Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-09-17
sYPHERD'S BIBLE.


shop is on Welsh Lane at Newark.
Delaware"--this week presented to
the reading public THE English
Bible" edited. with introduction and
explanatory notes, by DIR. Wilbur
Owen Sypherd, Professor of English
in the University of Delaware.
This work will be the despair of
printers who love beautiful typog
raphy, the quarry of boolSish folk who
have wanted Biblical gold smeited
from conventional forms and matter
of un-Cnristian envy for all Professors
OF English who had planned to do
what DIR. sypherd has already done
well.
An excerpt from the foreword will
give the reader the idea which caused
the craftsmen at Keils to publish this
edition of the Scriptures: ITO make
some of the best parts of a great old
book more readable and more under
standable to the modern reader is the
purpose of this book OF Selections
from the King James Version of the
English Bible. The basis of selec-
ton is the relative significance of the
stories. songs, esays, letters of the,
Bible as literature and in literature.
s's The language OF the King
James Version has been strictly pre-
served, the oxford University Press
reprint of the first issue OF the
Authorized Version of 1911, be-
ing used. An attempt has been
made to present these parts of
the Bible in the form of a modern
book of poetry and prose, with mar
ginal and centre headings to assist
in an easy comprehension Of the sub
ject matter on the part of students
in school and college and of the
general reader in the home"
DIR. Sypherd made success of this
labor ofyears. He has given TO the
world the first edition Of the English
Bible which is inviting to read. Ever
EFT Johnson, the master worker at
Kelle. used brains in designing the
book. The result is a big, construc-
tive work which should cause every
Delawarean to be proud. Not only
did a native Delawarean conceive and
execute the idea of this volume, but
IL was printed in Delaware, on paper
made in Delaware especially for the
edition. Sypherd's Bible-and we
predict that will be its name in the
mind of the reading public-is beau
tifully bound in cloth and stamped
with gold. thus attracting the eye as
would some work OF biography, his
tory, or beautiful letters.
This Bible is destined to become
the travelling companion and the desk
watchman of those folk who love
the beauty Of the King James Yer
sion, but who have deplored the form
in which that version has hitherto
been presented. The sanctimonious
black leather cover, the rounded and
Tapping edges, the heavy gilt 1ops, the
verse numbering and inane chapter
divisions always deferred these from
a more enjoyable companionship with
the greatest collection of poems, es.
says, biography, epigrams and his
tory in any tongue.
Some effort in the past was mad,
TO publish the Bible in more pleasing
form. First came the English Re
vised Version. That had as it's mail
&DJtCl the CidTlucdllOn Ol the text 10
the benefit of the average reader
The result was the total destruction
Of the majesty, color and warmth o
the text of 1911. The American Re
vised Version was almost similar
Certain clouded passages were mad
comprehensive. possibly, but at wha
an expensel
The New Century Bible, in thirty
odd volumes, was beyond the mean
OF the average reader. This edition
unfortunately for those who are in
terested In the Bible mainly for il
literary vtiue. preserved that sane
timonious look Moulton's Moder
Readers 81 oi.- except for the absenc
~ Sa~ s1-s saraes Version. was yer
.~~ ~~~ ~us- Gao oook1sn layma
A3..o . sxntsA poetry as poStr,