The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-01

World will not have remained in doubt 10 the
attitude we have taken on such subjects rs the
istenrc of an American literature and lis right TO
be judged by itself; the necessity of viewing era
turc as q piece of life and not as q thing apart
from life; the immortality of art for arts sake or
Of anything for its own sake the folly of meas
uring the present by the past and the wisdom Of
measuring the past by the present; the futiity Of
any other standard than the standard Of popular
taste; the certainty that the people can do no
wrong On things like these we have not been 81
lent because this is no time to be silent. For at
least fifty years few prejudices have been the
ruling forces in American literature. For the
last twenty years the American people have listened
with growing Impotence to the dcta of these few
critical minds In the last ten years there have
arisen American writers of sufficient genius to
command the following and affection of the great
body of American readers There has been silent
revolution effectual and complete that the auto
Gratis Of the reading table do not know it has Oc-
CURED. They write on.
And while they write readers of books 20
exploring elsewhere.
Purpose and Design.
The sole purpose of Books and the B00E World
is to help organize and assist in this work Of ex-
plorltion.
On this editorial page, opposite it in GuRRT X.
CHESTERToN's London letters, in the verse We print
our front and back pages and on all the pages
between there is one business pursued and one
only-the business of discovery
On the front page always book of some special
significance, whether for good or evil. On the
second page one or more books of unusual merit
calling for extended charting and review On the
third page news of books and authors and pub
fishers, letters and perhaps condensed essay. On
other pages record Of book publications with
short descriptive sentences that really do describe
them; the news Of the book collectors world; pict-
ures of authors and pictures from books, the lat
ter particularly on the last page where the repro
ducion Of illustration will often tell the reader
more about a book than a column Of reviewing
could. And in between here and there and every
where, good, straight stories giving the news of
the books and written by the best staff Of book
reporters ever assembled in America. They write
without Instructions and without a single
- formula" How could they have formula when
there are not any two books alike, when books are
endlessly differentiated as personsf The rela-
ton of the members Of this staff to the editor is
exactly like the relation of trusted news reporters
TO their city editor He gives them their assign
ments" and the assignments may turn out big,
little or nothing at all.
Books as News.
1t is the editorial task among other matters. to
consider the readers preferences When peace
came upon the world over night as it were approx
imately fifty war books became obsolete They
were new publications. They had not been re-
viewed in Books and the BOok World and they
never will be- The world did not care any longer
for past glimpses of an ex-imperial fugitive who
had fled to Holland; it did not care to know, from
JOSHUA JoILABY, How Reacted to the War. These
things, absorbing a month earlier, were no longer
tolerable. War books possessed of historical
value retained their interest and even had an en-
HANGED Importance with the sudden turn of events;
these we continue to present TO our readers
The editorial task is minute, extending to petty
details. 1t is coincidence for example, that our
readers have never seen at the foot Of one of our
columns the exasperating line: Continued on
page so-and-so."
The Ambitious Aim.