must choose between admirable conduct and admirable criti cism .79 Yet these strictures on the deplorable effect of " the silent
bargain ” on literary criticism are not new . Poe, nearly eighty
years ago, sent out the same warning, though with a note of hope. “ If our editors,” he says, " are not as yet all independent
of the will of the publisher, a majority of them scruple, at least, to confess a subserviency , and enter into no positive combinations against the minority who despise and discard it. And this is a very great improvement of exceedingly late date .” 80 A variant of the advertisement is the log -rolling by which
works written by unknown authors are exploited by equally un known but ambitious author-critics. “ Once upon a time,” The Nation caustically remarks, “ people believed that a Dickens or a Thackeray comes once in a hundred years. To -day they come at least twice a year in the spring and autumn publishing season .” 81 The net result of all of these interrelations of publishers, editors , authors, and critics is that the hands of the press often seem tied and that it vitiates the taste and lowers the standards of the reading public. Charles Miner Thompson has indicated clearly that five dis tinct groups are interested in literary criticism , - publishers of books, authors, publishers of reviews, critics, and the reading
public.82 The interest of all of these groups, except the reading public , as he so clearly shows, is obviously a financial one; the
publisher of books is interested in reviews because they are gratuitous advertising;83 the publisher of reviews hopes they 79 C. M . Thompson, “ Honest Literary Criticism ," Atlantic Monthly , August , 1908 , 102 : 179 - 190 .
80 “ Exordium ,” Graham 's Magazine, January, 1842, 20 : 68 –69. 81 “ Book Reviewing à la Mode,” August 17, 1911, 93 : 139– 140. E . L . Pearson suggests that if a librarian writes a book , " we may feel fairly certain that out of a feeling of fellowship for us as librarians the
A . L . A . Booklist will duly recommend it, showing that however stern and uncompromising they would have the professional literary critic , when it comes down to their own case librarians prefer the milk of human kindness to the corrosive acid of outspoken criticism ." - Book -Reviews, p . 35. 82 “ HonestLiterary Criticism ,” AtlanticMonthly, August,1908,102: 179– 190 . 83 The importance that publishers and booksellers attach to the mere
bulk of the reviews is indicated by the announcement in a recent catalogue of books,
" within ten days of the publication of this important work fifty
columns of reviews appeared in the Press ."
