The New York herald., 1921-02-13

queer" persons, were among those who
asked for spiritual books.
II only looked through this one." said she.
"but the glance was sufficient to warn me
that / should not understand 1t. So I am
very curious to know what our readers find
In books of the sort"
II have learned from questioning these
readers that they are seeking for new
revelation; they don't know exactly what
to look for nor what to expect nor where
it is to come from, but they are blindly
seeking. Yes, think it is true to say that
with other than the readers who seek only
amusement the spiritual book Is the one
that people are reading to-day"
Algernon Blackwood and other novelists
who affect mystic atmosphere have a wide
appeal. Lucas Malet published since the
war novel in which the hero was a dead
man; it had certain following. In one OF
his novels Joseph Conrad told Of people of
the Fourth Dmension-that is people who
held revolutionary ideas of time and space
and this book is always in demand by seekers
after new truth. The last named author,
however, has always commanded the atten-
ton of persons interested in the occult, not
that he literally deals In 1t, but most of his
books have an infusion of 1t In their atmos-
phere.
For the same reason, perhaps, two books
by Henry James are more called for than
all his other novels together: they deal
wholly with the border line between this
world and the next His posthumous and
unfinished novel Is one and THE Turn OF
the Screw" is the other.
So long as the spiritual unrest troubles
people. as 1t is said to do now, the book
that pictures phases of the conflict waging
as usual between things external and things
of the spirit will continue to be written.
The law of supply and demand rules In lit
erature as in everything else humanity pro-
ducible.
"Dorothy Richardson's novels and May
sinclair's Mary Olivier are examples of
the psychological story that had vogue
which soon ran its course. Miss Sinclair's
novel is still often demanded. for there Is
an aftermath of readers for every book
that has once commanded wide attention
They hear of book, seemingly. about
year from the height of its popularity"
Quest of Education Overshadows
All Else in the East Side Libraries
At a branch library, one of the best of its
kind on the East Side near the Eighties.
very different data was obtained There the
habitues are nearly all after an education
and they read carefully the books that are
usually prescribed in particular courses OF
reading When this is literature they devour
Richardson, Fielding. Goldsmith, Scott
Dickens and Thackeray. as well as Eliot and
Mrs. Gasltell. under the conviction that they
are rendering themselves up to date persons
in the line of fiction. How Greenwich Vii
lage would mourn such loss OF time!
"Our young people are, many of them.
products OF the night schools and lists of
books are prepared for them In science,
political economy. the arts and fiction and
poetry that standard They read them
all without any personal predilection, but OF
course this grows after time and some OF
our graduates go after strange gods At
the moment Russian fiction subsequent to
Tolstoi is popular with them. They devour
books of travel voraciously, but as yet do
not seem to be affected by the wave of
spiritism passing across the world. look
for that to reach them after II has reached
it's climax and passed II everywhere else"
In this branch the books that our fathers
read the almost classic writer's like Adam
Smith. Hume, Gbbon, Macaulay. Hannah
More who sleep profoundly on shelves fur
ther down town have a waking life. Volumes
by them are constantly taken out and all
show signs of hard wear.