Publishing

As regards the comparative popularity in America of the dif ferent classes of books, in 1924 fiction was at the head of the list, but not with anything like the preponderance it showed in the British book trade. Religion came second, poetry and the drama together came third, with a total of 13 new titles more than those registered in Great Britain. Science stood relatively low in the scale and showed a decrease from the figures of the preceding year. Juvenile books, too, lost a point or two; but biography, as in the London book market at the same period, marked a distinct rise. Business books, which are rather an American speciality, also had appreciated in the scale.

Conditions in Other Countries.

Certain wider questions which affect book production and the writers, publishers and sellers of books can only be treated summarily. We must turn to the Bibliographie de la France if we would estimate the signs of recovery in the French book market since the war. In 1923 the returns give a total of 8,784 books, a pro rata advance since 1918, steadily maintained year by year, but not so marked in recent seasons. At the same rate of progression, the returns for 1924 should give a total of books registered slightly ahead of that for the year when the war broke In Germany the returns are noticeably higher than in any other country, displaying a total for 1923 of over 35,00o publi cations. But that includes miscellaneous publications which are not counted as books in the returns for other book-producing countries. In the Italian census furnished by the Bolletino delle Publicazioni Italiane, the lists for 1921 and 1922 are relatively encouraging, and in the international scale show an unusually high percentage of educational text-books and manuals. In the former year, for example, the number of works of fiction issued from the press was 58o, while in social science the number was 66o, and students' manuals are little behind that high figure. Poetry and the drama together number 477 volumes, religion only 206. Philology, surprising to say, stands higher than history.

Philosophy is well placed, but cannot compete with the science of words. In the returns for the following year these classes preserve very much the same comparative position, but fiction and religion lose ground; history and biography gain. So do volumes dealing with the fine arts, and also those with military and naval science. Among other European returns may be noted those for Norway, Spain and Switzerland, as marking a slight ad vance in 1922 from the figures of the year previous.

In the republic of books all the world over the signs are in the main encouraging, and disclose a healthy state of recovery from the war years of stagnation. In a 25 years' review and retro spect, the publishers' organ in New York pointed to several notable factors in the increased power of the book and the widening of its market since the opening of the 2oth century. The better ordering and specializing of the bookshops, the greater intelligence of the booksellers and the national development of children's libraries, have all contributed to that advance.

England might learn some practical lessons from America in these things. By the forming of such associations as the National Book Council and the Society of Bookmen she has, however, shown herself of late years newly alive to the cordial co-operation of publishers, booksellers and authors. A recent writer, alluding to the book fairs in Florence, Frankfurt and Paris, advocated a similar yearly event in London itself. Paris had two book fairs in 1925, one at the Universal Exposition, the other, a smaller, more specialized bibliophilic festival, was held in connection with the time honoured Fair of Saint Germain. Either of these might be imitated, with an English or American difference, in London or New York, with good effect in stimulating the interest of the public and the activities of the book producers and publishers.