The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-16

New York, January s-(Special )-In
 authorship, age and youthful prodigies
 go hand in hand Take John Burroughs
 yet at fourscore and over he is so men
 tally and physically vigorous that he
 can write a book which, in the depth of
 it's philosophy and in the clearness of it's
 vision and expression, is distinctly a
 finer piece of work than any of his
 previous volumes. It is quite remark
 able tribute to his mentality that this
 book, Accepting the Universe.' has al
 ready gone into 0 second edition. He
 is still at work, so that it would be
 foolish to say that this is his final
 Gtterance, even though it is sum-
 ming up of the experiences of his long
 life, and one in which he discusses death
 and the question of a future existence
 with the air of a man already face 10
 face with the inevitable end Even in
 this contemplation be is not disturbed.
 He is what John Kendrick Bangs would
 call an incorrigible optimist. He has
 enjoyed life and his communion with na-
 ture even though he has had to strug-
 gle and has never known the luxury of wealth Still writing at eighty! And
 his last book finding more readers than
 the volumes which endeared him to the
 hearts Of every lover of outdoors.
 Now take the other extreme. Youth
 ful prodigies are being announced daily
 are become so common, in fact, that
 they have ceased to attract attention.
 The most advertised is Opal Whitely,
 whose famous diary was begun when she
 was six years old and when she spelled
 out each word in capital letters. Hilda Conkling wrote her Poems of Little Girl'' at, the age of nine, which was about the age when Daisy Ashford struggled with "'The Young Visiters'' and Horace Wade composed his pub lished novel, 'sThe Dangerous Inher- itance" Izola Forester has been lit erary wonder ever since she was 15. when she began to supply magazines with stories that were accepted.
 In between the ages of nine and & is the ever-increasing army of authors. More people are writing than ever be- fore; and despite the high cost of paper and manufacture. the book lists are tre- mendously long.
 But is the number of book readers in- creasing in like proportion? This is a question worthy of much more than. a paragraph. A report recently issued by the University of Chicago is significant. The number of readers in the general library of that institution in l9l7-19lS was 566, ST; and for 1918-1919, 459,175 The read CTS in the department of classics de- creased in the same period from 3S. 12O to &, 206 and in the department of educa- ton from 2S3, 7S3 to 19s.362. No explana- tion of this decrease is given in this report nor are figures for other libraries available. There is theory suggested by some thoughtful educators that the moving p1eture is changing the mental habits of 1.-the American people. It is so much easier to see picture than to read a book; and the number of books which have been filmed is an imposing list pr. Sherman Williams. director of school libraries in the New York state depart ment of education tells me that in his opinion the visualization of book is generally accepted as a substitute for reading it. People are content to take what they see. The advocates of visua' | education do not hesitate to emphasize | the advantage of the screen. Why read | a book about Holland when you can I see these pictures?" is a line in cur l rent publication. So here we have 8 problem not easily to be solved.
 l One of the most Interesting things tt twrite about in connection with books and authors is the reason why peoplt write books.
 1 Of, course with good story writers. like 1 Booth Tarkington. Mary Roberts Rine hart. Robert W. Chambers and the like sthe reason is self-evident They have certain market. They can get Ho.0W cl