Again, the reading furnishes a great deal of material on the question of the lecture itself which cannot be put into it for sheer lack of time. This is why a lecture always educates the lecturer much more than it does the hearer. The hearer therefore labors under two great disadvantages. First, he forgets much that he hears, and, second, there is so much that he does not hear at all.
The first handicap can be removed by the printing of the lectures. The second is not so easily disposed of.
A lecturer may state in three minutes an idea which has cost many days’ reading. The idea has great importance to the speaker and, if he is a master of his art, he will impress its importance on his hearers. That is what his art is for. But that idea will never illume the hearer’s brain as the lecturer’s until the hearer knows as does the lecturer what there is back of it.
There is only one way in which this can be done—the hearer must have access to the same sources of knowledge as the lecturer. This does not necessarily mean that every hearer should have a lecturer’s library. It does mean, however, that there are some books which should be read by both.
The lecturer himself is the best judge as to which books belong to this category. In number they range anywhere from a dozen up, according to the ambitions of the reader.
My method of dealing with this problem has been to take one book at a time, tell the audience about it and see that the ushers were ready to supply all demands. In this way I have sold more than two whole editions of Boelsche’s book “The Evolution of Man.” In one week speaking in half a dozen different cities I sold an entire edition of my first book “Evolution, Social and Organic.” One Sunday morning this spring at the Garrick meeting at the close of a five-minute talk about Paul Lafargue’s “Social and Philosophic Studies” the audience, in three minutes, bought 250 copies, and more than a hundred would-be purchasers had to wait until the following Sunday for a new supply. A few Sundays later Blatchford’s “God and My Neighbor,” a dollar volume, had a sale of 204 copies—the total book sale for that morning reaching what I believe is the record for a Socialist meeting—$220.00. The last lecture of this season (April, 1910,) had a book sale of $190.00, which included 380 paper back copies of Sinclair’s “Prince Hagen.”
These figures are given to show that this work can be done, and if it is not done the lecturer alone is to blame. Anyone who can lecture at all can do this with some measure of success. There can be no sane doubt of its value. About 500 young men in the Garrick audience have built up small but fine libraries of their own through this advice given in this way, and there is no part of my work which gives me so great satisfaction.
I never allow my audience to imagine for a moment that my book talk is a mere matter of selling something. There will always be one or two in the audience who will take that view—natural selection always overlooks a few chuckle-heads.
Now let us tabulate some of the results that may be obtained in this way:
(1) By getting these books into the hands of our hearers we give our teachings from the platform a greater permanence in their minds. We not only help them to knowledge, but put them in the way of helping themselves directly. This alone is, justification enough, but it is not all.