Pueblo chieftain., 1921-11-15
Ry FREpER1c j. HAsK1N

RN FREDERIC j. iAShlN
Washington. d. c., Nov. 1.-THE
book week recently celebrated in Now
York has already had its 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 over as tho most materialistic
and unintcllectuaf OF countries; has
suddenly developed an interest In
books many times greater than It ever
had before.
Books arc selling In America at an
unusual rate. and some are reaching
very high totals Of circulation. but the
significant fact is not so much the
number as the character of tho books
that are being sold. Various periodi-
calls and booksellers publications put
out from time 10 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 Aneri-
cans are reading better books than
ever before.
In former years these hes. sellers
and books most in demand al libraries
were almost all OF kinds that had
proved their commercial value. just as
certain brands OF soap, perfume and
toothpowdcr have done. They were
trade-goods, purely, having no liter
AIRY value, and often pretending to
none.
The principal types OF these stand
ard trade novels were the Wild west
story. the detective or mystery story.
tho southern mountainoer. feud-and-
moonshlne story, and the domestic
sentimental love story. and the moral.
pornography story. III which the hero
and heroine go thru a long series Of
sexual gymnastics ballowed in tho end
by matrimony.
Novels OF these types have appeared
in this country every spring and fall
for many years as regularly as the
seasons come around. Some OF them
have been written with genuine skill
and have really entertained readers OF
certain large classes. Others have been
so feeble in conception and execution
as to bore oven the travelling salesman
and the ladies afflicted with insomnia
and idleness who make up SO large
part of the reading public.
All of them were made according TO
u well-worn formula and had no more
relation TO the life they purported to
depict. or to any other phase OF life.
than movies OF the poorer sort. They
were the literary successors to the
dime novels-to Diamond Dick"
Nick Carter" Ten Nights in "A Bar
Room" East Lynne and why
lcrs OF tho last generation were often
bound in gaudy paper covers and sold
very cheapIy. They wcrc widely read.
But their reputation became steadily
worse. Dime novel and paper
back novel" and 'ycllow-back novel"
became terms OF reproach and con-
tempt. People were ashamed to be
clined. but not the appetite for cheap
illusion. machinc-madc thrill. easy
moralizlng and vicarious crotictsm
which they fed. Accordingly the dime
novel merely changed It's dress. 1t was
bound In boards. illustrated and sold
nt price that slowly advanced from
80 cents to s.. \ book that would have
been sncered ut in paper covers was
devoured in board covers. II was not
that the public taste had changed. but
simply that the paper cover was no
longer respectable. So strong was the
reversion against paper covers that
most booksellers Will not today stock
"A book i'm paper covers. 1t was recent
~ urged by a prominent British man
of letters that the first novels Of young
writer's he brought out in paper covers
so that the cost OF such an uncertain
venture would not be SO great. llo was
laughed at No one would buy any
thing TN n paper cover.
Meantime. Diamond Dick" has gone
marching on in respectable board COW
crs He has merely changed his name
to "Pic-eyed Pete of Polecat Canyon
or "Stuttcriny simpson or he has put
on skirts and run wild as Scrap of the
Lazy X" or Susan OF Piutc Pass -
His name Is legion and always he is
the same. When the reader opens a
wild west story he knows just what he
is going to find-a beautiful girl who
rides wild horses. sirappinE cow
puncher who is cross between Sir
Galahad and Billy Sunday. villain,