The New York herald., 1922-04-23
Charles Scribner's Sons.
TIVE are interested in your
M letter and its question
w naire OF our experience

w naire Of our experience
with books of the last year and we
feel sure that your presentation OF
the replies of various publishers to
these will make a suggestive and en-
Tightening page of your spring book
number. In finding the answers
10 your queries we have had diff
Guilty in some cases OF singing out
a book from many close competitors
and we have no doubt that some OF
our decisions, carefully as we have
thought them out. are open to dis
cussion.
IL we answer the last question
before the first it will be because in
our case they are closely related.
In our opinion. you ask. is the new
writer holding his own with the
writer whose reputation was estao-
lished before the war? We should
not have been surprised If you had
put the question the other way. ask
ing IL the elder were still maintain
ing his position. The new writer Is
so talked OF, his work so welcomed,
"the spirit OF youth" so ascendant
in the world in general. that many
believe him TO be crowding out the
established men In letters as well.
In answering this question we should
not be too far influenced by such re-
markable instances as +. Scott FitZ-
gerald. Such writer's as Frank II.
Spearman, Jackson Gregory. Mere
dith Nicholson. Francis Lynde. &c.
whose regulations were established
before the war. are decidedly hold
ing their own" Surely Galsworthy
must be listed among the older
writer's and the demand for his nov
els has been so great that we have
felt warranted in reprinting in
single volume the novels and stories
which form The Forsyte Saga"
And this brings us to the first
question on your list, and our reply
that John Galsworthy's ITO Let" the
last novel of 1.-THE Forsyte Saga
leads our 1921 list in popularity. is
another proof of our answer to the
last.
Non-fiction is nearly always led by
biography. This year Mrs. Robin
sons "My Brother Theodore Roose-
Welt" headed the list, but another
book stood so high that we feel JUS
tilted in mentioning it,. especially as
its success shows, we think. a trend,
since the war, toward serious books
and those treating of world ques-
tons. This is "The New World of
Islam" by Lothrop Stoddard. whose
"Rising Tide of Color" the year be-
fore met with similar success.
In asking rs there. in your list,
any book that the reading public
seems to have unfairly neglected
when its merits are considered? we
assume that you mean here not to
confine us to the books OF a single
year. OF fiction. THE Children OF
the Desert" by Louis Dodge, trag-
edy of the desert country OF the
Southwest, seems to US so powerful
and dramatic in its story. so fun OF
the color OF that mysterious and
tragic land. and so real in its char
acters that we cannot help feeling
that the demand for IL should have
been greater. We believe. too. that
IL this book were published to-day,
when the distractions Of war time
are absent. II would be more ade-
auately appreciated. In non-fiction,
a book which was largely praised by
the reviewers and caused much dis
cussion in the press has. curiousiy
enough. had less success than the
importance Of its theme and its inn
mediate nature would seem 10 justify.
This Is rs America Safe for Demoe-
raey?" by William McDougall-a
warning as 10 the state of our civili-
zation by great psychologist.
one associates a discovery" in
publishing with fiction. The ex-
pected answer 10 the question WAS
there. in your 1921 list. any book
that stands out in the light OF par
ticularly interesting discovery"
would bring forth the name of
young novelist. But this year. in
our case. the discovery Is not a novel
ist. but traveller. She is Winifred
Hawkridge Dixon. Boston girl who.
few years ago. crossed America
and explored it's Southwest in a mo-
tor. in which she wandered about up
Indian trails and through Indian viii