Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-26
ecial Correspondence q
oNgDoN. Sept. le.e@Biterary cir

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Special Cores nondenee
Y oNDoN, Sept. l6.=Biterary cir
4 4 cles IN England are much
{ d wrought up over the proposal On
the part OF certain prominent
4 Writersi4,notably Bran Stokstthat q
book censor should be appointed. 1t
E Is said BY those in favor Of such an Of
flee that, at the present time there IS
nothing 70 restrain authors from writ
ing upon topics which cannot but de-
base public tastci while, in5the easa Of
dramatic work. the most rigid pro-
&priety,' Is observed. Even the daily
press is6censoFed more or less, though \
#unofticially. With books, however any g
conceivable st1bject--no matter how
suggestive Or acknowledgement be geX-
plotted III any inannol..ln atlthol% thinks
Efit. The advocates OF the censorship
point out that there seems to exist II
conspiracy between the publisher and
certain kinds of%authors to CONNER
sciali2e deprayity, and 10 put into books
things which, II few Years cartier au-
horror.
On}the other hand, thos@ who uphold
the intrinsic freedom OF ail literary
production. maintain that censorship
eof any kind---evsn on paNs--is all alb
ssurdity.. and the5public should. after ALL,
be the ones to decide what they wish.
III the public lacks discel1nlent and
insists on having only bad books or
plays. II should he left to its fate. and &
thus the punishment WILDE made to fl 4
the crime, What the advocates nf cell.
scrship5 mostly fear, however, Is the
corruption of the morals of the young
III JUSTIN AI,CAR,rHY's VERDICT.
On this latter point. the writer had
a lite chatswith Justin NJ Carthy at his
home at Westgate not long ago His
opinion of Extraordinary modern novel is Z
not very fiattaring. Asked at what age
children ought be allowed to reaG
Works of fiction, he replied
well, IL they are to be permitted to
read the ordinary trashy books turned
out by one Of our most popular female
writer's. he said. II would advocate
that they should never learn to read at
all..t
Opponents of9restrictions on author
ship saSFthat the imposing ola. censor
ship on novels in England would only
increase the demand for these particu-&
laa% books in other countries. as II is
human nature to desire the forbidden
The fact that any particular book has
been censored would only add to it's
international popularity. After ALL
the success of these books seems
to point to the fact that there
| lis a wide public interest In
lithem. Most of them take the form OF
II"problen novels the popularity OF.
| which Just at the present moment Is
tremendous, Certainly the public need
| not buy these books. II comes ultim-.
ately TO the position which Mark
| Twain summed up in his famous die.
tum; If they like that sort Of thing.
| that is the sort of thing they like
| and if people will read naughty"
l5boolis, there should be nothing to pre-
I vent them. AS for the young. of course
that is a matter which the schools,
the public librarians, and the parents
will look after. The censorship of these
three should certainly prove effective
$50 far as the juvenile intellect Is con-
| cerned; and. as for the parents-it
seems difficult to take them in hand,
4 The formation of public taste through
4 censorship of any kind seems never to
i have been very successful in any couli-
i try ] t is Just possible. however, in
spite of all the opposition to the idea,
/ that England may vet eXperimentewith
i the book censor, who win take his stand
along with the play censor. The only
/! official press censor in England IS the
| military commander appointed to in
/ spect dispatches In time OF war. So
far he has not deigned TO worry about
| morals. Someone remarked, concern
| ing the proposed book censor that .on-
| ~ a military man could undertake it.,
| and 1t would then have to be done at
| the point OF the bayonet."
PLENTY FOR THEIR MONEY.
The proper length for novels is an
other topic which is seriously engaging
authors a present, not only in England
! but in France and Germany The
question is asked by q prominent lit
erary gazine---'.Does the average
novel-reader best like a story Of so 900
words. 100000 words. or 100000 words?"
OF course, while it. depends q lot on
the story the modern tendency seems
to be a mean somewhere between the
figures mentioned. Occasionally, even
| a short novel of only $4,000 words meets
with favor: but. as a rule, people like
lots OF words for their money The adj
vantage OF II short novel Is thar the
type is usually larger5to make 1t ..bulk''
to the proper number of pages. Wo-
men renders, however-and they seem
demand length as well as bulk and
prefer smaller type with a yarn we'll
spun out. Authors OF short novels do
not do SO well financially as those
who write long stories Among eX-
Rceptionally successful early short nov
els was "Mademoisela Ike which
made a record as a shilling book. The
book was only 10000 words: and be-
fore 1t met With acceptance. several
publishers had turned it down as too
short 1t was finally brought out ana
Its author-Miss May Hawker--wlio
wrote Under the nom-de- plume of
Lance Falconerf--received the sum or 4
$3.50. n very good figure for Il short
book of that description.