MODERN BOOK COLLECTING FOR THE IMPECUNIOUS AMATEUR
By Herbert Faulkner West '22. Little Brown & Company, p. 305. $1.75.
In recent years many books have been published on the subject of book collecting. Certain ones like those of A. E. Newton have become literary classics. These however, together with those by Rosenbach, Currie, and others, while interesting reading and well written appeal in the main to the collector of means and not to the amateur and student collector. Last year two or three books appeared on this subject designed for the average collector, but they were lacking in some essentials. Now comes Modern Book Collecting for theImpecunious Amateur, a book written largely for the average collector and one that I can most heartily recommend to all. There has been for many years a field for just such a book as Professor West has written and so I anticipate for this volume a large sale.
The preliminary chapters are devoted to the subject, the lure of book collecting, to definitions of terms used by collectors, and to advice in buying. The terms are clearly and concisely explained, and the troublesome matter of editions, points, and issues well defined. The policy of "following the flag" that is, whether to get the first English edition of an American author if this edition were published earlier in England and vice versa, or whether in all cases to collect the editions published in the author's own country, is thoroughly and clearly discussed. For example, although some of Mark Twain's writings appeared first in England, collectors formerly usually purchased all his American editions as truefirsts. Although today the first American edition of Huckleberry Finn brings at auction a much larger sum than the first English edition which was printed earlier, it seems only logical to follow Professor West and accept the first printed edition as the real first.
In his chapter "On Collecting American Authors" the author does not discuss "the great books in American literature." He feels that most books by these men—Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, and others must be left to the collector of wealth. He devotes, however, his discussion in this chapter to one regional author as an example of all such. He chooses Rowland E. Robinson whose Vermont stories of Yankee and French Canadian dialect, classics in their way, are now being reprinted in an attractive format by the Tuttle Company of Rutland, Vermont. Some little attention is given to the historical novels of Kenneth Roberts whose Rabble in Arms is considered by Professor West "the best American historical novel." After a discussion of other American writers of importance in his same chapter he lists fifty "one book authors" whose volumes are worth collecting and most of which ate within the means of the "impecunious amateur." This American chapter is followed by one fully as interesting "On Collecting English Authors." As Professor West is the author of a life of R. B. Cunninghame Graham it is but natural that in one of the most valuable chapters of the book "On Collecting the Books of One Author" the author discussed should be his friend the late Mr. Graham. Here are given in detail the points at issue of all the first editions of the writings of this able Scotsman.
In the chapter "How One Thing Leads to Another in Collecting" there is discussed at length the works of some of the friends of Mr. Cunninghame GrahamEdward Garnett, Richard Curie, W. S. Blunt, C. M. Doughty, W. H. Hudson, and Morley Roberts. The main adverse criticism that may be raised regarding this volume is that the author has given too great stress to English writers and not enough to American. As the author's favorite writers are English and as he is writing about books in his own collection in this volume, this emphasis however seems justified.
The author's own collection of war books is unusually large and his chapter on the subject "On Collecting Books on the Great War" is most illuminating and valuable. The final chapter is entitled "Some Neglected and Forgotten Books, Together with One Hundred Fine Modern Books." The books in this list are all books which the author feels well worth collecting, and most of which may be secured at the present time for a nominal sum.
This book is so entertainingly written and so full of interesting facts about books and authors that it will surely appeal not only to the book collector but also to every lover of good literature.
W. B. Saunders Company has recently published The Eye and Its Diseases edited by Dr. Conrad Berens. This is an elaborate and comprehensive textbook on the eye by eighty-two international authorities. Professor Adelbert Ames has written chapter 26 of this book on the subject "Aniseikonia."
Professor A. G. Truxal is the author of Present Status of the American Family published by the American Home Economic Association, reprinted from the Journal of Home Economics for September 1932.
Among recent publications of Professor Eric P. Kelly 'O6 are: The Attack by B. R.Buckingham published by Ginn; a story A Wood Crowns the Water; The Enemyat, the Gate, a story in three parts in TheTorchbearer for January 12, 19, 26, and The Courage that Dares in the January issue of Story Art.
Professor A. Bielschowsky is the author of Functional Disturbances of the Eyes, which has been reprinted from the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Professor James D. McCallum with others is the editor of the fourth edition of The 1936 College Omnibus. HarcourtBrace Company.
The summer number of The SouthernReview contains an article ContemporaryCriticism by Professor F. Cudworth Flint.
Employees of the Government by Professor Herman Feldman appears in the June issue of Personnel Journal.
Professor Kenneth N. Ogle is the author of The Correction of Aniseikonia withOphthalmic Lenses which has been reprinted from the Journal of the OpticalSociety of America for August.
Further Clinical Research on DyslogiaMongolia by Mr. Charles H. Voelker appears in the Proceedings of the AmericanSpeech Correction Association for July.
