December 13, 1924 The posters of Book Week were effectively used. In many of the windows there was not this effort to get at the fundamental idea behind Children's Book Week, i. e., the fundamental benefit to the children of having plenty of books. The giving of a book at Christmas is a good thing to accomplish, but Children's Book Week has stood for more than that, it is an effort to bring home to the public the fundamental value of books. The third prize, which goes to Stewart Kidd Company, was for a mass display which seems especially well handled and which was connected up with community interest in a very complete way. Many more photographs would be worthy of printing, but three were selected for honorable mention by the judges. The first does, perhaps, poor justice to a display of R. H. Macy Company, which made a very interesting tie-up with the poster publicity of Children's Book Week. Flat cut-outs represented the children in the Children's Book Week Poster. The opening of the window was provided with a revolving theater, where, one after another, the favorite characters of fiction appeared. On each side of the curtain rose tall books representing different types of reading that appeal to children. The legend across the bottom of the window read, "Books in the Home Give Knowledge, Happiness and Companions." This same display was repeated the next week, emphasizing a single title. "Recitations, Old and New, for Boys and Girls," edited by Miss Gaige, manager of the department. Another picture here printed is of a mass display in a shallow window from Brentano's, Washington, which shows great pains was taken to drive home to the public the fundamental ideas back of children's book buying. The judges felt that the bringing home of such points to thousands of passers-by would give a remembered emphasis to the bookstore's place in the community. Among the other interesting displays was an elaborate home scene showing a bookcase with hundreds of books and the fathe and mother and children selecting from the display, sent in by the Glass Block Store, Duluth, Minn. An extremely tasteful display was one featuring "The Old Woman in the Shoe" and "Mother Goose" characters from Korner & Wood, Cleveland. There was a series of three windows with strong educational emphasis from the Methodist Publishing House, Richmond, Va.; a very tasteful and neat display from the Doubleday, Page Shop in the Pennsylvania Terminal, with "Clown Town" in the middle and balloons rising from it; a complete home library display with bookcases and easy chairs from G. M. McKelvey Company. Youngstown, Ohio; an intriguing little doll scene from Brentano's, New York, showing Pinocchio and another doll playing at the table with little dolls representing the "Alice in Wonderland" characters; a cheerful and colorful display from the Bookshop for Boys and Girls, Boston, showing, on one side of the door, "Dr. Dolittle" and his animal friends and, on the other, little dolls proceeding to Alice-Heidi's at-home; a children's home library scene, with a table, reading lamp and boy and girl figures, from Williams Bookstores, Boston; a good tieup with the public library by displaying the books selected by the librarian, shown in the Doubleday, Page Bookshop in Kansas City; a beautiful Christmas display, perhaps more Christmas than Children's Book Week, showing boys caroling, from L. Bamberger & Co., Newark; boys' and girls' home bookcases around the fireplace, from Morris Sanford Company, Cedar Rapids; mother and children reading, from J. Goldsmith & Sons Company, Memphis, Tenn.; an elaborate one-book display connected with "The Mushroom Boy" by Theodore Harper, staged by J. K. Gill Company, Portland; a mass display in two huge windows devoted entirely to children's books, from Jarvis Bookstore, Ottawa; a two-window display full of color from the Friendly Bookshop, Springfield, Mass.; a long double window display featuring picture books from D. M. Read Company, Bridgeport. Conn.; a colorful little window with effective Dennison trimmings and little children's bookcase, from Christian & Dempster Company, Sioux Falls, S .D.; a double window display, with careful use of the posters, from Nusbaum's of Norfolk, Virginia; a double window display, welllighted and arranged, from the Children's Bookshop, San Francisco, Cal.; an effective use of the fine Rand, McNally display material from Carlson Brothers, Moline, Ill.; a home library display, with desk, reading lamp and father and daughter enjoying books together, from Block & Kuhl Company, Peoria, Ill. Libraries were not eligible for the prizes, but it was interesting to see a library with a year round book display which followed up its displays with listing in the public press as at the Public Library of Ottumwa, Iowa. W The Worth of a Picture THEN the Radio Corporation of America made its first experiment in sending pictures by wireless from London, the story of this mechanical and inventive triumph made front page news for the press. After sending across pictures of the President, of Secretary Hughes, of Premier Baldwin, etc., a Chinese proverb, printed in heavy type, was put on the transmitter in London and a facsimile was produced by a pen and camera in New York, the proverb being "One picture is worth ten thousand words." There is little point in debating the accuracy of proverbs, as they must state pointedly one side of a situation in order to have virtue as proverbs, but it would be a mistake if this new magic of the radio had, by its wonders, blurred in people's minds the appreciation of that even greater magic, the printed word. Perhaps, if we could have an exact contemporary picture of old Athens, it would be a wonderful satisfaction, but it would be hard for a picture to improve on the word pictures of Thucydides. A photograph of a Roman forum with Cicero speaking would be helpful for historic details, but the word pictures that have come down in history can suggest many things that no picture could carry. When man learned to make marks on stone or paper and thus to send on thru generation after generation his ideas and mental processes, he was providing himself with a magic that has not yet been superseded by either the movie or the radio, tho it has been magnificently supplemented. A The Public's Leisure MONG the proposals for new work for the Carnegie Corporation, whose funds are devoted to "promoting the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is the plan for studying the problem of what the public shall do with its leisure time. On the theory that modern civilization is placing an increasing amount of idle time at the disposal of individuals, the corporation has asked educators, artists, authors, dramatists, musicians, linguists