Nov. 14.
A well known authoress in recent magazine article hus been dealing with what we might term the internationalizing of fiction. She tells us that in one branch at least of modern literature, English writers are supreme, and their works hold pride of place on railway book-stalls all over the continent of Europe. This particular branch is the detective story. We are told that the translated works of Edgar Wallace and those of other writers of similar yarns are sold in large numbers, and must bring in quite q fat sum in royalties. The explanation is not far to seek. Sensi tional fiction has world-wide appeal. Readers of all nationalities can understand and preciate it. Criminals are to be found in all lands, and where there are those who break the law, there must of necessity be those whose office it is to bring the'law-breaker to justice. Who ther these trackers of the ct become more "knit together,: po-
and more sensational in d ter, After all, there is pular fiction will become m reason why sensational fiction, if well written, with well balance ed plots and accurate characteris zation, should not be real liters ture. John Buchan has written novels which'throb with excitement from beginning to end, but no one would be so silly as to assert that this man of wide learning and scholarship has not produced works of real literary merit, The very fact that his books will stand second or third reading is in self a tribute to their work as Yet thevease with which words of fiction may nowadays be translated and published many different tongues is not all to the good; it means that very often publishers find it more profitable to put on the market translations of well-known foreign authors, than to encourage literary aspirants of their own lands, Thus we are getting a sort of standardized mass production fiction, which means that a few peopl? reach world wide fame, and eventually large fortunes at the expense of the smaller fry whose. reading public must of neces sity diminish, The same thing is happening in regard to the stage. "An internationalizodl theatre in the shape of the cinema has built up an enormous reputation for a handful of celebrities, while the actor with ordinary gifts who can only appeal to a local public, finds his chances of earning a nieve living gradually diminishing. The same phenomenon appears in some countries in journalism. Big newspapers have swallowed those with a smaller cireuation, and the process of absorption is still going on. In London for instance, we are told that there are fewer paper today than there were twer years ago, Modern methods of transport, too, have resulted in these journals finding their way into the remotest parts of Britain within a few hours of their publication, The local press 3 suffering through the mass production of hugely capitalized organizations, just as the groat city stores with their "out" and their vast mail order systems are gradually pushing out of existence the small bus'= nesses in the little towns and For the moment, at any rate, life is hard on the dividual Worker. minal are the highly trained detectives of London, Paris or New York, or whether they be barbarian replicas of Sherloc' Holmes operating among their fellow-tribesmen "in Central
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.