Evening star., 1924-08-11
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOVER.

Inc bookloyer has been delighted
to observe a notable increase In the
attention paid to books by the press.
daily, weekly and monthly. There is
hardly a daily paper in the country
that does not treat of books, either
in Saturday or Sunday supple
ment or feature or in a column once
or twice or several times a week.
Perhaps the best example of the
book supplement is that of the New
York Times. Among weekly journals
giving much attention to books are
the Nation and the New Republic;
political opinions, their book reviews
are excellent. Several Of the great
monthly magazines have, within the
last year or so, added book depart
ments, including the delightful LAS
Like It," by Prof. William Lyon
Phelps in Scribner's. "A Red Letter
in Worlds Work, and similar fea-
lures in the Century and Harper's and
in the new and radical American
Mercury. Among monthlies devoted
exclusively to books, to that old
standby, The Bookman. has recently
Review of the Literary Digest. whose
popularity is attested by the claim
that it achieved more than 10O, 900
circulation in it's first year. There
must have been a demand for these
new features and these new publica-
produced and achieved such successes.
1t is gratifying to observe these new
evidences of wider interest in books,
particularly at time when 1t is
popularity supposed that automobiling,
the movies, the radio and other nom
literary interests have absorbed all of
the remaining leisure of our speeded
up lives and have left no time for
reading. A reading of the book news
and reviews implies a reading of the
ports of increased sales by book
sellers and of increased circulation by
public libraries serve to show that
this implication is borne out by the
facts.
To the journals already in the field
giving attention to books has just
been added the Saturday Review of
Literature, devoted exclusively to
books. The publication of its initial
number August 2 is quite the lit
erary sensation of the moment. A
few months ago a great New York
newspaper changed ownership. Its
literary supplement had achieved
distinct place among discerning read
ers, largely by reason of the very in
dlVfdual character of it's editorship
and OF It's reviews, practically all of
which were signed by eminent critics
and scholars. Since the editors were
unwilling to fall in with the plans of
the new management, which they be-
neVed would result in the loss of the
individual favor that was the char
acteristic quality of the supplement,
they resigned and have now launched
the new Saturday Review of Litera-
ture, which may be expected to carry
On the traditions for which they
stood in their former relation Since
theirs is pre-eminentIy personal jour
nalism. names are in order: DR..
Henry Seidel Candy, editor in chief;
Miss Amy Loveman and William Rose
Benet, associate editors (the latter
writes weekly column of literary
christopher Morley, writing the
Bowling Green and devoting it to lit
erature, and Mrs. May Lamberton
Becker, conducting a readers guide
In which questions on literary topics
are answered.
In this first number of the Satur-
day Review of Literature, Dr. Candy
announces his program, or rather
gives his confession of faith for his
new critical journal, and this he does
in two editorials. In his brief leader,
Good and Bad Reviewing" he at
tempts to fix the need for science,
for art and for ideas in reviewing
THE reviewer" he says, must have
an idea, whether it is bellies lettres
conscience or history that he is criticiz-
ing. 1t is certain that science makes
good ideas probable, and sterilizes
bad ones. 1t is certain that the art
of reviewing is to approach the book
then, if the idea comes, to be able
to express it" But, he concludes,
1T is love of books and an almost
passionate desire to get what is best
in them that makes the best critics.
Such desire can find it's expression
only in an art" In his second and
longer editorial, entitled Timely and
Timeless," he avows that a literary
review "iS a kind of literary per-
sonality with motive and character"
whose purpose is to stand for the
''timeless literature of retreat books
in their noblest function of self heal
and Illumination but also to seek
out the good new books, whether
tney contain great art or little, since
they "are news Of human nature, as
it is at the moment. We do not read
a new book because we think it will
live; we read it because it is alive.
This is the timely view of
literature, and vigorous reviews and
active minded readers cannot escape
it, even by trying" He concludes by
saying that criticism, which is part
of the living fabric of cotemporary
literature, must be keenly aware of
both past and present, and partisan
of both. 1t must be like modern
university where one seeks prin-
ciples, but also works in laboratories
of immediate experience amidst the
vivid confusion of experiment. In
one guise a graybeard philosopher
searching for the best, but also in
the mood of youth, watching the
three-ringed show under the great
tent of today-yet discriminating in
both-that is the double function of
criticism and this review" The
Booklover cordially joins in the well
come to the Saturday Review of
Literature, standing as it does for
such principles, and particularly in
the light of the previous record of
its editors in their former association.
y \ \
When asked why he happened to
choose Joan of Arc as the subject of
a play, Bernard Shaw replied, $50
Drinkwater wouldn't do it,