The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-27

Toms Cabin" used to be a prime favorits with young folks north of Mason and Dfxons line, but within very few yearl its popularityfhas much fallen off so that 1t no longer ranks as a best seller
 The somewhat capricious college en- trance requirements have kept alive for | years an artificial demand for some books that young people do not really love. No girl or boy of IS ever voluntarily read either Drydens "Absalom and Achito- phel' or Burke's Speech on Consolidation with America" yet thousands of both have been sold yearly because boys and girls had to read them in order to get into college. "Absalom and Achitophel" has been dropped from the requirements by recent revision, but Burkes speech still holds it's place.
 The college entrance requirements alone have created demand for few genu- inc favorites and for good many excel lent things that only girls and boys of unusual taste voluntarily read. AS the preparatory course in English is now laid out the indicated reading provides about as much good literature as most boys and girls find time to read, so that the little group of professors and schoolmasters that determine this matter fix the read ing of youth the whole country over and incidentally make best sellers of a good many things that would naturally cut no great figure in competition with the lure of current fiction.
 There are few old American favorites not fiction that in any considerable span of years outsell the new novels. One of these is Thoreaus Walden" In the last 40 vars it has outsold most of the new nature books, and it's popularity is increasing year by year. Walden in- deed keeps alive the interest in several of Thoreau's less popular books.
 One of the most astonishing things in American letters Is the steady sale for nearly 70 years of a simple matter of fact narrative, Dana's Two Years Be- fore the Mast" Its popularity has waned a trifie within the past few years, though a new edition has just been announced, and it Is selling along in three and or four earlier editions. When Dana re- visited San Francisco in the eos, to find the hamlet of 25 years before grown learned that everybody had read his book and today Two Years Before the Mast" is prime favorite In California
 No other simple undecorated story of @ common sailors voyage has had any such popularity. When the gold fever was on in 1s4e everybody wanted the one book that told of California, and ever since whatever has directed attention to the Pacific has stimulated the sale of Two Years Before the Mast" It Is still thumbed to greasy ruin in low sailors boarding houses and honored with gild- ing and fine leather in rich private H. braries.
 They say in Boston that Dana, after his two years of hard toll and rough companionship. developed into something of an exquisite in dress and department. It Is even told of this man, who as youth accepted all the hard conditions of the forecastle and afterward took immense pains to trace out the fate of his old messmates, that he made the odd mistake of saying to an acquaintance of something less than Brahmin caste: If I shouldn't recognize you on the street. you'll understand that 1t is for no reason except my shortness of sight,
 Even few of the poets outsell in the long run any but the best of the popular novelists. Longfelow outsells in the United States all his fellow poets, native or other, except Shakespeare. Whittier comes next to Longfellow in the Amerl- can demand and the other American poets trail a long way behind.
 Strangely enough, there is large and steady sale for Bryants "Illad.' but a very moderate demand for his original verse. Whitman's verse, which never for any length of time afforded him royalties enough for his modest wants. now sells in costly editions. Holiness verse has always had a pretty steady sale, but small in comparison with the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" His approaching centennial is expected to stimulate Interest in his books, though anniversary occasions are of uncertain value to the publishers. There was no greatly increased sale of Miltons poetry last year. although the tercentenary of the poet attracted much interest.
 Tennyson outsells in this country most native poets and Browning, thanks in part for societies formed for the study of his verse, comes close after Tennyson. A few single volumes of verse outsell the collected verse of most poets The "Child's Garden of Verses' is one such and The Bab Ballads is another Lear's Book ofNNonsense" has had more than 60 years of popularity and 1t sells better today than most serious verse;
 About the most popular of all trans lated verse in English is Fitzgerald's "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." It Is bought in all sorts of editions by and for folk who think the possession of the vol ume a mark of culture. The sale of tho Fitzgerald masterpiece since the copy right expired about 20 years ago has been a marvel of the publishing business.
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 E. T. Shaw & Son. Undertakers