BOOTH TARKINGTON.
Elizabeth, N. J.,
May 16, 1913.
The question you ask is not debatable. The public library is among the foremost aids the American boy has today. As great a help as the library is the librarian. Much depends upon his personal interest, enthusiasm, judgment, appreciation of the book and the boy. "The man behind the book," provides the power.
Librarians undoubtedly are a help not only to the boy, but to the writer of boy's books. But like all other classes there are librarians and librarians. Some are efficient, some too theoretical, some visionary, some without the capacity to understand the normal boy, and a few are deficient. As far as I have observed, the limitations of the librarians are not so much in their knowledge of books as in their understanding of boys. Every profession has its special peril. The minister may become dogmatic, the judge autocratic. The peril of the purely bookish man is that of becoming a prig. The pre-conceived opinion of what a boy ought to be sometimes prevents the discovery of what he really is. Among some there is a tendency to magnify the unusual boy at the expense of the normal boy. Such librarians would confer a benefit if they would discover what has become of the prodigies of our boyhood.
It is sometimes forgotten that boys must be led into better reading, not forcibly transplanted. There are steps and stages in this journey as in every other. A taste for good reading is something to be cultivated, not forced. A healthy boy has about the same appetite for observing the ready-made opinions of his superiors that he has for donning the made-over garments of his ancestors. Many librarians understand the boy as well as the book. The combination is fruitful, and divorce here has its own penalty as well as elsewhere. If the American boy (as in many places he is) can be made to feel that the librarian as well as the library are for his benefit, a double good will result.
Cordially,
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON.
Arlington, Mass.,
May 29, 1913.