College and Research Libraries


adequate attention. Fully treated are prob-
lems of personnel management, including se-
lection, records, classification, and the train-
ing of new staff members. Proper retirement 
plans are discussed. 

Questions of staff organization and meet-
ings and other coordinating devices are re-
viewed, and formal recommendations of 
policy are suggested. 

M r . W i g h t ' s book dealing with library 
finance and accounting is a useful contribu-
tion to the subject. Sources of revenue are 
discussed, including state and federal aid, and 
methods are suggested for the proper build-
ing and operation of the budget. T h e book 
concludes with two chapters on library ac-
counting. T h e latter of these is a distinct 

contribution to the sparse literature on 
library cost accounting, a subject likely to re-
ceive more attention in the future. 

These two volumes are valuable additions 
to the growing list of reference manuals on 
specific library problems. T h e y will serve 
the administrator as conveniences. T h e y 
should be especially useful to teachers in 
library schools. Both volumes contain se-
lected bibliographies. M r . W i g h t ' s w o r k has, 
as a supplement, a glossary of accounting 
terminology.—Robert J. Usher,x Howard-
Tilt on Memorial Library, Tulane Univer-
sity, New Orleans. 

1 Mr. Usher died on August 3, after his review 
of the McDiarmid and Wight books had been set in 
type for inclusion in this issue of College and Re-
search Libraries. 

Classics of T h e W e s t e r n W o r l d 

Classics of the Western World. A l a n W i l -
lard Brown and members of the faculty 
of Columbia College, editors. W i t h a 
foreword by John Erskine. T h i r d edition, 
completely revised and rewritten. I45p. 
Chicago, American Library Association, 
1943. 
T h e extensive interest of recent years 

in "the great books" may account for the 
preparation of a new edition of the Colum-
bia University list which for some twenty-
five years had served the purposes of the 
undergraduate honors course of that univer-
sity. It is gratifying to the compilers to 
observe that it was this list, in turn, which 
occasioned so much public interest in "the one 
hundred great books" and in other enumera-
tions and selections. T h e greatest advertise-
ment of these laureati came from St. John's 
College of Annapolis, where they were made 
(with many additions and omissions) the sub-
stance of the course of study. St. John's 
makes revisions at will, which means, so f a r , 
quite frequently. Considering the purposes 
of the Columbia Colloquium, as the honors 
course is now styled, and the further purpose 
of the compilers to serve the intellectual 
public, we can readily understand that altera-
tions of previous curricula would become de-
sirable. 

It was the leading purpose of earlier edi-
tions of this bibliography to enlarge "the 
pleasure of reading." T h e present edition 
does not employ this phrase but in its place 
are the expressions, "the formation of a good 
man and a wise citizen," "voluntary self-edu-
cation," "the preservation and understanding 
of our democratic heritage," "the layman of 
eager mind who desires to know the nature, 
tone, and quality of our intellectual tradi-
tion," and others which indicate that liberal 
education by w a y of private reading is now 
the uppermost concern. However, we find 
here "very f e w of the major contributions to 
pure science" as well as "many omissions 
among historians and writers on political 
economy," not to speak of the "serious limi-
tations" upon the competency of the scholars 
— o f whom there are eight—who, we are sur-
prised to read, dictated the exclusion of all 
works of the Orient and of Latin America. 
Only the excessive modesty of this, let us sup-
pose, is a match for the supposition that these 
learned men are unacquainted with L a o - T s e , 
the Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, or with 
the Latin American writers whom they would 
rank with the immortals. In the event they 
did not have the cooperation of the depart-
ments at Columbia which study the Orient 
and Latin America, why did they not apply 

SEPTEMBER., 1944 373 



themselves, guided by the same prescription 
which this volume offers to "the layman of 
eager mind," and find out w h a t they needed 
to know about the literature of these other 
lands? T h e y had the w a r r a n t of John 
Erskine, in his graceful preface still happily 
carried from the previous editions, that even 
without an introductory study any reader can 
discover and enjoy the substance of great 
books, provided they are not of a highly 
specialized scientific character. 

T h i s edition like those before gives first 
the title or titles which are considered most 
available from each of the chosen authors, 
then gives the secondary titles, and lastly a 
critical bibliography, brought up to date, of 
the literature on each author is provided. 
Sixty-five authors are added, while nine of 
those previously chosen have been dropped, 
and the total number of authorships now is 
about 150. T h e following were dropped: 
Petrarch, Leonardo, Grotius, Newton, Bent-
ham, M a l t h u s , Pasteur, Galton, T o l s t o y . 
T h e y might be said to have made room for 
these: Samuel Richardson, Byron (ten 
t i t l e s ! ) , Leopardi, Hugo, Berlioz the com-
poser, Gogol, W h i t m a n , Henry George, and 
Bernard Shaw. Some other additions a r e : 
Demosthenes, Plautus, Terence, Caesar, C a -
tullus, L i v y , Seneca, Petronius, T a c i t u s , 
Boethius, Abelard and Heloise, Saint Bona-
venture, Luther, Calvin, Hooker, Ben Jon-
son, Sir T h o m a s Browne, Smollett, Lessing, 
Burke, Boswell, Blake, W o r d s w o r t h , Cole-
ridge, Pushkin, N e w m a n , Emerson, H a w -
thorne, Melville, M a r k T w a i n , Henry 
James, Arnold, Meredith, Samuel Butler, 
T u r g e n e v , Chekhov, Bergson, Proust, Joyce. 

