Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-15
Constant Increase in Output
of Books Viewed With Favor

Constantly increasing output of
books from American publishing
houses and a great volume of buying
FOR home consumption are hailed by
the press of the country as evidence
OF a healthy condition among the peo-
pie. The revival of the old time book
store. which was believed to have be-
come extinct, is earnestly welcomed,
and the large representation of non.
fiction is accepted as evidence of seri-
Gus thought in the face of accusations
which are summarized in the term
Jazz age
american publishers are very much
encouraged, says the Cincinnati
Times Star, 'over the facts brought
out at their annual luncheon in New
York. 1t appears that about 100, OO0.-
600 volumes are printed in this coun.
try in q year That is an immense
number. Allocated to our estimated
population of lit 100000. 1t means
that every American buys and pre-
sumably reads five-siXths of a book
per annum. If babies too small even
to look at the pictures in linen book
are stricken out of the calculation,
the impressive fact energies that every
American buys a book a year. Com
pare this showing with that of less
enlightened faces. There are Samo-
yeds who read no more than a book in
a generation, Senegambians who ad-
nit difficulty in wading through a
book in a lifetime. Eskimos who have
mistaken the calf-bound volumes of
explorers for desiccated food. But our
superb Nation buys nearly as manv
books in a tWelvemonth as 1t does
inner tubes for it's car tires"
The declaration from the publishers
that "the last half dozen years have
been the most prosperous of the
American book trade" and the predic-
ton by one that "in the next decade
the domestic sale of books will double
and the export sales quadruple" are
hailed by the Fort Worth Star-Tele-
gram as evidence that not all of
American prosperity is going into au-
tomobiles, radio and fur coats" The
New York World finds lone encourag-
ing symptom of diffusion of literary
tastes in the remarkable sale reached
by serious books of high price" and
another heartening fact" in the Gin
crease in the number of publishers"
while mot the least should be counted
the revival Of the book store"
X x X X
AS to the prophecy for the next
ion Is impelled to utter a warning. as
it declares the reading public might
he safer If this prophecy turned out
to be a flop Twice as many books
as the publishers are now pouring
over our innocent heads looks like an
awful lot. 1t is all many of us can
do to keep up with the current output
of books. We will have to learn to
read twice as rapidly as we do now
and perhaps have book racks built
onto our dining room tables and into
our bathtubs. so that we can read all
the time. It's obvious, too, that there
won't be much time left over for mere
thinking. Unless, of course, some
body discovers the great truth that 1t
isn't necessary to keep up with the
whole output, and that ostracism from
polite society doesn't inevitably follow
failure to read all the current best
sellers"
OF the various individual products
Of authors that appeared, the Syracuse
Herald quotes from the Publishers
Weekly the statement that NEARLY
10 900 books-or, to be exact, 9,925-
were printed in the United States in
1926. This was at the average rate, y
continues the Herald. "of more than
80 for each secular day. OF works of
fiction alone the published total was
1881, or about five a day, exclusive of
Sundays. The following statistical list
covers the other classes of new books
for the year 1926: Religion, 916;
poetry and drama, $3.50; juvenile, 596;
science, SOS; history, 555; biography,
551; sociological subjects, 544; gen.
eral literature, 447; historical books.