The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-03
CIR Lthrartatt q Gnrnrr
CONDUCTED BY
FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE.
CULTURE VIA CUT-INS.


Stated in similar terms, the problem is: (Which
do people want to do first see the film or read the
book?'
Any book-they're all in the films, or will be.
They haven't translated The Education Of Henry
Adams into the cellulod yet, nor The -Four Horse
men, but with few such trifing exceptions they re
all there Nor are the exceptions merely those
books that are not adapted to presentation;
one has only to look over the lists of books that
have been filmed to realize that the modern movie
producer can photograph anything and get away
with it.
1t doesn't need plot. Here is George AIDES
Fables IN Slang, for instance, list of films COM
piled in the New York Public Library avOwedly
"to aid in giving the foreigner panoramic view
Of American life past and present so that he may
be encouraged to leave the slums of our cities for
the villages and country, where his chances for
making good much greater" Just how
Fables Ia Slang is calculated to assist in this back
to nature process unless by way Of illustrating how
George AIDE made good on his own Brook Farm, )"
is not quite clear. STILL if Fables IN Slang or any
other movie masterpiece will only encourage few
horny handed foreigners to try their luck in the
laborless hinterland Of the Hudson s headwaters,
there is at least one farming writer or writing
farmer at Riders Mills, N Y, who will rise up and
call George Eastman blessed!
Mary Gave Little Boost
The only obstacle apparently in the way of film
ing any book at all is the price Ever since Mary
paid 900 for the screen rights of Daddy Long,
legs, according to Ma Pickford, authors and pub
fishers have been simply exorbtant in their
demands; she even threatens to use nothing but
original stories hereafter! Doubtless a wise Con-
dav tho oh ac
to give the movie magnates similar privilege to
that enjoyed by the photograph and player-piano
people, who may lift any copyrighted musical COM
position the payment of stipulated roy
atty of two cents roll or record.
1t doesn t diminish the patronage of the library,
this universal perturbation (as the slang of the
studios puts it) of all literature On the contrary
the trail Of every new film may be followed from
town to town by the increased demand for the book
from which the film was made. Mark Twain s
biographer recently told the readers of Books and
the Book World that the sale of Mr.. Clemens s
books was greater than ever. Librarians do not
doubt that much Of this is due to such films as
Hackleberry Finn and Tom SdWyer. And more
than movie fan has gained new respect for the
great American philosopher humorist after learn
ing, from the scheen that Joan of Arc is not a
funny book
As nearly can be gathered from the limited
statistical information available persons enjoy
the bookflm combination if they take the book first
and the picture afterward. AS one young woman
put it: after you've seen it in the movies the
pictures in the book just make you mad One has
to be of the cognoscen to realize that there is no
essential relation between the Illustrations and the
text
Poor Philip Nolan.
But the difficulty the library faces is that of get
ting the news to the movie public that there are
such things as books, which they will sooner or
later see on the screen "That must be great pic
t1re-I hear somebody has written book about
it, ;" is actual comment overheard on The Man
Without Country. 1t is only when they see the
pictures made from book that most Of them are
made aware of the book s existence. Ensues rush
to the library; at least, here are some new minds
being indicted into the reading habit. So much to-
the good. But how much more they would have