Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRAcEWELL.

out of ten, or twenty, or maybe a
He can remember checking OF Thorn
ton WilderS Bridge of San Luis Rey."
His favorite clerk at his favorite book
store recommended 1t highly. The FIRST
edition, she had told him, would be
sought by collectors.
And she was right. The first edition
OF Wilder's curious masterpiece Is today
bringing fancy prices. AT the time of
publication he had looked 1t over, turn
ing the pages with some curiosity.
He did not buy, however. Experience
told him that If it were genuinely good
it would still be in print at any time,
and that he would get 1t whenever the
mood moved him.
Although given to self-analysis. he
could not fathom why he did not buy
1t. Two years later, when 1.-THE Bridge
had been on the best-seller list for
months, he got copy of an edition
in paper backs, which he read standing
up in the garden.
1t was genuine pleasure to him to
uphold, in his own mind, the collective
judgments Of thousands of fellow Amer
leans who had called the book fine.
1t is. He found genuine style" there
as well as an unusual collection of stiff
cardboard figures in the semblance of
men and women, so compounded of
reality and art that no reader might
wholly separate the elements.
When he had first seen the name
VIII Durant, and had noted the publi-
cation Of his "Story of Philosophy, -
which has since practically superseded
al other such works for the general
reader, ne had checked 1t immediately.
Il must get that" So he had said,
and 1t would have seemed that he must
ana should have purchased it. for he
knew almost as much about philosophy
as Durant himself, having read in the
great philosophers since childhood
The book became best seller" but
he never bought it for his own. He
was TOO busy following his own devices
IN the world OF books. He had several
subjects which interested him, and two
French authors who claimed him for
their own at the time.
he was reading Dumas and lola. as
Tar apart as sun and moon, and vet
both imbued with the spirit of France.
which, in literature, means concise bril-
lance, quality of reality scarcely to
be found in the novels Of any other
race.
We said at first that the books which
one intends to read but which perhaps
| one never gets around to are among
the most interesting of all. This Is
true, in the main, because they hold. as
In beautiful vase, or clear goblet of
| crystal, all the lure of the unknown.
A book read Is book run through
the sieve Of human mind, which re-
tains something or all of it, depending
upon the contact which the reader
makes with the writer.
In going through this process a book
| receives that slight contamination
which all things do which are strained
through human brains, in the double
process known as writing and reading.
With a book which Is never read.
however, such is not the case. It re-
mains forever In its virgin purity, with
only its name and its authors name
| displayed to the admiring world
Every one can think Of some such
book, which, for reasons which he NAV
| not have been able to understand, he
has put off reading all his life. It NAV
have been Emerson'S 1.-THE Conduct Of
| Life"
The very title had stimulated him
for years. Once he took it out of the
case, determined to read it at last. but
an inner spirit warned him against it.
The spirit said of this, as 1t would saw
OF all such books: Let 1t alone, It is
not meant for you to read-now, Take
1t with you, when you 60, and read 1t
| In Paradise"