Evening star., 1924-11-29
THE PUBLIC
LIBRARY
2.-The Value of Biography.

Biography occupies unique plar.
in literature and offers many rewards
to the reader. Like fiction, il follows
the fortune of hero or heroine, has
beginning, end, plot and action.
To the reader who desires some
thing moro worth whiln than tic
ordinary fiction, biography affords =
fertile field of reading. Like hstor,-,
it contains facts and information
about various periods, personages aTd
localities, but lighted up by the pcT-
sonal and dramatic interest AFFORDED
by the subject OF tho biography.
Would one care TO know just how
persons lived in the eighteenth Ger
tury in Poland one could have 40
more vivid picture than the memoir
of the Countess krasinska. She tells
her story naively. beginning 1T her
10th year and carrying through her
pathetic married life a tale which
contains not only her romance hut
also an accurate description Of tLN
food. costumes, customs and family
relations OF the period.
If one cares to know something OF
the sacrifices and passion for publ:
service which has animated some -
our great men, one has only to read
the Life and Letters" Of Franklin X.
Lane or walter II. Page. In the on"
case the problems are largely nations
and in the other our International re
lations depended on the spirit and
ability Of our diplomat at the Court
of 81. James at one of the most pre-
carious periods in the country's III.
Readers who find history Synonymous
with dry reading, wars and lines "f
success ssion, find in biography an agTc"-
able way of acquiring historical II
forma tion. for the interest conter5
around the character and his achtcvc-
mentS and the historical information
IS used only as BACKGROUND or set
ting. This setting, however, goes
deeper into the readers mind 1ha 1
he suspects.
Besides satisfying the fiction reaa-
er, who wants something deeper and
the history reader who wants some
thing more readable. biography has
several other characteristics that
commend it. 1t develops our under
standing and makes us have moro
sympathy, opens up new channels Of
interest and is also a great source Of
inspirat ton. The Life of Fabre," by
his kinsman, transports US into his
humble home and puts us in touch
with a spirit animated by scientific
interest, to whom every little insect
was subject of minutest study. or
take the first volume of Darwin's
Life and Letters" with it's portrayal
of intellectual honesty and patient
industry in spite of very bad health.
Best of all, biography furnishes us
with friends, the very best and most
interesting, who have lived at any
time or In any place. We are 10
longer forced to live in a narrow en-
vironment, but are the peers of AL
the great and good through the ages.
We may know intimately Joan OF
Arc or Beatrice d'Este, the charming
little Italian lady who exerted much
influence upon the politics of her
time, or Nine. Geoffrin, who was tho
friend of the encyclopedias in Franco
in the re-rovolutionary days. or
Petrarch, the most delightful of let
ter writers, or Nine. lie Brun, who
went painting from court to court
in the various European countries
and gives in her memoirs pictures OF
the great personages of her day, or
Washington, as Owen Wister shows
him to us in his Seven Ages %
Washington"