New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-19
CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
Summer Readinee-Ihe Vacationist as DIS
tributer Of Literature Ii
braries and Their Needs

Some poetic nook, Just hid with
trees. with spots OF sunny. openings,
70 lie and read in-this is one Of
the booklovcr's dreams; til other.
no less alluring, is Of a bluste7y
winter night IN an armchair, under
the tranquil radiance Of she green
shaded lamp. Each has its charm,
wherefore all too often 7he books
one must CT would read are deferred
from one season to the other. How
MANY books Of the last winter are
awaiting thci7 summer reading?
How many Of them vii! be read
how many good intentions carried
cut? The books will lie oOnscien-
tiously packed in trunks and carried
avav but nowadays, one fears, they
are kept waiting for a rainy day
rather than for Natures realization
of the poets wish.
Still. they are taken TO all points
Of the compass, TO places which the
distribution systems Of our pub
fishers and bookscllers--the great
puzzle Of the trade--nevcr reach.
The summer visitor and the vaca-
zionist are the best distributors OF
hooks throughout the country yet
known. Wherever they go they find
evidence Of predeoesso -s-books
left behind by last seasons visitors
and by those Of many seasons before
il No summer hotel or boarding
house but has its haphazsrd library
TINS formed. To those interested
in the adventures Of books. these
collections are rich in suggestion.
There they stand in rows, veterans
forgotten in the centres OF htera-
ture. the successes Of seasons long
AGO classics that endure, the cur
rent best-sellers. Robert Elsmere"
side by side with Robert w. Cham
hers. Walter Pater and Meredith
in the company Of Jack London and
Mrs. Barclay. Mostly fiction, some
poetry, and, strange suvivals, stray
COPIES of the paper-bound series
once so popular among us-Steven-
sons Merry Men" perhaps, in the
Messrs. Scribuer's yellow covers;
the ANONYMOUS Democracy" in the
Messrs. Hollis Leisure Series-a
novel Of official life at Washington
we'll worth repinting, by the way;
a volume or two Of Appletons' Town
and Country Library, and always
some children's books-faiTy tales
and aliases, but oftenest school edi-
tons Of the French dramatists-"La
Poudre aux Yeux,' for instance.
And. invariably, stacks Of back mum
be-s of all the magazines and week
lis that ever were. The new Wis
itor his summer stay ended, adds to
the collection the books brought
along with such good intentions
often the unread ones with the read;
there is always less room in ones
trunks at the end than at the begin
ming Of vacation.
The best with the insignificant,
the enduring with the ephemeral-
what is the influence of all this sum-
mer reading in the formation Of lit
erary taste among our city dwell
ers? For, generally, it is the Wis
itors. not the natives, who draw
upon these collections for an hours
diversion, the killing of an idle at
ternoon.
RURAL LIBRARIES.
Indeed. these books work" $50
70 speak, only three months in the
year. The season over, the key OF
the summer hotel and the summer
boarding house is turned upon them
The natives, whose vacation season
on the soil and along the seashore
falls in winter, have no access to
them. but must rely upon the local
free Libraries, usually managed by
volunteers in a good cause, and de-
pendent for their books upon gen
erous givers. These institutions en-
deavor as a rule to add to their re-
sources by teas or other entertain
nents in the course of the summer.
Visitors can help them in a tar
better way by donating TO them the
books they do not care to take
home, instead Of simply leaving
them to a chance fate in the rooms
they have occupied.
These rural Libraries deserve all
the support that can be given them.