GLOOM ABOUT BOOKS
SIR,—On Friday evening (November 5th) I read in The Spectator Geoffrey Faber's article A Critical Moment. On Saturday morning (November 6th) I read a leading article in The Manchester Guardian on The Book Trade, and on Sunday (November 7th) in The Sunday Times Books for the University, by the president of the Publishers' Association. Having pondered over these three articles, I wonder what is the matter with the book trade ? If you consulted the following, among many others: Cambridge University Press, Jonathan Cape, Chapman and Hall, Chatto and Windus, Constable, William Heinemann, Longmans Green, Macmillan, Methuen, John Murray, Oxford University Press, Allen and Unwin (is he disappointed with the sales of Bertrand Russell's books?), would any of these regard the trade in books to be in a more critical posi- tion now than it always has been and probably always will be? Personally, I do not think that the trade in books, if it is a trade (I am inclined to think it is a " calling "), is in a particularly critical position. I know nothing of the "mass production" publishers, so I have only referred to a few of the firms who seem to me to use discretion and discrimination in the books which they issue.
I suggest you ask half a dozen of the leading retail booksellers in this country (all who are interested in good books will agree that there are very few really able and competent booksellers—personally, I can think of half a dozen) if they feel that the trade in books is in a critical con- dition. Of course, authors, publishers and booksellers are going through very difficult times, but so are all of us in this country. An example of the particular difficulties that the book world has to face is the fact that one well-known paper has had to refuse all publishers' advertisements.
To sum up, I do not think that any service is being done to letters by emphasising and, as I think, exaggerating the difficulties, and ignoring the enormous increase of interest in the reading of good books. Surely the crux of the matter is that a good book will appeal today to a larger public in this country than ever before, but that a book that has no genuine reason for existence is liable to be ignored—as it ought to be.—I am, Sir,
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