The sun., 1919-10-19
Awards and Winning Entries, Prize Letters Contest

venient location, not on a little used street
where rents may be nominal
Convenient locations are expensive and
entail competition with the sellers OF
other merchandise whose product sells in
larger quantities. Expenses at every hand
increase in proportion with those in other
lines. Profits have never been unduly
large, the possibilities of loss through I'M
sold stock always present. The bookseller
therefore has a task of reasonable proper
tons to face in being merely the merchan-
dising head of his business. Particularly
is this true because nearly all booksellers
include other lines than books in their
stock. Most book stores sell stationery,
another business in itself full of multi
plicity Of detail, with its own never ceasing
round Of orders to place, displays to
make, advertising to be written and in
Vulnerable small features demanding at
tention, business only less detailed than
bookselling itself. A moments thought on
these tasks that are part of the book
sellers days work gives ready answer to
the query "Where is the bookseller of yes
teryearp The present day bookseller
would like to be smoking pipe and dis
cussing the Elizabethan plays with soma
customer friend, but a heaped up desk
pricks his conscience.
Yet the bookseller must make some eff
fort to fulfill his function Of bookselling
as well as his job Of merchandising. All
efforts which have been made and are
being made to stabilize trade conditions so
that it will be easier to conduct book
store at reasonable profit are steps in
the right direction. The less the book
seller is obliged to study trade terms, dis
counts and other financial details, and the
more he can study his product and his
public, the better will he be able to fill
his rightful place in the community.
The very nature Of his product makes
the attainment of his proper equipment
very difficult Thousands of books are
published this year that will be dead and
are expected to be dead next year. Thor
ough acquaintance with the publications
of 1919 will not avail the bookseller much
in properly selling the books of 1920. Each
year, each month, almost, he must learn all
over. That is unless he is willing at once
to limit his activities and his counsel to
the standard works. A bookseller who
can mix with his public and maintain a
fair acquaintance with the good books Of
all times as well as those of the passing
hour can render yeoman service IN train
ing new readers for books and in keeping
older readers from new lures In fields alien
to literature. He can put into the hands
of youth the sort Of books that build liter
airy taste so that Later on In life counsel
and refreshment will still be sought from
the freely flowing fount whose joys are
inexhaustible. The bookseller who sets
out to do this sets out to a large task. He
must succeed in the commercial supervis-
ion of his business and still have energy
and enthusiasm enough left for his more
professional duties.
The double task Of our present day
bookseller is hard but prominently worth
while. To him Is entrusted the noble task
of placing the worlds best literature, for
ownership, in the hands of the people. To
spread the sharing of the joys of reading
is like carrying a new gospel. 1t has
within it the healing of mems hearts and