Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-11-16
A BANNER YEAR FOR BOOKS
BY Frederic J. HnskIn


washington, Nov. 1.-THE book (
week recently celebrated In New York
has already had It's imitators In the
form OF book weeks and book fairs In
other cities, and these are only few
OF the many symptoms that the United
states OF America, known, the world
oy r as the most materialistic and un-
jrtellectual OF countries, has sudden
ly developed an interest In books many
times greater than II eve- had be-
fore.
Books are selling In America at an
unusual rate, and some are reaching
very high totals OF circulation, but
the significant fact IL not so much
the number as the character OF the
books that are being sold. Various
periodicals and booksellers publica-
tlons put out from irne to time lists
of books most IN demand at book
stores and at public libraries. These
are surely the best possible index TO
what the people are reading and they
show that Americans are reading bet
ter books than ever before.
In former years these best sellers
land books most in demand at libraries
proved their commercial value. just
az certain brands of soap. perfume
and toothpowder have done. They
were trade-goods. purely. having nc
literary value. and often pretending
TO none.
The principal typ Cf these stand
ard trade novels were the Wild wes'
story, the detective or mystery story
the southern mountaineer, feud-and
moonshlne story. and the domestic
sentimental love story, and the moral
pornography story, In which the her
and heroine 20 through a long serie
: Of sexual gymnastics hallowed In tn
: end by matrimony.
Novels of these types have appeare'
I, in this country every sprin1 and fal
for many years as regularly as tn
. seasons come around. Some Of then
have been written with genuine ski
2 and have really entertained reader
of certain large classes. Others hav
= been so feeble in conception and ex
g ecution as TO bore even the travelin
> salesman and the ladies afflicted wit
- insomnia and idleness who make up g
large part of the reading public.
:. to a well-known formula and had n
n more relation 20 the life they purport
Q ed to depict. or to any other phase {
life, than movies Of the poorer sor
$ They were the literary successors
}. the dime novels--to Diamond Dick
II Nick Carter" Ten Nights in a Bs
e Room" East Lynne" and WI
l. Girls Leave Home" Those best selle
'e of the last generation were ofts
e bound in gaudy paper covers and so
al very cheaply. They were widely rea
But their reputation became steadi
ie worse. Dime novel" and paper-bat
}. novel" and "yellow-back novel"
AZ came terms of r. proach and contemJ
es People were ashamed 10 be caught rea
st Ing them. Their vouge declined, but n
e the appetite for cheap Illusion. machin
- made thrill. easy noralizing and vicai
DO Gus eroticism which they fed. Accor
n ingIy the dime novel merely chang
liz its dress. 1t was bound in boards.
lustrated and sold at a price IN
pr slowly advanced from so cents TO 81
T. a book that would have been sneer
2, at in paper covers was devoured
n board covers. 1t was not that the pu
Id lie taste had changed. but simply tn
tn the paper cover was no longer T
le spectacle. SO strong was the reversi
ed against paper covers that most boo
n sellers will not today stock bJ
s. in paper covers. II was recently urg
a by a prominent British man of lett'
ne that the first novels of young writ
be brought out in paper covers
that the cost of such an uncert'
i venture would not be so great. He v
II laughed at. No one would buy al
Il thing in a paper cover.
II Meantime, Diamond Dick" has go
/ marching on in respectable boa
covers. He has merely changed
name TO "Pie-eyed Pete OF Pole,
II Canyon" or Suffering Simpson"
he has put on skirts and run wild
II Scrap of the Lazy X or Susan
piute Pass" His name is legion q
II always he is the same. When