SIR,—Although fully aware of the critical shortage of paper, you
publish a write-up, a puff, a blurb, an examination of Who's Who written by a most distinguished writer. In the book there are 34,000 (approx.) entries printed on 3,000 pages. The weight of wood-pulp per copy must be heavy, and if 34,000 (approx.) copies are sold the total weight will be enormous. If, to this total, the copies purchased by all the clubs, universities, schools and public libraries are added, the wood-pulp con- sumed with this one book must fill your professional soul with alarm. How many copies of The Spectator can be produced with the wood-pulp used in one copy of Who's Who? Does not Who's Who pander to the • lowest of all human vanities—vanity itself? The cost of Who's Who is eighty shillings per copy. Would not these eighty shillings be better invested if lent to the nation? Who's Who is supported by the entire Government, the whole of the Opposition, the House of Lords and the Bench of Bishops to a man. Should it not be nationalised? Instead of a beggarly (if approx.) 34,000 entries and a miserable 3,000 pages, we might—if nationalised—have a book of some real size and—corresponding —importance. Will the wood-pulp be forthcoming?—Your most obedient [Given our correspondent's premises, some of his conclusions might follow. But it is not the case that Who's Who sells 34,000 copies, or anything like that, though it might if it had the paper. Agreeable though it would be to have the Who's Who paper to print The Spectator on, the idea of producing The Spectator without Who's Who permanently at hand will not bear contemplation.—En., The Spectator.]
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