Show BEST SELLERS SELLER'S BRIEF REIGN Analysis of Most Popular Nov Novel 1 Shows Why the Quality Falls Short of Greatness be but The Time best seller seHer may great does not need to be It Is usually a weak book no matter how readable because ordinarily It has only the elements ele ele- ments lU of I popularity to go on and antI succeeds succeeds succeeds suc suc- b by their number and amI timeliness Instead of ot b by fineness and truth A second rate man can compound a best seller If It his sense for the time popular Is Ie first In his books the tive emotions are excited e. e over a broad area but rapidly sink again No better hetter o. o examples can be found than in the sword and buckler romance of our oos which set us all for a n while thinkIng thinking thinking think think- ing feudal thoughts and talking shallow shallow shallow low gallantry Now It Is dead stone dead not even the movies can revive It The he emotions It aroused went tint flat over night Much the same Is true of books that trade In prejudice like the white slave stories of a decade ago Thus the profitable ship Popularity can be kept upright for a n little o voyage voyage voy voy- age with a light ballast of prejudice or sentiment and this prevailingly Is all her cargo But the wise writer If he heis Is able as Scott and anti Dickens and Clemens were able freights her more deeply As for the good reader he trill hill go below to inspect before the voyage begins or or If In mid-career mid he lie likes not his carrier take oft off In his mental airplane and seek eek another book Henry book Henry Seidel Canby In the Century Magazine |