The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-17
BY CEDRIC R. CROWELL.
Manager Doubleday, Page & CO. Retail
Book Shops.

- gifted pen has so recently amused
and pleased American readers, has in The
Hdnated Book Shop taken the American
book buying public behind the scenes. He
is an excellent guide, both because of his
Imagination and his wide observation and
because Of his practical experience as a
bookseller, of which he should be proud
Mr.. Morley, however, is not the only guide
in the mazes of the booksellers stage
Critics, humoriSts, essayists have for years
shared bookselling secrets" with the read
ing public The pity is that the guides
usually tell so little of the story.
Mr.. Arnold, for instance, in the August
Atlantic in his article The Welfare of
the Bookstore warns Atlantic readers
that monuments" of plugs" ar. "some-
times" put in the most prominent position
In .the shop. He goes on to share with his
readers the secret of plug selling. Ny
quarrel is not with his contention that
plug selling is sometimes necessary and
always secret; it is rather that he has
failed to confide in his reader the fact
that booksellers have more secrets for the
disposal Of good books than they have
for the disposal of bad ones.
For months book buyers who have read
too seriously Mr. Arnold's article will
point their accusing finger at the book
seller who dares stack a title So The
Arvog Of Gold must be Stunned and SO
must Locke, darlington, GakTorthy.
Marshall, W. L. George, Kipliag and
others.
Even that youthful artist. Mr.. Walpole,
complains of the booksellers lack of in
terest in real literature. how are we to
account for the fact that such a capable
critic as Mr.. Haywood Broun confesses
that his only acquaintance with W. SOmer-
set Vaughan was as playwright. The
bookseller who has been trying for years
to gain a reading public for Mr.. Maug-
hams OF Human Bondage must be dis
appointed that Mr.. Broun did not come
within his reach.
When the critic bookseller pulls from
his shelves a book with soiled cover and
dusty top the customer too frequently as
sumcs that here is Mr.. Arnold's plug,
when as a matter of fact that critic book
seller has reached for his choicest volume,
the one he has tried to sell for the last six
months because he believes in its merit
H.
The playwright is the only literary
guide who has failed TO take the reader
behind the scenes of the book shop. Some
years ago the writer mapped out plot
and a cast of characters for play to
be laid in book shop OF course it is
still unwritten and always will be. In
this play the book buyer was TO be the
mark for amusing comment-the little
old lady who comes in with tape meas
ure and says, Il want this many little
red books" indicating the length between
the book ends on her library table. Here,
too, would have been the architect who
came recently into one of New YOrk's
busiest book stores and asked for forty
feet of books at a dollar foot He con
fided TO the salesman that he was build
ing a house for a Mr.. Blank of Blank
vile, and that notwithstanding Mr..
Blanks protestations to the contrary, he,
the architect, had decided that the home
must have ''liorary"
After considerable correspondence the
bookseller found that nowhere in the
market could he purchase books at such
a price that he could make any profit
selling them at a dollar a foot. The
architect was advised Of this and sug-
gested that somewhere someone could fill
his demand. The BOOKSELLER prostituted
his profession. He suggested that the
architect use dummies for the ''library'.
The architect hailed the suggestion with
appreciation and within a week the too