Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-15

Biography and detective fiction have
forged to the front in bookdom so
quickly and completely that the move
ment has left many readers gasping
There have always been biographies
always plenty of detective stories, Why
this sudden plethora, this jamming OF
the bookWayS with these two types?
It has been estimated that 5000 new
books are to be issued by American pub
fishers this Autumn season. The total
well may cause CONSERVATION among
bookloVers.
How is one to keep up with them?
Publishers themselves seemingly have
slapped their own program of fewer and
better books squarely in the face as
they prepare to pour onto the reading
public the largest number OF volumes In
the history of publishing.
The demand for the two types given
above, together with novels of all de-
scriptionS and short stories, accounts
for the abandonment of the formal pro-
gram of fewer books.
The people want them, the people
show themselves able to buy them,
therefore authors and publishers every
where are willing and eager to comply.
No one can blame them, but the mass
of books will cause many O perp .exed
reader to hesitate, if not shudder.
X X \
Above all, the reading public de-
mands biography and detective fiction.
Where once biographies were merely
biographies, today they are a sort of
cross between the old standard life"
and the perennial novel.
In reading many of the new biog-
raphies it is difficult to decide whether
one is reading novel or an authorized
life of some one, so journalistic in tone
have most of them become.
Even the great Encyclopaedia Britain
MICA is taking q tip from the news
paper reporters and has issued its new
fourteenth edition crammed with pic
lures illustrating articles written by
active men of affairs in the various
branches of knowledge and endeavor.
Successful sportsmen, both professional
and amateur, handle their several
Specialties.
The craze today is for actually. That
is why the biography and the detective
novel are riding high in popular favor.
The World War put an end, in thou
sands of minds, to the old-faShtoned
blinking of facts. Mankind took the
war raw and now it is willing to take
the worst and best of everything else
without the batting Of an eyelid.
The biography succeeds in doing this
OeGLeT JIlHn SIIdlSIlb 1lC1lOIlS OtAICA WAoC
known as the novel. The detective
story, though completely fiction, gives
an impression of raw life outdoing that
of the average piece of fiction, either
In the longer or shorter form.
y X X
The delight of the present reading
world in biography also has a bit OF
hysteria in it. One may wonder whether
thousands of readers do not find them
selves In the position Of the newly
rich man in Moliere's play, who went
around telling his acquaintance that
he spoke prose.
Many present-day biography readers
harbor intellectual snobbery, evidently,
so intense is their devotion to this type
of writing. They are pleased with
themselves. They feel that when one
is able to read such large books with
pleasure one has arrived at a new peak
of intellectually.
AS a matter Of cold fact, many of the
new biographies are such easy read
ing" that children in the sixth grade OF
the public schools might indulge In
them with real pleasure.
Many of the --latest" biographies may
be known by their size, being issued to
give the reader his moneys worth In
paper and binding as well as In story
and writing. If any one takes any par
ticular pride in his reading OF these