has been great advance. 1t is nowhere.
more remarkable than in what are known as
outdoor books, and especially those which
deal exclusively with nature. Botany has
been wonderfully popularized. Bird life has
been made known 70 thousands who never
hoped to understand il. The lore of fields and
forests, the populations of the air, the streams
and the ponds, the things TO see at roadsides
have acquired new values and new meanings
for us all.
To inquire into causes would take rs far
But as there has been a vast movement of
population cityward, so that farms are de-
serted and country land values fall. 50 has
the city population developed a marked fond
ness for country life during part of the wear
Thousands from the clues now live for months
in the country, where only hundreds did
twenty years ago And with the ioys of this
change has come interest in gardens. in the
flowers and trees of the forests, in birds Of tbo
air and in fish of the streams Again some
thing is owing TO the bicycle and the wonder
ful enlightenment ii has spread over the
whole land concerning rural neighborhoods
lying near us.
Any list of summer books would of M
eessity have fiction for It's greater part. bnt
this Is not so true now as it formerly was The
increase in books dealing with nature has
proportionately been even greater. Novels
themselves exhibit this growth. The charms
OF life out Of doors are more and more dwell
upon In fiction. OF this we have a striking
example in James Lane Aliens s'The Choir In.
visible" that beautiful story OF sleadfastness
character and pain, wherein the story proner
charms US not more completely than do the
authors splendid pictures of Wild nature in a
new land-pictuTes possible only TO the pen Of
rare mind and a choice spirit. Mr.. ALIENS
book speak Ks everywhere of profound love for
the forest aud its denizens
Society and civilization may take hone frou
the improved quality of the summer books
The moro nature is understood the better
most OF US become. "To the solid ground of
nature trusts the mind that builds for ave -
wrote one of the wisest lovers of things on the
earte's surface that ever lived. That other
nature fiction holds up to us the nature we
call human, is now revealed by thousands of
hands. and never before by SO many. It truly
seems as II ell the world we're writing novels.