Evening star., 1929-01-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEW ELL.

One of the significant phases of the
new sort of biographical writing which
has struck popular fancy lies not sc
much in the biographies, as interesting
as many Of them are, as in the way they
are printed.
Almost without exception these large
volumes are printed in large type, with
generous spacing between lines, placed
on pages which permit the proper mar
gins on all sides, according to the Will
liam Morris standards.
Perhaps not one reader in hundred
who has not made a special study OF
the matter realizes that the physical
appearance Of the printed page is what
helps him enjoy his book.
Yet nothing can be more sure than
that this factor has a very large in
fluence in helping the new biographical
studies go over big with all classes
and types of readers
The fact that these books cost be-
tween 81 and SIS, usually, per volume
permits publishers to be more generous
with type and white paper than if they
were issuing them in cheaper form.
Those given to the habit of browsing
over secondhand book stalls know that
hundred years ago printers seemed to
work on the idea that the more words
which could be crammed into a volume
the better for all concerned.
If reader will go to the trouble OF
looking up a book-any book-printed
about 1900, either in the United States
or in England, he will discover that a
minute size of type was used on a small
sized page. And as for the spacing be-
tween lines, it was reduced to the abso-
lutte minimum. The total result was a
heavy, solid appearing page which a
modern reader shrinks from attempting
Probably the book did not have the
same effect on a reader of a century
ago.
In the first place. the man of hun
cred years ago had no other standards
to go on Money was not so plentiful,
either with publishers or buyers Of
books. Economy was necessary. Maya
sizes of type faces available. Newspa-
sizes of type cases available. NeWspa-
pers die the same thing. In the Sec
ond place, the need for eyesight con-
servation had not been preached as yet.
When one thinks of our ancestors por-
ing over such minutely printed books
with the aid of candlelight, one wonders
how they ever managed to survive total
loss of eyeSight. The sins of the ia
theirs, they say. are visited upon the
children. Perhaps those old books had
something to do with the fact that eye
glasses are seen on thousands of faces
today. Who knows?
X X X X
The printing world knew better, even
in those days Along with the hundred
and one volumes using tiny type, there
appeared q few tones printed in Ia
point or larger, with generous spacing
and margins.
We recall magnificent set of the
poems Of Herbert Spencer, who is to-
day famous chiefly as 'the poets poet. !"
author of the "Fairie Queen" in which
appear the Red Cross knight and the
spotless Una. These volumes were
printed in type SO large that had it not
been for the physical size of the vol
umeS themselves it would have been alb
surd Based upon the page size, how
ever, the type was beautifully appro-
pirate.
Those great books remain in libraries
today as examples of what may be done
in suiting type to the human eye. No
one would ever have his eyes!ght in