o meet the recent holiday season, and to routine
books,--books which on account of copyright exigencies have to be
published then, books which for prestige the publisher would have bear
his imprint, etc. Then comes the late spring season, which is
principally confined to novels of the lighter sort and to books for
supplementary school reading for the coming autumn. Toward the end of
August the first Holiday books usually make their appearance. They
increase in number until the end of September, when there is a lull.
From the middle of October until the end of November there is a
perfect outpour of books. The months of November and December until
Christmas Day are the busiest times in the year for the reviewer.

As the books come in they are carefully looked over by the one who is
known as the "critic" of the review or paper. He has men and women on
his lists whose pens he has tried before--they may be lawyers, college
professors, sportsmen, society men, professional novel readers, etc.
He considers the author of the book at hand, its seeming importance,
etc., and despatches it to a critic. An expert writer of expositions
is usually ready to relieve him of volumes upon which for some reason
he does not feel justified in requesting expert opinion. Occasionally
he makes a mistake by giving out for exposition a really important
book. The expert who has been impatiently waiting for the volume
points out the error. The work of a well-known novelist is usually
sent to a critic who is familiar with former tales by the same author.
Juveniles are handed over to one of proved sympathy with stories for
boys and girls--one who is conservative yet quick to catch a new
element. Books that are essentially for gifts are disposed of in a
similar manner--to one who has proved his or her ability to set forth
artistic features in books. New editions of classics are turned over
to writers who are acquainted with the mechanical make-up of a book,
so that the reader may learn whether the new edition of the favorite
author is well bound, printed, and appropriately decorated and
illustrated. And among the hundreds of "brief notices," expositions,
impressions, descriptions, and long and short essays that are handed
in, there are invariably some pieces of valuable comment which are
well in keeping with the traditions of professional criticism. The
critic usually returns the book with his article. These books are
ultimately collected and disposed o