Evening star., 1937-01-02
By NJ. G. r.

w
partment a piece called Reviewing
| on the Run" by an author set down
as Theodore Hunt, who turns out to
be none other than Mr.. Theodore Hall,
lately reviewer for the Washington
Post. Both deal with the curious
| machinery which exists between the
states of publication and purchase Of
the literary output.
Mr.. Fuller says that he noted one
| day that his II best sellers-the best
fiction and 6 best non-fiction titles
| did not amount to more than 18 per
cent of his weekly sale. So he set out
to find where the other 40 per cent
came from. His finding was as fol-
lows:
Medical works. 7ls per cent: reli-
gious works, Z per cent; periodicals. Z
per cent; rental library, per cent;
dictionaries, 2 per cent; reference
books, per cent: new books which
never make the best selling list, 40
per cent; "old favorites," 10 per cent
And the 'old favorites" chiefly in
demand he describes as follows:
Dickens still leads the field Of the
older writer's, although even his pop
ularity, so far as sales are concerned,
grows less each year. Kipling sales in
creased somewhat this past year, prob
ably owing to his death Hardy is
very steady seller, with his Tess Of
the D'UrbervilleS' outSelling any of his
other titles. Mark Twain's Tom Saw
yer and 'Huckleberry Finn still re-
tain their popularity. The. call for
Stevenson is reaching the diminishing
point, and the poor bookseller who
stocks Meredith has a permanent in
vestment. There is still a constant
demand for the poets. In the juvenile
field, Black Beauty Heidi Pin
occhio' and the Alcotts, in their many
editions. are safer than Government
bonds as stock items. Alice In Won
derland' sells both as juvenile and
as a grown-up, and / am sure that
this title, if carried in our scientific
or religious department, would sell
even there"
So that is what the public reads.
Just why, one wonders. are Dickens
and Stevenson losing their "appeal?"
Mr.. Hall. in Harper's writes his con-
fessions. For 80 months, he relates,
he wrote reviews of books. and for 81
of the 80 he wrote a daily book COLI
umn. He tells in his present piece
what it is to do daily reviewing.
The present reviewer, who has never
had that kind of work to do, notes cer-
tain similarities and differences be-
tween it and the weekly manner OF
stint.
mo occupation on earth," says Mr..
Hall, "can be more Sedentary and
more solitary than book reviewing"
Well. that is true whether one reviews
by the day or week or month: it Is
true of all reviewing. But surely it is
an argument for the satisfactory ma
ture of the job and not a point of
detriment, as Mr.. Hall makes it. For
your reviewer is the most independ-
ent being in the world. He is
small business in himself-manager
producer, all hands. He knows only
one restriction and that is the dead
line for copy. He can do his work
anywhere: he knows no Office hours;
he has no associates. Surely, only a
person Of melancholy temperament
could object to this. and such a per-
son has no business reviewing in any
manner. One should come to the pro-
fession we'll heeled with positively call
lous cheerfulness. And to such sturdy
souls as do it Is pretty nice occupa-
ton. Except for answering letters
to the love-lorn, the present reviewer
would not change it for any work
newspaper offers.
Mr.. Hall goes on to say that in
selecting his daily book he chose
only the volumes which interested him
at the moment. This, too, applies
to the weekly reviewer. with Difference,
Of course, to the fact that most re-
viewers get the same output of books.
and so cover necessarily the same
field in q few weeks time. Still, the
present reviewer has a fixed rule not
to look at any other comment on q
work until her own is written and.
preferably, printed. This Is not SO
much an assertion of independence
as 1t Is game.
But when Mr. Hall writes that he
was asked very many times, do you
really read all the books you review?"
he Is speaking, without question, for
the whole reviewing tribe 1t is the
question which leaps from the lips
Of the casual stranger who wanders
into the office because the door Is
open: it is the question put con-
fldentially to one by ones best friends:
it is the cynical query of ones brother
in the newspaper craft; it is the
average persons idea Of polite con-
versation with a reviewer. And Mr..
Hall says, There can hardly be q
yes-or-no answer"
He goes on: "* the daily re-
viewer isn't worth his salt if he
spends more than three or four hours
on any novel short of 'Musa Dagh' or
Anthony Adverse In non-fiction a
briefer period should do for anything
less imposing and valuable than
Technics and Civilization If he
takes more than a hour over a de-
tective story he is dawdling. The
rub, of course, comes when he does
two or three or more books in q day.
l have, may my conscience and the
authors forgive me, done five or six
on occasion, and that Is little
wearing"
The fact of the matte is that the
quality OF any book is apparent, not
in the first few chapters, or even
pages. but in the first few sentences.
The author who composed it could
write-or he could not. He cannot
disguise the condition. To say other
wise is as absurd as to insist that a
musician, playing a concert, must need
be heard through before listeners can
know whether he is competent or not.
If you do not know after hearing
three selections. why will you know
after hearing six? AS to mediocrity
In Wrifin0 II jS tho capa oc ha dnacc