Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-07-19


consecutively and advertising matter
be kept together. They even circulate
little fiat sample packages of mer-
chandise between the covers of maya
zines in England, which passes as adj
vertising matter there; but this is also
prohibited in this class of matter in the
United States mails.
A short time ago there was discus
sion among librarians and those inter-
ested in libraries, notably, Mr.. Carne-
gle. as to the propriety of placing some
restrictions on the purchase of fiction
by public libraries. The same problem
leads Mr. John Cotton Dana, in a re-
cent issue of the New York Times Sat
urday Review, to make some interest
ing statements anent the probable num-
Der of novelists whose works would
seem to be really worth reading. The
article is a comparison OF the number
of authors actually read by frequent
ers of public libraries with the num-
Der worth reading. According to Mr..
Dana: Libraries, established and
maintained at public expense, for the
purpose of general Improvement, are
finding that from 20 to so per cent. OF
all the books they lend each year are
novels. Taking a few typical libraries
for example we find that they contain,
with total collections of from $4,000 to
12O. 900 volumes, between 5000 and 10000
different titles of fiction, adult ant:
Juvenile; and that these 5000 to 10000
stories have been written by from 12OI
to 5000 different authors. Are there
5000 or even 1900 writers of good novels,
or have there ever been so many in the
whole history of English literature.
even if you include writer's of stories
translated from other languages? And
have all the writers of novels of the
last two centuries produced 10000, or
even 5000, different story books for old
or young worthy of a place. on the
shelves of any public educational in
stitution? 1 believe not.
IAN examination of the lists of fic-
ton of many libraries, and some eX-
Derience in reducing longer lists to
shorter ones, led me some years ago to
the conclusion that there are III eX-
istence in English today not over 20O0
good novels, including those for young
people. and that instead of there being
from 1900 to 5000 writers who have pro-
duced good novels, there are not more
than 500. l believe anyone, no matter
how conversant with novels he may
be, who attempts to make q list of
fiction in English of more than 1900
titles will find long before he reaches
that limit that he has passed out OF
novels of the first rank into novels of
the second rank, and even into novels
of the third, fourth, and fifth rank.
The most carefully selected list of its
size as yet published in English is
Sonnenschein's Best Books issued in
1881. This contains 900 entries of the
best books on all conceivable topics. Ii
mentions of the writers of novels. in
Guiding in foreign languages only those
which have been translated into Eng
lish, total of 295 only; and of Eng
fish and American writers of novels a
total of only 1913. Mrs. Oliphant, in her
Literary History Of the Nineteenth
Century finds fifteen novelists worthy
of mention
Mr. Howells. in the July Harper,
discourses at large upon the question
Of literary revivals, in which, we
gather, he has no confidence. There
are revivals and revivals. Abiding 10
the general talk of Byron revival"
which began a few years ago, Mr..
Howells remarks that ''the affair end
ed in talk. as it began" This is hardly
convincing. Though Byron has always
had his readers, and in good numbers,
too. so that talk about his being re
vived' is perhaps open to criticism, it
may, on the other hand, be urged that
the mere republication of his works in
such form as has been given to them in
the Murray edition could not but widen
his audience. The poetry and the
prose. increased in bulk and most in
terestingly edited, are now more
readily accessible, in more convenient
and satisfactory form, than ever be-
fore. 1t is not at all unreasonable to
suppose that the circulation of this edi-
ton. and the abundant attention given
to it in the public prints, will mean
a great deal to the new generation.
However. our belief that the reading
of Byron is being stimulated by the
new edition, and will have permanent
effect. does not blind us to the sound
ness of Mr.. Howell's main contention,
which we take to be that no author
from whose works the vital spark has
departed--if it ever existed there-can
be galvanized into a new life, can be
seriously revived" The thing has
been attempted over and over again,
and sometimes we have almost hoped
that it might succeed. No one who
has enjoyed the work of Gait, for ex-
ample. or Charles Lever, or Whyte
Melville. or Henry Kingsley, can look
upon a new edition of any one of these
men without a certain sympathy. But
no one VINO critically studies the his
tory of literature can believe that the
author born below the first rank will
ever, by any revlving process, be es-
tabiished in the public mind as the
great writers are there established
New York Tribune.