Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-24
BEST BOOK.
IN WHOLE WORLD
Noted People Put the Bible
and Shakespeare First.
Many Others Mentioned.

What book has helped you most 80
the question as addressed by the New
York city executive committee OF
the books for-everybody' movement
of the American Library Association
to men and women prominent in pub
lie life, has brought forth replies
which. aside from the anticipate
general agreemnet on the Bible and
Shakespeare. are stimulating in their
range.
Clergymen declared for the Bible
almost without exception, as did ed
ucators. such as DR.. John H. Finley
commissioner of education of New
York state" who said that although
his mother died when he was eleven
years old, he had read the Bihle
through twice with her. and that he
had read il from cover to cover at
least three times in mature life.
A large body of opinion among bus
mess men in favor of the Bible is
represented by the declaration Of ia
cob H. Schiff. financier. who said that
the Mosaic Bible has Influenced his
life more than any other book.
The Bible and Shakespeare" said
David Belasco. contain the great po-
etry and the great truths" John
Drew finds that out of the catholic
experience of the theater Shakes
peare energies as the most determin-
ing book. Arthur Brisbane. journal
lst, said that sixpence edition OF
Shakespeare. in smallest print and
poorest paper, had been his only Eng
lish book at a boyhood school in
France, where none but he spoke 4
word OF English. He read it over
and over. picking out the fights and
other incidents which appealed to him
as a boy of fifteen.
Lyman AbbOtt's FavOritea.
On the expressed assumption that
the Bible and Shakespeare were so
obvious an influence on life and
second choices. Two books which
exerted great influence over me in
my youth said DR.. Lyman Abbott.
ARE My Fathers Young Christian.
from. which l derived much of my
faith in the simplicity of Christianity,
and FOSTERS Essay on Decision Of
Character which helped me to ac
quire the courage necessity to accept
the responsibility for my own life"
Next to the Bible. her mothers
"Pilgrim's Progress" had the most
profound effect on Mrs. Helen Could
Heroes and Hero Worship" and a
little book of selections from Brown
ing, went home very powerfully to
Chancellor Elmer E. Brown OF New
YORK University, at an age When ne
was most open to impressions.
Women, in general. revealed more
shades of opinion. The poems of Al
fred Tennyson opened the door to
romance and history and chivalry for
Theodosia Garrison. who is Mrs Lind
ley NJ. Garrison. A prominent woman
lawyer of New York city still reads
Alice in Wonderland" to fortify her
self for the prosecution of a case /,
she considers the courtroom scene OF
the trial of the Mad Halter the finest
piece of satire in literature.
Returns to Emerson's Essaya-
Mrs. Bernard L. Pollak, president
of the National League of Girls
Clubs, has returned again and again
to Emersons essays and to Omar
Khayyam. Mrs. James Lees Laid
law. a director of the League OF
Women Voters of New York city.
thinks that Herbert Spencer and
Emerson licked her mind into
shape" A rominent social worker
gives first place to George Eliot's
The Mill on the Floss" 49,
Hamilton Holt. editor of the lnde-
pendent, thinks that Les Miserable"
is more kinds of great book than
any other he has ever read"
Among several men of note who de-
clared themselves unable to answer
the query was Thomas A. Edison.
who found his reading too largely
technical and one-sided to permit a
satisfactory answer