The sun., 1910-05-28
OLDBOOKS THAT GRVYVTUEAD
SECOND HAND NAN TALKS or
THE CALLS FROM READERS.


Dumaa, Ile Thsnks. q ths UnlyeEsai FavOr-
Ito WarTyatt. G. ,. n. James and
Harrison AlnsN Orth IN Occasional
Demand-COoper Rarely ASKED FOr.
.Yes.' said the second hand book man
a. he indicated a pile Of Bertha Clays %
the young person who had asked Tor
something with love story 10 t.. Yes.
q man in this business knows better than
any one else perhaps what the general
reading public resily likes. You see
ws're democratic and the shelves In q
store like this hold everything from a
shilling shOcker. ~ they used 10 call en-.
TO the classics. and I'm just a. ready 10
sell you a good edition Of VOltaire a. a
ave cent copy Of a trashy novel. We
don't push the latest best seller but W
usually have It. We just ny to supply
ne demand and our customers include
shop girs and scholars.
you read a Dot nowadays.' he con-
tinued. about the public's literary taste:
or lack Of Il. some of the writers aay
that Il was better In the days w'hen peo-
"a didn't Rad ~ much and some say
lt's improved since then; but let me tel
YOU, I've been in the hook business for
thirty years and the average pernon's
taste in that line hasn't changed much.
Thirty years ago my customers, espe-
cially the women. usually asked for
something new which may seem an
a A. Il hmm
dealer and to-day the demand Is just
the same The people who in the old
Aays asked for the latest from the pen
oG Mary Holmes or May Agnes Flem-
ing ask to-day for a new story by
BERTHA ebay.
-Of course the greatest demand is al
WAYS for Action. and while people who
come here are most often booking. for
cheap copies of recent novels, there is
always a considerable demand for the
works Of Capt MarryAit. @. P. r. James
and Harrison AinswOrth. Then too we
do quite a business In cheap Stitions Of
the early English vOvelists. Fielding,
Snollett. Stern and Richardson.
-Cooper doesn't seem 20 bs read much
by my patrons and such demand a. there
, 10 comes from hoys who want tho leather
stocking tales. oliver Optic and Alger
seem 70 keep their PlaCe in the hearts
of the hoys. but Capt Mayne Reid isn't
gead much by the lad u to-day. The
demand for the Captains stories comes
almost eutirely from men who were boys
thirty Year, ago and who want 10 80 u
the charm holds
The same is true Oi the Jack Hark-
awav series Men who read Jack Hark-
away forty yearr ago come IN and buy
n copy to see what il tastes like now.
i The habit of rereading Old favorites
seems 10 he coni'Ted 70 the men; the
women rarely ask for a book they read
veara ago Almost every day a man will
come In and after looking over the shelves
will say
= 4 read such and such a book thirty
years aGo and lately I've been thinking
I abaut Il They don't write such good
stories to-day Can't you hnd me a copy
OF the Old oney
sDid I ever notice what author ia read
hy almost everybody ies. and after
= keeping track of my sales for many years
! / am certain that Il IL Dumas An kinds
and conditions of people ask for Dumas
sell one copy 20 a man IN overalls and
/ the next 10 a wearer of high hat There
seems 10 he no distinction Of rane. creed
or color when IL comes 20 Dumas and I
I figure it's because we all 0f ~ ike a real
story
Cheap copies Of Dickens and Thack-
cray always have n good sale, but the
demand is much greatsr for Dickens than
/ for Thackeray
Poets are slow. Nobody much reads
poetry nowadays. az least they don't
/ buy cheap copies 10 carry about In their
pockets. There s alWavs, however. a
demand for Burns and Moore and also
a leEaeF call for TennysOn and Long
fellow. Once In a while some one asks
I for a COPY Of Byron, bat not often.
-Another class of hookH that tho secoAd-
hand dealer has 10 keep buying into stock
Is fairy tales such az hana Andersen's
and Grimm's: also Alice IN Wonderland
and The Arabian Nights '0ulliver'a
Travsls,' Don otaixOte' and The Arabian
Nights seem 20 have become juveniles
For some reason the man whO a. q boy
read the childrsn's editions Of these
books never seems 10 think that they are
anything else than amuning stories and n
Suggest Don QuiNote. ~ sometimes do
i out Oi curiosity generally get the reply
d wa NlNMA = NNAM AAANN AINWA wv HAAAlNAAMANMs
'Do I ret q big call for Nick Carter
and Old Seuthr Yes. indeed, but NOT
from boys a. IL pOpularly supposed
Most Of my customers who come regli-
larry Cor those stories and others Ike them
are lawyers. clergyman and students
who want them, they say, a. a mental
relaxation
sYou can readily sse that the demand
for cheap aud secondhand books 4 80
variOlN that no dealer could supply Il
u with second hand hooks alone III fact
Is pur cent. of the hooks In my shop
and in the shops Of other dealers who do a
large business are new. Ihe Englith
classics In cheap editions. for instance.
are nearly all imported from England
because AmaF.c1n publishers have
Libraries, failing TIE ur1alahic with the