The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-12
IN THE LITERARY FIELD
GETTING AT THE ATTITUDE OF THE
PEOPLE WHO BUY BOOKS.
English and American Taste fin PERI
odicals Compared-A Writer'S
Sad Experience.

The people who make books-even the
people who materially make them. like the
publishers-probabIy never really under
stand how the average reader, or the aver
age nonreader. as he more truly is. regards
them, says a writer. who, 1t seems likely, is
Mr. HoweIls, in Harper's Weekly. For him
we suspect, he goes on, that they always re-
main impersonal and unvital They are
something queer. something out of the
scheme of his being. He can grasp the no.
ton of going to the theater; that is some
thing tangible. You ask girl to go. and
If you must ask her chaperon. and you pay
your 81 or IS for seats in the orchestra, one
Of them behind the pillar; and you pass the
evening interpreting the action on the stage
to the luminous intelligences beside you, or
in accepting their construction of the mean
ings of the drama, If 1t has any. But
book is a very different thing. That is
something you must grapple with in your
own room and make the most you can of ii
without the help of a smiling companion.
and the agreeable sense of being in the bril-
liant world which you buy with your tick
cts to the theater. Then you must take
your chances of getting enough out of 1t to
be able to talk of it without slipping up.
With a good cigar you may get through the
evening. but that is only the beginning of
your triumph. This eventually comes when
you have asked the girl whether she has
read 1T, and she has said she has, and asks
you IL you have, and isn't it fine; and you
say it is out of sight.
Yet, ii is not an appreciate victory,
then. What you really want is book that
you get funny point out of, and that
you can reproduce In original epigram, and
this happens to you from few novels, even
the worst If you are that drollest and yet
driest OF human creatures, the average
American man, your juiceless whimsicality
Is not affected by your experience of popu-
lar literature. 1t is the mistake of the
author and the publisher to suppose that Ii
Is and they keep making books for you,
which the critics Justly censure for their
worthlessness, but which, II they were ten
times bad they are, would not really
fected by them, but your amusing and
charming womenkind read them, and suffer
or enjoy, as they are less or more enlight-
ened. They have certain strong pretudices;
they prefer the romantic and the heroic; but
after several years of unintermitted part
ridge, even partridge begins to pail. This
Is perhaps why there is an apparent change
in the literary outlook and inlook: why
there actually are fewer novels threatened
this spring than last; why their quality Is
better, and why of serious, but not less at
tractive, books there is an increasing num-
Der. We cannot believe that We have
evolved this conclusion from our inner con-
seriousness, though but for that spring
opening in the Dial We might fear that our
fondness for good literature had abused our
perception. Unless our eyes have been made
the fools of the other senses, there is evil
dence that the worst Is over, at least for
the present. in what has been so bad, and
we think we have woman to thank for this
Improvement, as we have her to thank for
most others. Woman is becoming refined,
civilized, enlightened to the point where
she cannot any longer stand the literary
truck of the last four or five years; this is
firm belief. 1t is her mute and yet
powerfully emotional demand for better
things which has made itself felt in the SUI
perior quality of the books at the spring
openings. We cannot allege any proofs of
our conclusion, indeed, but If woman was
as articulate as she is vouble, we do not
believe they would long be wanting.