New-York tribune., 1921-08-13
Books u.y,..l By o,..,

A. s. M. Hutchinson's new novel, If
Winter Comes, is hereby nominated for
your list of novels which should be read
"You have been writing from time to
time about books for children,' says
X, land this morning you mentioned
name which brings back to mind
some which you have not recommended
although they were extremely enter
tanning to the small boy Of thirty
years ago. The name which brings
these books back to mind is Anthony
Comstock.
Il regret that l cannot give you
anything like a full list of the books
which he has apparently bsnished from
the youthful library, since l was able
to get hold of only two of these, and
can remember the title of only one,
the Justly celebrated Only Boy.
Since your II. Sd is still very
small boy, while the youngest of my
three is ten, you may be sufficiently
MY junior never to have seen these fas-
cinating pamphlets; if so, on your ac-
count you owe a debt of gratitude to
Anthony Comstock, as | do, because of
my three boys and because of H. Sd
and all other boys; l believe that re-
forms need fanatics and that Com
stock was as unable to lnjure the hon
est and valuable part of our literature
as he was able to completely destroy
this base and vile part; a part so base
and vile that if you should publish
this letter l would be obliged if you
would withhold my name, because
am not yet old enough to admit in pub
lie that I have even seen these books"
We owe Comstock nothing In de-
stroying base and vile things he Gre
ated more destructive forces in their
stead. "Withhold my NAME" writes
our friend X, still ashamed because he
read Only Boy thirty years ago.
Filthy words don't begin to stick like
shame, and Comstock was among the
He spread the belief that words could
be set into magic formula potent
enough to drag people to hell. We
never read Only a Boy, but il was
still going in our day, and we heard
other boys discussing it in whispers.
From what we heard we were as terri
fed of that book as if it had been
devil. 1t was forbidden and mys-
terious, and Comstock and all his help
ers dignifcd the little dirty book by
the prctcnsc that it was a menace to
an entire generation.
Once a candy butcher offered to sell
it to us. He talked out of the side
of his mouth and he might as we'll have
blown birthstone in our face We felt
as if we must make decision in the
next thirty seconds between damnation
and salvation. We knew perfectly we'll
that the thing would blast our entire
future life, and yet curiosity as to
the exact nature of this extraordinary
destructive force almost overcame our
fear Out Of cowardice we shook our
head, but if we mad our life to live over
again tne chclce WOuld be reversed.
Even in those days to have read the
book would have gone some distance in
convincing us that its reputed power
for evil was overrated. AS it was, we
went on for years believing in the
dcmoniac possibilities Of words end
ideas. We believed that there were
things in the world too terrible to be
mentioned. 1t is our fcrvent hope that
II. Sd will be able to skip this
stage of development and that when
he comes to Only a Boy. or its like,
it will not seem to him some mon
strous threatening thing, but Just
little old last years dirty book
II am now quite convinced writes