Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-11

Every book to be kept as q treasure
must have some point of interest.
It may be cost, or age, or rarity, or
beauty OF expression, but 1t must be
something.
The personality of the collector, per-
haps. has the most to do with It.
His preferences may count in the
scale as a supreme point of interest.
1t follows that there are many angles
from which the home collection may be
approached, but that to be a true IL
brary 1t must have one or more of them
and not just be haphazard group of
unrelated volumes.
Where home library falls down the
hardest is in being a mere unrelated
aggregation Of individual stars" of
bookdom, without the group shining
through one or more OF the reasons for
being given above.
The home collection not built on de-
cided likes and dislikes and the one AS
much as the other resembles the aver
age drug store circulating library, in
teresting enough in its way, but so I'M
related to the needs of any one person
that it partakes of mere herding to-
gether of the products of minds.
Products of intelligence in the mass
produce an uncomfortable feeling in
the mind of the beholder. Who that
has viewed the huge stacks of some
great library but has been confused by
the scene? So many books, so many
subjects, so many words, so many au-
thors and titles, that the brain stag
gers before the literary mob scene
presented.
Merely to buy books as one finds
them, or as they come Keeling from the
publishers presses, is to lose most Of
the pleasure and profit which book COL
Letting has for human being of aver
age intelligence. He who so purchases
without thought, should try revamping
his program in order that the home Ii
brary may mean something to him, as
a human being distinguished from
other members OF the race.
When he achieves this altered view
point he will realize that his friend
who paid a fancy price for Rockwell
Kent's small work on bookplates knew
what he was doing. He will understand
something of the pleasure gained by
the collector of odd items, the diligent
gatherer of books upon single theme
or the enthusiastic one who herds to-
gether the novels of the French mas
ters.
The necessity for gaining this view
point may be stressed particularly for
those busy persons who somehow or
other have got the queer idea that util-
ity is the one point of Judgment of a
book for admission into home library.
Such honest persons willingly buy
works of reference, either for their own
use or that of their children, but feel
in their heart of hearts that the pur-
chase of works of other types is some
thing of an extravaganza.
The money consideration looms large
in their minds. They want to see the
possibilities Of IS received for every SIS
spent. They would think nothing at
all Of spending several times that sum
for an evening at the theater, with
dinner following. but II 1t is suggested
to them that a good work of biography
may be secured for half the sum, they
declare the amount to be excessive.
This viewpoint can be corrected by
no outside interference It's cure, for
such we may call it, can come only
from the individual himself. In this
matter every man must be his own doc
tor. Here we have self-healing with a
vengeance. The unitarian outlook on
books must give way to the larger view
point, which regards books as some-
thing more than so much paper re-
ceived in exchange for certain num-
Der OF dollars. Unless one honestly can
secure this outlook without too much
WEAKNESS of spirit, we would advise him
to rest content as he is.
Books, after all, are only a part Of
life, and not the whole of 1t, as some of