Professor Erskine's preface remarks that 
while the reader " w i l l think of many titles 
which to him seem to deserve a place here or 
which seem more important than some of the 
titles here given . . . there is no reason why 
all points of view and all shades of taste 
should be included." H o w e v e r , the reader 
will also think that a restrictive point of view 
should be acknowledged and justified, where 
the purpose is so broad as it is in this li-
brary. T h e s e are the classics of the W e s t -
ern W o r l d , w e are to understand, rather 
than of eight of the staff of Columbia. 
Unless good reasons are given—and w e 

might say exceptional if not original 
reasons—we are not likely to understand 
the inclusion of Pamela among the classics 
when Tristram Shandy, with the rest of its 
author's w o r k , is left o u t ; or that of 
T u r g e n e v (and G o g o l ) when M a n z o n i is 
not admitted; or the preference of Byron 
and W h i t m a n to Keats and Browning (as 
well as to Shelley and Hopkins, to name 
two others). T h e most lucid intellect of 
today in fields the most difficult and one 
possessed of great originality and much 
a r t i s t r y — B e r t r a n d Russell—finds no place 
here except in the mention of one or two 
of his minor writings, while the celebrated 
doctor of the "libido," S. Freud, is allowed 
more than a page. F . H . Bradley is not 
mentioned, though it would be difficult to 
name ten men equal to him, in brilliance, 
depth, or ingenuity of style, in all of Eng-
lish literature. C . M . Doughty, whose style 
was as enchanting as his subject matter, is 
not mentioned. Others w i l l come to mind, 
as Professor Erskine anticipates. O n the 
other hand, the addition of many names 
which must have been missed before, will 
gratify serious users of the list. Some ex-
amples: Leibniz, M a r l o w e , Schiller, Stend-
hal, Flaubert (how were these ever 
o m i t t e d ? ) ; also Lope de V e g a , Donne, 
Meredith (eleven titles), and T h o r e a u (but 
not his fascinating Week on the Concord 
and Merrimack Rivers). 

Changes Within Authors' Works 

W e notice a great many changes of judg-
ment concerning the merits of a given au-
thor's works during the interval between the 
last edition of this compilation and the 
edition now published. T h e selections from 
Plato, for example, gave first place to the 
Symposium before, whereas that rank now 
goes, surprisingly, to the Apology, and three 
additional works are given precedence over 
the Symposium. O f Sophocles the Oedipus 
Tyrannus w a s formerly the highest in es-
teem but now it is omitted and the Antigone 
stands first. T h e book of Amos, in the O l d 
Testament, has advanced from ninth rank to 
second, while some other books that were 
formerly recommended and also some of the 
Psalms, are not cited in the present edition. 

v 374 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Shakespeare's Hamlet, which w a s eighth in 
favor among his works before, is now first. 
Formerly Pere Goriot was thought the first 
of Balzac's works, while now it has fallen 
from favor entirely, not appearing in the 
new selections at all. M a n y other reversals 
of judgment will be noticed. N o explana-
tion of this is found. T h e student, and es-
pecially one who was without the benefit 
of instruction, might be seriously perplexed 
if he were using an earlier edition and hap-
pened to discover the changes in the new 
one. He would not be reassured, we may 
surmise, were he to hear from eminent 
critical authority, or to discover for him-
self, that Henry Esmond is much above 
Vanity Fair in the novelist's art, yet found 
the reverse consistently pronounced in the 
several editions of this catalog. 

Persons who have the most use for a 
handy guide to literature w i l l find little to 
dissuade them in discrepancies like these. 
Although the editors reject the aim of 
quick and easy education, it is probably the 
individual in search of just that who most 
often turns to aids of this kind. N o w a d a y s 
this individual frequently holds a college 
degree. If it is a liberal arts degree, he 
ought to know enough about great authors 
to make his own selections, but President 
Hutchins has stated that a youth can now 
pass through college and acquire a degree 
without having read a single great book 
understandingly. T h i s is not because he 
lacks t i m e — w h a t else is his time f o r ? H e 
has time to acquaint himself well with one 
important book for each semester hour of 
serious college study, or, conservatively, 
about one hundred books during a four-year 
course. T h a t "new programs" should have 
to be introduced to accomplish this; that it 
should be regarded as something remark-

able, even revolutionary; that it should be-
come a matter of controversy, with the 
largest party resolutely opposing it—such is 
a sign of something seriously w r o n g with 
college education. T h e shortcoming of the 
college is indicated by the desire of some, 
after the romance of the campus, for read-
ing courses and for trustworthy selections 
which w i l l answer to the aspirations of an 
active spirit. M a n y lists have been pre-
pared, from the ten books which newspaper 
gossipers are fond of selecting in the event 
of their banishment to a deserted island, to 
the nine hundred or more titles of Every-
man's Library. 

Advantage of List 
T h e advantage of the revised Columbia 

list, no doubt, is its suitability to persons 
who have an eager mind and a literary 
sense, without necessarily having tech-
nological or scientific training, plus the 
inclusion of many books and essays expound-
ing and critically appraising the chosen 
works. It is possible for a reader to ques-
tion, on good grounds, the omission of this 
or that critique in favor of some other, and 
the same might be said of some of the trans-
lations of the texts. If he is a student of 
Aeschylus or Leibniz, for example, he may 
disagree in the one case concerning the 
translations and in the other concerning the 
commentaries, while if he should be a 
disciple of C . S. Peirce, he might justly 
complain that there is no longer any reason 
for tolerating the printer's misspelling of the 
name of one of our acutest authors. T h e s e 
minutiae apart, he w i l l find this an instruc-
tive handbook, opening treasures for a life-
t i m e . —Peter A. Carmichael, Professor of 
Philosophy, Louisiana State University, 
Baton Rouge. 

SEPTEMBER., 1944 375