Looking Back and Ahead

ATLANTIC SHOP-TALK

ON one of the busiest of the busy days before Christmas a sudden demand came from a newspaper office for a compact answer to the question, ‘ What has the year 1922 meant to the Atlantic Monthly Press?’ Thus called upon to stand and deliver, a spokesman for the Press recounted several instances of its underestimation of the public demand for recently published books, and declared in conclusion, ‘The experience of the year shows clearly that good books, attractively produced, — not too many of them, — find an immediate welcome, and do not wear it out.’

The cold fact behind this Bunsbian observation is that reprintings have been required before they were expected, and books of former seasons have gone on confirming our faith in them, and demonstrating afresh the fact that the public appears to like in print the same things that the Atlantic office likes in manuscript. We have consequently entered a new year with a renewed confidence.