and others. for suggestions as to how, in a broad way, the public might be aroused to a greater appreciation of aesthetic and intellectual pursuits. The plans have not yet fully matured, but Frederick P. Keppel, president of the Carnegie Corporation, indicated that, as many of those competent to advise are already organized, they could be turned to as sources of information. It might be found in such a study, that the bookstores would be one of the valuable sources of information. Those resources for leisure which the public searches out for itself can often be checked by its book buying and reading habits. It would be a mistake to look on the intellectual pursuits and aesthetic recreations as being wholly promoted by organized community direction. The importance of art in the community is not restricted to the study of art in the schools or to the viewing of art in the museums, but comes even more closely to the lives of the people when it is found in the fittings of every home. Quite similarly, the importance of music to the leisure of the people is not confined to the study in schools or to the advanced and systematized study in later courses, nor found completely expressed in the public concerts, however notable. Music will enter still more effectively into the lives of the people when it is the desired companion in every household and in every community or church group. Quite similar is the situation of books and their power for the "advancement and diffusion of knowledge." To consider books only as something to be found in the schools and in the great indispensable community libraries is to overlook the point of contact between the book and the human being when the printed word reaches its most powerful effectiveness, that is, thru personal ownership and home companionship. One of the most interesting and discerning studies of the place of printed matter in the "difficulties of knowledge" is included in the volume by William S. Learned called "The American Public Library and the Diffusion of Knowledge." Mr. Learned was circumscribed somewhat by his subject, because he was approaching only the library's place in the great problem of book distribution, but his study could have been still further developed by pointing out the supplemental value of the home library to the use of books in the school and public library. Mr. Learned surveys the whole field of the "diffusion of knowledge" without once indicating that the home collection or the private purchase had any place in the picture. Not all of those who wish to continue their study beyond the school years desire to have their reading completely directed and systematized, and many will go deeper by following the line of their own reading interest when placed in contact with books, old and new, and guided to them by the many forms of guidance that are available. Not the least effective guide in these developments is the bookseller, who, if worthy of his profession, is at a peculiarly effective point of vantage as a lay worker in the "advancement and diffusion of knowledge." Books for Sunday Schools T this time of the year, churches and A Sunday Schools begin to arrange their programs for the annual Christmas entertainment and party. Usually there is the Christmas Tree, Santa Claus with his pack full of presents and gifts for the children. It has been the general custom for these gifts to take the form of boxes of candy which are purchased in quantity and altho most welcome always by the children, they but augment home supplies of sweets. It is said that it is almost useless to attempt to change any such time-honored custom such as giving candy for Christmas treats, but it would be worth a trial for every bookseller to visit the Superintendents of his own local churches and suggest books for the children, not instead of the candy, but as a substantial supplemental gift. Many a bookseller has had last minute people come inquiring for a quantity of inexpensive books for just this purpose and on account of the big Christmas business he would not pay much attention to the order; it is well to take the initiative with a clear conception of when books are available for prompt delivery. It is a simple matter to prepare a list of books suitable for quantity giving, which may be sent out to prospective purchasers, showing the desirability of books for their purpose. IN The National Budget N the national budget presented by President Coolidge on the opening of Congress, two items have a special interest to the book-trade. One is the increase by $900,000 of the appropriation for the Vocational Education Board, which will now have $8,222,270 for its work. The other item is the decrease in the appropriation for the Department of Commerce, a decrease of $3,000,000, or more than 10%, the total now being $22,741,514. At the same time, the Agriculture Department appropriation has been increased from $78,000,000 to $140,000,000. It would seem as tho this decrease in the Department of Commerce had come just when Secretary Hoover was beginning to be able to take a broader interest in American business in the way of supplying promptly and thoroly the facts about foreign and domestic commerce. It does not seem as tho the government's interest in agriculture, however fundamental, should be seven times as important as that of every other type of business. A Real Epidemic LL other book epidemics-Coué, Mah A Jong, etc. seem to sink into insignifi cance compared to the wave of the cross-word puzzle interest that has swept the country. A traveler from Europe reports that almost every other chair on deck had a puzzle book and at least six people had big, unabridged dictionaries. A man in New York was arrested for obstructing business in a restaurant while he was working out a cross-word puzzle. In suburban smokers one finds four confirmed card players who have not varied their routine for years doing their morning puzzle in competition. Every strip picture artist and cartoonist has taken his fling at it. The big Red Cross drive in New York was opened by having a famous actress do a cross-word puzzle on a huge bulletin board while the crowd watched. Princeton University threatened to use the cross-word puzzle as a form of examination. The bookstore counters are piled high with puzzle dictionaries for the cross-word puzzle workers, and all sorts of people are busy supplying the demand from the newspapers for puzzle material. Certainly the book-trade has profited with sales of many hundred thousand dollars from this unexpected source of business, and, if the dictionary business, atlases, etc., be added to the sales of books, the total will run over $1,000,000 before the year is out. |