College and Research Libraries


Review Articles 

"Mostly Mearns" 
Largely Lincoln. By David Chambers Mearns. 

New York: St Martin's Press, [1961] xi, 
227 p. $6.00. 

Largely Lincoln is "Mostly M e a r n s . " T h a t 
means it is a combination of good humor, 
sound scholarship, and a feeling for the tell-
ing incident or appropriate anecdote that 
adds up to a delightful book. I t is a good 
representation in book form of the genial 
master of manuscripts at the Library of Con-
gress, a happy reminder of a warmly erudite 
personality for all who know him and a 
wonderful introduction to him for those 
unfortunate librarians who have not yet had 
the pleasure of hearing him tell in person 
such stories as they will here find in print. 

Dave Mearns is a much more serious 
scholar than he looks, but it is his sparkling 
puckishness that is reflected in the warmth 
of his face, the warmth of a greeting in his 
office, the warmth with which he helps one 
scholar after another at the Library of Con-
gress, which is also so well reflected in this 
volume. Readers can turn to his other works 
to measure his stature as a historian (of the 
Library of Congress as well as of President 
L i n c o l n ) ; let them turn to this book for his-
tory with hilarity and librarianship with 
laughter. 

I n Largely Lincoln nine of the essays are 
about the wartime president. All of these 
are entertaining, and most of them develop, 
gently and amusingly, little known points in 
Lincoln's life that verify the claim of Earl 
Schenck Miers' introduction that: " M u c h 
of what is revealed will come as a delightful 
surprise, rewarding the reader with insight 
into L i n c o l n and his age." 

T h e other six essays are equally delightful 
and equally rewarding. His story of D. P. 
Gardner, " t h e New England Soap M a n , " is 

worthy of the late J a m e s T h u r b e r ; and his 
account of the seventh annual convocation 
(1907) of the Boston Authors' Club is as 
rollicking an excursion into a by-way of 
American literary history as is likely to be 
found. Every essay can easily be a favorite—• 
mine or yours—but no bookman, so-called, 
self-styled or real, can afford to miss the one 
called " A Neglected B o o k m a n : Calvin Cool-
idge." I t is a gem. 

T h i s is a happy book and one to recom-
mend to all lovers of books. B u t I do have 
one cavil with the author: H e is such a good 
historian, such a lover of books, such a 
scholar himself, why does he bang the worn-
out drum that librarians are enemies of 
books, are neither readers n o r scholars? I 
wish he could be as proud as the library pro-
fession is proud for him, that it is librarian-
ship that led Dave Mearns down the paths 
of scholarship to the point that he himself 
disproves his charges against librarians. L e t 
him stand up and be counted as the fine li-
brarian he i s . — R i c h a r d Harwell, Bowdoin 
College Library. 

Science Literature 
Collecting Science Literature for General 

Reading; Papers presented at an institute 
conducted by the University of Illinois 
Graduate School of Library Science, No-
vember 6-9, 1960. Champaign, 111.: I l l i n i 
Bookstore, 1961. 186p. Paper, $2.00. 

T h i s collection of papers of the seventh 
Allerton Park Institute is apt to be the most 
timely and popular topic of the annual 
series. At all age levels and in a broad range 

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