Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-15

Huck. of Penrod and Vermin. Can there
be another reason for this than that
he was not taken seriously? His author
was too busy in the realms of state
craft to give his whole energy to his
boy" The result is that even his
name is unknown. But Tom Sawyer
is real
We do not mean TO insinuate that our
very brief list of authors are all who
will live Any one can make his own
list. and only the years will prove who
is right. Let no one declare, in right
eous indignation. that The Rise of
silas Lapham'' is destined for immor-
tality, too. 1t probably is. What we
attempted to do was to select the
| sure things" And when we had done
so. we were amazed to discover that,
without any forethought we had
picked books about children, almost TO
the exclusion of others. They just
came out that way.
Perhaps the next chooser would make
an entirely different list, and probably
be as correct in it as We hope We are
in ours But the things we have Sc
lected seem sure. One cannot envisiCa
an America which will not know and
love Tom Sawyer. One may be sure
that as long as sorrow obUrudes its
head in the midst of happiness Little
Boy Blue" will be sadly loved for its
melancholy sweetness.
And those poems of Riley'S, dyed in
the very spirit of the great Middle
West and thence, since its people have
spread to all parts of the country, in
the essense of the whole people of the
United States!
Riley may be the last of the
American poets. Who can say? The
modern pace, Towering in excuses of
speed, and so on, has little room in it
for the pure poet, the man or woman
who keeps alive the traditions Of the
singers with words.
Those who love poetry will refuse to
believe that America will produce no
more great poets. Whatever they be-
lieve however, they will place James
Whitcomb Riley in the list, not be-
cause he was supremely great, but more
because he was greatly human.
X x X
The uper-production of books of all
kinds since the World War led to great
confusion of values in the public mind
Words deluged the reading world, until
it was with difficulty that even astute
critics. such as the late Prof. Sherman
kept their intellectual feet in the flow
How was the average reader, then, to
know what was good, what mediocre?
He had a hundred experts" telling him
how good So-and-So was. yet often
when he sampled the mighty So-and-
So, somehow he was left cold, unre-
Sponsive.
The passage of only few years has
proved to this average reader that in
many cases he was right and the lex
\ert' was wrong. 1t is one thing to call
NleW book tremendous" quite an
other for it to live up to that adjective
1t is interesting to note that solid
merit often fails to make book of last
ing merit. AS matter of fact neither
author nor publisher, nor yet reader
can be sure of the verdict of posterity
Often slight things, which in their
day created no unheaval will continue
| to be printed and reprinted. whereas
splendid works of vast merit will &c
down to oblivion.
The few books which we have
selected as sure are not slight. They
are vastly meritorious, and mostly
bulky enough to give the solid salts
faction which length alone can give a
reader.
We commend the making of such lists
to readers. 1t enables each to trans
form himself into a critic" overnight
and there is something very soothing in
the process. And one may be right
after all.