large octavo running to over five hundred pages and the price will probably be six dollars.
Last year Mr. Mencken got for me, and I published in his The Free Lance Books, "Ventures in Common Sense," by E. W. Howe, of Atchison, Kansas. Immediately afterwards most enthusiastic letters reached the author from the big editors in the country—such men as Edward Bok, late of The Ladies' Home Journal, John M. Siddall of The American Magazine, Don C. Seitz of The New York World, as well as letters from the presidents of very large corporations telling of their admiration for Mr. Howe's philosophy. It seemed to me then as it does now that whether or not you agree with him and more than likely you will disagree—Mr. Howe should be more widely known, particularly in the East. His unique little monthly is read almost exclusively by the really important people of the country, but the average man or woman would find it highly entertaining. For "Ed " Howe is the Middle West and the plain American incarnate and in his new book, "The Anthology of Another Town," he presents a panorama, really, of a typically middle western small town. The price is two dollars.
A very important event in the book world will be, I think, the publication of a translation of Knut Hamsun's "Hunger." It is difficult to say why Hamsun is not known, really widely known, in the United States. A translation of one of his books was published a few years ago. But those who know Hamsun in the original seem to agree that "Shallow Soil" was the worst possible novel to select for launching him in America. I have been told of the greatness of Hamsun for a full five years now and at last I am stirred to action. There can be no question whatever that he is far and away the leading Scandinavian writer of the day, and if one may judge from the acclaim with which "Growth of the Soil" has been received in England, one of the very greatest writers of our age.
