The Atlantic Bookshelf: Conclusion

BEFORE the battle of new books begins to distract us, I should like to invite some thought to those old ones, those classics and near-classics, which appear in Everyman’s Library. It is an American habit of mind to take everything that is inexpensive for granted. Thus Everyman’s Library has become as accustomed a part of our education as the public school. Most of us have only begun our education at the time of our twentyfirst birthday ; most of us have constant — but not always recognized — need of those books which temper and sharpen the mind. Here is a library of nine hundred different volumes which embraces literature, from Eschylus to Zola, a library which holds the best of the ancient, the foreign, and the English writers, and which is beginning to invite the moderns. Byron, had he wished to spend the money, might with diligence have amassed such a collection; Keats could never have afforded it.

The idea of making such a collection first occurred to Ernest Rhys in 1906, He has been the engineer and the editor in chief since the start. His first need was, of course, to find a publisher, so he unfolded the project before J. M. Dent, who was at once astounded, tempted, and apprehensive. The objective was ‘to build up the most complete library for the common man that the world has ever seen,’and the plan called for the issue of fifty different titles each year until the foundation had been well laid. Capital was needed, and accordingly Mr. Dent turned to his American associate, John Macrae. Thus began the first inexpensive and unadulterated library in history. During the thirty years of its existence, it has sold well over thirty million copies.

I was curious to discover the more popular titles. They vary, of course, with the shift in the tide of human affairs. During the depression there was, as one would expect, an increasing sale of Malthus, Mill, Adam Smith, Paine, and Rousseau. In this year of grace, the favorites can be ranked approximately in this order: Vanity Fair, A Smaller Classical Dictionary, the three Shakespeare volumes, Karl Marx’s Capital, Pride and Prejudice, Spinoza’s Ethics, three volumes of Plato, Plays of Æschylus and of Euripides, Mill’s Utilitarianism.

There are always elements of humor in such an undertaking. Thus, when Frankenstein appeared in the movies, the publishers sold more of this title in three months than they had in the past four years put together. (May I ask if any moviegoer ever finished the book?) The success of the play, Pride and Prejudice, last season promptly stimulated the demand for Jane Austen. Literary revivals of this order are usually followed by misguided inquiries from movie magnates who want to know where Miss Janice Austen can be found and who handles the dramatic rights of Old Goriot, by one Balzac.

The neat package in which Everyman’s is made up should appeal to the pocket nerve. The books were originally sold in this country for thirty-five cents, but as the cost of manufacture, translation, and copyright increased, the price rose to its present level of ninety cents. The question now before the house is whether the editors can secure the American reprint rights of recent books without having to advance the cost. And if so, what fifteen American books published since the war would you wish to see included?

One thing more. If you have a good memory and fancy yourself well read, I advise you to try your teeth on the Literary Questionnaire which the editors of Everyman’s have prepared. It is the perfect cure for all lions who roar too much.