New-York tribune., 1906-10-21
Gbe Nem'Dorls gribmals
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 81. 1906.

We welcome certain signs of WEAKNESS
among those industrious writer's who invade n
country for literary purposes as boomers
invade a tract of land suddenly thrown open
to settlers. They beginning to let Italy
alone, and we lift up our voice in rejoicing. 1t
is not that we love Italy less but that we love
the honor of letters more. The disposition to
make copy out of that divine land has of late
become we'll nigh intolerable. OF course the
development of reproductive processes has had
something to do with it In the days Of the
pen draughtSman had new book about
Italy only once in while. Then, with the
perfecting of the halftone process more books
made their appearance, and on top of that the
possibilities of color In illustration led to still
greater activity. But at bottom the fault has
been with the half-baked author whose fingers
have itched to exhibit his knowledge" and
whose soul has yearned for a little cash. The
late John AddingtOn Symonds wrote with quiet
humor, somewhere in of his books, about
the young at the table >dh6te who had
formulated q new theory Of the COrreggoSity
Of COrreggiO, or of the esoteric significance of
Sandro Botticeli. That young man was apt
to be not much better qualified to talk on the
subject than the hero of Du Maurer's
famous joke, the Johnnie who objected to his
companions calling BOtticelli a wine, when,
as he said, everybody knew that Botticelli was
a cheese Yes, we are glad that the bookmakers
letting Italy alone-though we are not sure
but that good many Of them are on their
way to Spain.
The battle of the books which is raging in
England to-day is an affair about which it IS
difficult to come to any simple conclusion. The
managers of the 'HTimes" Book Club on the
one hand, and the publishers, on the other.
seem to be equally skilful In presenting their
arguments to whether or not net books
should be sold at reduced price within six
months Of publication No doubt there is right
on both sides Meanwhile the disinterested read
of the correspondence with which the London
papers are flooded may find amusement in the
various points and stories brought forward.
In some instances the advocates of cheap lit
erature certainly seem to be a little unreason-
able. They complain that while you can buy
Lockhart's Life of Scott for few shilings
Mr.. Winston Churchll's biography of his father
AS the publishers have haStened to point out,
there is here no real comparison because one
book is out of copyright and costs a publisher
nothing but print and paper, while the other
is new and implies a great outlay" 1t GER
fainly goes without saying that if Lockhart's
book were being published to-day for the first
time, it could not be sold for a few shillings
No man can foresee the upshot of the quarrel
though one may shrewdly suspect that it will
take the form of compromise, but like
to hope that one result may be a reduction of
the plethora of books If questions of profit
and loss are to be canvaSSed as never before
by publishers and booksellers alike manu-
scripts may be more carefully scrutinZed and
we may be relieved of some part at least of
that mass of stuff which is printed every year
for obvious reason.
1t looks as though it were time to say good
Ia tLn on of q Of ol