The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-23
Press Director Sees
Progress In Literature

the grocery bills and face all kinds
of financial difficulties, but they
don't become degenerates. The
people in First The Fields for
example, r of high economic and
educational level, but 1t is these
people that many historians have
ignored.
THE old idea, you see, was that
in the south of pre-civil war days
we had the planter, the poor white
and the negro. Writers ignored the
large middle class, in which fami-
lies might have two or three slaves
or even no slaves, but owned Their
farms and made up the bulk of
the population.
lone thing we hope to do is to
get, somehow, a book either of
stories about Individual farmers,
or a book on one farmer, to shw
the picture of successful farmers.
We don't want to go in FOR shallow
boosting, but there list anything
in print today showing how the
mass of farmers make good liv-
ings in the country. The most writ
ings say they are either starving
to death or are all of the upper
crust.
II would be the first to insist
on the great importance of the
needs of the proverty stricken in
the south, but 1 believe that one
of the best ways to learn is to see
good models, something tn a t
works. Show the people something
that works, as well as something
that doesn't"
Along this line, the press has
published the works Of Dr.. Howard
w. Odum, director of the institute
for research in social science at
the university. An outstanding So
ciolgist and authority on the
south's problems, he has conduct
ed studies directed generally to-
ward the problems of optimurn
production-how the south can be
made more prosperous, what it
it might produce and consume.
In addition, the. press h q s
brought out a wide variety of
works-in n season, its list
varies from a textbook for litter
ate adults to a book on Egyptian
art, from a study of the theory
of legal science, the family and
the law, to : book on the charac-
teristics of a 18th century Spanish
poet.
Now the press is publishing the
"reminiscences of Joseph u S
Daniels, ambassador to Mexico
and, as editor and publisher Of the
Raleigh News and Observer, a
man long prominent in Mort Caro-:
lima.
Among the works which Couch
hopes some day to produce is a
collection of the political writings
of Americas great-Thomas JEFF
ferson, Alexander Hamilton,
James Madison, John Marshall
which are now available only to
the most pedantic.
.It is a disgraceful thing"
Couch remarked" that anyone can
20 to a book store and get good,
cheap editions Of Plato and Artists
tie and all the other political
writer's, down to the time when
Americans began writing about
democracy. Hut you can't get such
editions of Americas best political
writer's. For instance, how many
people do you suppose have read
the original documents in the
formulation of the Monroe doc
trine?"
Recently the press has made
publishing history by breaking IN
to the best seller lists with a
Civil War book, II Rode With
stonewall," by Henry Kyd Doug.
las, a M~arylander who went
through the war with General
jackson. The book, written ny
Douglas from his a dairy, went
unpublished FOR years before the
University Press discovered it.
Couch smiled with satisfaction
in inparting that information.
Il guess you would call it news
when a university press gets out a
best seller, wouldn't your" he ask.
ed.