The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-07-15
Getting at Books.


held at Birmingham recently, SIR Oliver
Lodge took the London booksellers to
task for not catering better to the wants
OF the ordinary booklover, and he spoke
particularly in behalf Of the bookman
who enters a booksellers not TO buy any
definite book, but 10 have a look
around" He told OF the much greater free
dom in this respect enjoyed in America
he especially instanced Boston-and hoped
that English booksellers would find d
way TO introduce the American practice
in this regard.
While it is flattering Of Sir oliver
Lodge to give the American bookseller
such praise for common sense methods
we regret that the practice of which
he speaks in such high terms is by
no means as universal in this country
as it might be. Much too often are the
book stores guarded by clerks, well
meaning, OF course, but officious and so
anxious TO make a sale that they defeat
their owa purpose by their avidity For
your true book buyer has a rambling and
desultory mind. Entering an habitation
filed with books. he has no idea whittier
his fancy viii stray. AS TO having In
mind any particular volume. nothing IS
farther from his thought; so that a pert
query from a clerk as TO what he IS
looking for is likely to leave him rather
bewildered. and wondering, as he gazss
around, what he is really doing in the
shop at all.
Books should be on open shelves, easy
of access and If the clerks have dis
elimination enough to arrange them in
some sort Of inviting disorder, so much
the better and more profitable For the
bookman. browsing among the shelves,
viii pass light-heartedly and without
fell purpose from a volume of Pater's
''Marius the Epicurean' 70 the essays
Of Bernard Shaw; from the "sonnets to
the Portuguese" to 1.-THE Reveries of a
Bachelor" and cleaning an idea here. a
hint there. viii so feed and prepare his
mind that, when, at the last, and quite
Unexpectedly, he chances upon a new
edition Of THE Essays of Ella" he
knows instinctively and quite certainly
that this was the book he was looking
for all the time. Buying 1t. he takes It
homeward, conscious Of an hour well and
prof1tabIy spent
No book clerk on earth has the knowI-
e6ge or intuition to gauge the vagaries
Of mind Of the true book buyer. There
are people. of course. who buy books
the modern stuff called iterature-be-
cause they have heard about them at
tea party. but these are not book buyers
In any true sense, and it is fitting that
modern developments Of business should
permit Of their having their book bar
gains supplied at the dry goods en-
poriums. But it is not on book pur-
chasers such as these that we would
waste any consideration.
If We would try to urge all American
booksellers to be worthy OF the praise
OF Sir Oliver Lodge and TO leave their
books on open shelves, whence they may
be plueked by the dreamy bookman. like
ripe fruit from the tree, 1t is because of
the sensitive and delicate nature of your
true book lover, which prohibits him
from making any such plea for himself.
To him the ubiquitous clerk with pert
smile and fluffy hair. whose literary past
extends back little further than Harold
McGrath or when Knighthood Was in
Flower" is a strange and weird crea-
ture, whose ignorance of Addison or Mon
taigne Is distressing and inexplicable. It
is impossible for any clerk to have the
mind and spirit of bookman, and so
the only remedy is for each bookman to
be hts own clerk, rambling through the
delightful wares with intelligence and
skill. The quicker booksellers are to
recognize this fact the greater viii be
their benefit TO mankind. and to bookmen
in rorffaf,gar