Evening star., 1933-05-30

| Publication of The Readers Guide
| to Everynans Library" as the 889th
volume Of that famous series, will
awaken memories in thousands
Memories of a youngster who used
to be, and who still is. in a way. but
who nevertheless is quite lost over the
years.
The personal libraries Of many young
men began with the smallish, cheap
books in Everyman's, in the days when
they sold for 35 cents copy.
When the desire for wisdom was far
in advance Of the size of ones pocket
book. that was when the Everyman
classics, as edited by Ernest Rhys, made
their greatest appeal.
Many a larger more magnificent and
vastly more costly volume. perhaps, has
gone into the home library since, but
the significant thing is that never has
copy OF the small books been ousted.
1t is safe to say that every reader
who has had the genuine good fortune
to be able to keep his books from child
hood days retains all of his old love
for these smaller volumes, with their
capable bindings, their too small mar
gins and their careful editing.
Other publications may have been
disposed of by gift or otherwise, but
the various copies in the Everyman
series still do duty on the home shelves.
One was not ashamed of them, then,
when one had no others, and today,
even in the presence of ornate things,
with super-wide margins and very large
type, one values his Everyman editions.
x x x 4
Where else, then or now, could one
u
A quarter of a century, and more, in
fast-moving world. in which human
ity seems to be moving faster than ever
tone wonders if it is, maybe it is just
noiser), might have been expected to
have made more difference. in our es-
timation of book values, than the years
seem to have made.
While the Everyman library is pat
emily a Victorian choice, so many
of its inclusions are timeless. certainly,
as many as other collections, twenty
five years from now, will be able to
show, we doubt not.
For Montaigne's Essays" certainly
will be as delightful a quarter of a
century hence as they were in 1905, the
year the Everyman collection began.
X x
In those years, school DAYS for so
many of U.s. the young fellow with
plenty of aspirations and no money to
speak of knew but two places to go to
find the books he craved.
The first was the Public Library and
the second the store which stocked the
Everyman. Every time one managed
to save the stable sum of 35 cents it
went forthwith into an Everyman
Between such times, however, there
was always the Public Library. then as
now. We understand that during the
past three years there has been a tre-
mendous growth in the attendance at
the various public reading institutions,
including this old standard. but we
wonder about the juvenile attendance.
1t always was large.
Many small boy in the past tackled
without hesitation Prescotts With
Cortez in Mexico" as found at the
Public Library, and other three-volume
works.
1t is impossible to believe that boys
and young men we're any different
then, although no doubt the Lack of
movies may have impelled them into
a more extensive search for action and
movement in literature.
What appealed about those long his
tories, OF which we have given but
one example. was the color and life
they played up" as we would say
now. There was something in them
for the boyish imagination.
A boy, and especially the high school