17 MAY 1919, Page 21

The English Catalogue of Books for 1918. (Publishers' Circular. Ws.

6(1, net.)—This invaluable guide to current literature, which goes back to the year 1801, deserves a word of praise. It appears in the familiar form. Last year the number of books published declined still further to 7,716—the lowest annual total recorded for a long time past. However, the decline was in new editions—numbering 966 as compared with 1,525 in the previous year—and not in new books, which numbered 6,750, or 144 more than in 1917. We cannot help thinking that far more than 568 pamphlets were published last year. We seem to have seen thousands. Possibly the English Catalogue dis- dains to record the too obviously ephemeral, though the line must be hard to draw.