The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-07-31
FICTION IS MOST
VITAL READING.
Iowa School Man Defends Fiction Be.
caMse It Presents Everyday
Life and SituA
ationa
DEFENDS THE NOVELS
Should Read What We Like to Read,
and Not Make Drudsery Of the
Task, He Says in His
Review.
Defends THE NOVELS

II you read fiction. do you read
books? Or magazine stories?
II you read magazines, what kind
Of magazines; or if books, what kind
of books!
Lewis Worthfngton Smith, head Of
the English department at Drake
/! university and well known Iowa poet
and author, believes that fiction is
the most important type Of reading.
(! Taking UP the. bludgeon in behalf of
4 the novel and the short story, Prof.
| Smith declares that fiction, because
/ it acquaints the reader with the hui
manities and the reactions to the
situations we meet, benefits the In
! dividual in way that no other type
of reading can.
@We ought to read, first OF all, what
we Hike" Prof. Smith believes. IF
We read as task, as our fathers used
to read, it is Improbable, because it
leaves little impression on our think
ing.
Nothing can kill Shakespeare so
much as making high school students
read it when they aren't getting any
| thing from it
Emerson is poison to the man who
doesn't know enough to digest him.
Reading him when you can't under
stand him only contributes to shoddy
thinking.
students in the university often
ask me to make out a list of books
for them to read I always refuse.
Everybody must read what he him
self likes. No one can select some
body else's reading for him.
There are three general classes OF
readers-readers of newspapers. read
ers OF magazines and readers OF
books.
Magazines important.
1.-THE magazine has had tremen.
dous influence on the spirit of gen.
eral culture. Such periodicals as the
Saturday Evening Post and the At.
lantic Monthly, though the former
may be looked upon as light, are a
great improvement over any maya
zine that had big circulation twenty
years ago.
"The Saturday Evening Post is
wholesome 1t may cater to enter
tanning its readers, but it doesn't do
| it cheaply and vulgarly. I was re-
Gently astonished to find that the At
lantic Monthly had increased its cir
culation by over 100000 under its
new management. A few years ago
it's circulation was but $4,000, and
can remember when it was but $4,000.
The increase in circulation OF these
two great magazines is guarantee
that America is reading better things.
Despite the things we find on
trains and news stands, the character
Of the country's reading matter is
showing marked Improvement A
magazine that publishes stories by
Joseph Hergensheimer and Lee Will
son Dodd, even though It does print
Nina Putnam Wilcox-and she's
mighty clever-may be c1assed as a
good magazine.
II have one notion, and that is that
the most important reading in the
world is fiction.
First. it acquaints the reader with
all kinds of people-if it's good, hon
est fiction, by men who try to tell
the truth about life. 1t teaches us
how to get along with human be-
ings-which is the biggest problem of
politics and social life, and inter-
national relations, and never SO i'm
portant as now. / believe that the
reason the Americans, the English
and the French are 80 much more
tolerant than the other nations is
because they are more cosmopolitan
in their fiction reading.
Deals With Activity.
Second, fiction deals with activity.
When we compare the man who reads
fiction with the ancient Chaldean
sage, we are apt to attribute to the
sage the credit for the greater knowi.
edge. In reality, however. he watch
ed the stars and gained reputation
for wisdom, but he couldn't alter the
course Of any star particle. What
was the use of his looking at tire
stars? He couldn't do anything about
it.
This is day of activity. Fiction
deals with the solution Of the prob
lens Of man. It shows man solving
problems.
THE man who wastes his time
reading everything in a newspaper,
whether it affects him or not, is be- |
coming, II he Isn't already mentally
thin. Newspapers, of course, are not
written to be enduring.
Every newspaper has its own con- /
stituency / doubt whether there are !;
any better newspapers in the country
than the Boston Transcript or the
New York Evening Post They APP
peal to a certain class, and do it
spIendidly But they wouldn't appeal |
to a great class of newspaper readers. !!
Reading has been largely increased
by people who didn't read twenty-five |
years ago. The newspaper is to be !
credited with this increase. 1t is a |
good thing, and there or1ht to be I
newspapers for these people.
Must Read of Neighbors..
81 feel that the American people |
must read more foreign litera ture-
not necessarily in the foreign tongue,