The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-02-15
Notes From
Bacon Library
Continued from Page 4

lers for as Harold Williams, attorney
for Boston's "Old Corner Book
Store" says:
ut is easy to stand on the side
lines and cheer while some clerk in
bookstore or lending library faces
the chance of fine or imprisonment
for selling some book he may not
even have read. 1t is another mat
ter to fight your own battles. =. . 1t
seems that what We have a right
to expect now is not words but &C
ton"
The most lamentable part of the
whole business is that Boston s
Self-impoSed censorship has never
succeeded in keeping a single book
from the public New York book
stores are swamped with orders from
Boston citizens for Boston banned
books The best Stimulant / know
to thrust an ordinary, or even poor
book, into the beStSeller lists is to
have Boston ban it, How unfor-
tunate that the public is so gullible
Today booksellers all over the
country have waiting-lists for copies
of very mediocre historical novel
that the ever curious public has
been most eager to read since its
Boston-banning and the attendant
publicity. What a paradise for the
writer whose aim is to use peoples
curiosity as a means to making
money!
On the other hand, how unfor-
tunate that many serious books,
written to make known to the pub
tic lamentable social conditions have
suffered from being banned in Bos-
tom Such is the case with a recent
novel dealing with racial conditions
in the Sorth. BoSton'S stand has
caused Su h books to be read with
entirely the wrong emphasis and,
as l said last week. The genuine
purpose of many such books as
analyses of social problems is lost
in the Juror of 'page-scanning'.
True. more people read the book ]
refer to than ever would have had
Boston not forbidden" it; but die
the majority read it in its entirety?
Did they grasp its social signifi-
canoe? In a large per -2rtGge OF
cases I fear the answer is NO" No
thoughtful citizen. no librarian. car
fail to be concerned over such re-
grcttable circumstances.
Considering all this. you can I'M
derstand why lie Bennett Cert, !
felt like saying Hear. hea-i" when
I read this paragraph. of his in a
recent Saturday Review of Litera-
ture":
I'm Boston. judge finally popped
up with sUfs; lent gumrtion and
common sense IN tweak tho blue
noses If imbaciIic vi,e snconors
The h,r~.z MANS is 1udoo FIiieb
Aoiou, end in tbrovino ort case
against a new book presented in
i,is co,-rt no dec o~ed ongriIv .rhis
SIT ind 1T litera- uTe I'm get
tine t.ra1 of bc-,,S beinp b-n1e4
Il hoe 700 hoI +l,e ,,,irt u.baro ~
,o,,rt,c bpsi.aee is divideI ,a+rao,,
bool -l,ors a,d boo,-r,o,.ers r.,
mt ,or mo or ven mr. the nolice
i~,,o~tr,ant - o-t7,;.-h IN, 1itor-
-. t-44a Of - .--,o-,,,.,,..,., paar
-"
An4 if wos w., re7l bona that !
pol the fiIIov.;no item in the Ian
18th Issue of the New York Times
-ook Review. ..Thav (or ANYHOW
q lot of peo,la I'M thare) are less
than proud of Boston's way of ham
ming books esteemed elsewhere in
the land. and so the Massachusetts
legislature will presently be enter
tanning a bill to end the private
z1,ppression of books in the Ameri-
can Athents and elsewhere in the
state.
1.-THE bill was initiated by Rich
ard F. Fuller, president of the OLD
Corner Book Store and head of the
Boston Board of Trade of Retail
Book Merchants. and it will be
backed in the Legislature by the
Massachusetts Library Association
It's most important provisions are
for legal action against a book ir
civil court dnstead of against q
bookseller in criminal court. as un.
der the present law and considera.