"criticism" in
such active circumstances. The public neither expects nor desires it.
This leads to expositions in which are incorporated generous citations
from the book, and from this the public is invited to form its own
opinion. When such an exposition is properly done, a reader can tell
whether he wishes to peruse the book as a whole. In late years this
system of exposition has been growing in popularity,--a popularity no
doubt augmented by the reader's increasing desire to be his own
critic,--so now only the more important historical, biographical, and
travellers' books receive expert criticism. Why wait months to get
expert opinion on a popular book on Russia, Ibsen, or a journey in
search of one of the poles, while the public is impatient to find out
simply whether the book is entertaining? And again, how expert is
expert opinion? I know of one famous biography of a famous man which,
having been accepted as "the" authority for five years, finally had
its pretensions demolished, its citations proved a mass of forgeries,
by one tireless and persevering critic who would not accept the
"expert" opinion which lauded it to the skies shortly after its
publication.

Now that criticism, or rather the lack of it, has been explained, it
may be of some interest to learn how the vast number of books which is
annually put forth is handled by the editors of literary reviews and
the "book pages" of the daily press. Having for nearly ten years been
connected with the literary supplement of a New York daily which
prides itself on ignoring nothing which is published with the idea of
being read, my experiences for observation have been somewhat unusual.
The increase in the number of books, and the eagerness of the public
to learn about them at the earliest possible moment, have caused the
daily press to usurp some of the functions formerly enjoyed by the
monthly reviews. The latter do little more than mention the vast
majority of publications and confine more and more their critical
talents to what they consider conspicuous and distinctive literary
productions. Purely literary periodicals have come and gone and left
few mourners. The pages of The Bookman, for example, are no longer
confined to literary criticism, to essays on bookish topics, to gossip
of author and publisher.

There are four distinct publishing periods in the book world. The
early spring season, principally confined to those books which could
not be made ready t