New-York tribune., 1922-10-29

Doo9 form. Though the world vas - :
Of libraries and the libraries paro Az w
books very few Of them had anvtbina ~ )
with the modern drama and those s.s,
lost in the naultitudinous conPusion 80 ! .1
travel, biography, poetry and ponderons -. :
cyciepedias. q
But the libraries were better oe 49,.
commercial booksheps since ther corla ...s "
sell modern plays for the simple ysasas ..s I.
che publishers were not printing then, r., -
people, therefore, who wanted 10 rad .,'A 'W
despite their eagerness, had to conssn. s.~A -
selves inally by doing without them '''aa
Yet all the while, the drama was ba;s.
piossed as the most interesting Of naadev, :. ).
and Americans, in particular r,.~a ~ =
praised for their achievements in plavw,;t;r.
especially the writing Of the ene.act rsas s..'s-
What shall we do?" connple;ned ,,a =.
enthusiasts. "Are we never go;no - ; .s'a e.e-2
BOOKS we want Tor study, acting and plea,u,s,
Must we go through life hearing can.sa.... ss.s.
aoout plays, reading inviting criticism. -.
them and never having the chanoo - r..-' ,'..-
tEenl in print?" i"'F
Outside Of New York. Cnicae, .na
EEu
other large cities this com,Iain+ - -'s
loud, insistent and doIeful; il prev a. l..,, -.
~ hhahy reached the ears Of the New YarI.
Oranla League, which eventuallv aee;dea !
suos1dase q bookshop for the exclusive s.,o :
dramatic literature and for the so,e rrrn...
OF augnenting American cultural infe,st.
Such unique project haa never been atter,,t
ed III sl2ch manner before, and has new.
since beer, duplicated either IN this cnnr.r- :
abroad.
The plan for this subsidized bookshon o,;,
mated with a few members Of the Ne,r. yosE
Drama League, who were fcresighted eno,cs
to anticipate the growth Of drama .resd,ne
public. Their project received little encouraes.
nent, however, until Mrs. Louis Isaacs forrn,-
lated complete plan o. organization and Mr..
Harvey Robinscn, vFife Of the eminent his
toria;s, offered ..er services ss managey. With.
out colnpe nsstion.
The frat bookshop was an humble ous--s
little corner in TIE Offices CT the New York
Drama League, With a shelf or tgo for their
small stock.
If We can show paog.a plays 4 book form
they said, Eve viii arouse their curiosity and
stimulate them TO reading dialogue Eveutu-
ally we may make few sales"
The sales began more rapidly, however, than
they had anticipated, Tor the first day that
they opened customer was attracted BY q
copy Of Ibsen's "a Dolls House. displayed IN
the window. He was an old man, with
cop,oas beard. and he led little six-yca1-oa
child by the hand.
III that there doli's book he said, pointing
to the window ''has colored pictures and large
PRINT want To buy copy for my grand
daughter"
At first the oaly playa &yailable in bod
form were the works OF Henrik Iose1, t-ans.
lated by William A.aher, epoch-nahing works
which made the great Norwegian dranatisss's
work available to the general reader Then
came stray voluIaes-Haupt1nann .'The Com
ing OF Peace Suderu,ann's "The Joy Of Liz
l'lg," FreI1ch's paper bound edition of Mag.
da" and Bi5rnsoas GA Gauntlet" II the
Everyman edition.
To-day almost every prominent dramatist d
every land is available in book form. Among
the many British as1d Irish writer's represent
Ods 4pI A1SbaiiCSs art SitSNs od1AlSs EiASANt
Stanley Houghtoa, Galsworthy, D. F. Lag
Ienca, Yeats and synee Among the German.
are Fulda, Halbe, Ludwig Lewisohrls raonu-
mental transition Of Hauptmanns corapete
works, Sade-nann and Wedekind. Among the
French, are Brieuy, Sacha Guitry, Anaaie
France and Paul Hervieu. Among the bes-
gians are Maeterlinck; Spanish, Echagarg
and Jacinto Benevente; Russian, Tolstoy, Gal-
ky and Andreyeff; Swedi2h Striadberg; itai-
ian, D'Annunzio
But, most gratifying of all, is The American
list, which includes Percy Maekaye and GeeHF
Middleton, perhaps the first to have eoT
lection Of one-act plays, Percival Wilde, AZ
gustus Thomas, Clyde Fitch, Edward Sheadoa,
George Ade and Stuart Walker.
In addition to these and recent translatoas
from the Chinese, Japanese and lcelanah'
there are numerous collections OF one-ass
plays and books ON production, criticism shs
technique, all indicating conclusively that peg
pie are reading drama now with the same ssss
that they give to novels and short stories
1T was the war;" etates Mrs. Robinson
which transformed tl, bcokshop from
mere place for the distribution Of prih1ss
plays into 8 cultural and patriotic center,
place which disseminated information iof sas
community and which cc-eperated directly =
lational campaigns
At first we assisted in collecting hbrsS'ss
Tor soldiers reading; then we co-operatea :
securing entertainment; finally, under the IS
rection Of the Committee on Training esaT